Celebrity Nathan Lane

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Nathan Lane

Birthday:

3 February 1956

Birth Name:

Joseph Lane

Height:

170 cm

Biography

I seem to always inspire a strong reaction one way or the other.

I'm one of those old-fashioned homosexuals, not one of the newfangled ones who are born joining parades.

People have to do things in their own time, and that's what I did.

One of the nicest compliments I would get very often on the street is people would say, "I love you on The Good Wife (2009). I just can't tell whether I should like you or hate you!".

I'm still the fat kid from high school who never had a date.

I am not a sad clown. I am not a sad clown.

I have to accept the fact that, no matter what I do, it's going to annoy someone.

I'm really an honorary Jew, you know; all the best people are. I really do feel Jewish, even though I'm a Catholic. The way the Church has been behaving, I'm happy to be Jewish.

Sure I think it is healthy to speak the truth, and be who you are, and be proud of that.

There doesn't seem to be a lot of middle ground with me.

[his response to a question about his sexual orientation] I'm forty, single and work a lot in musical theatre. You do the math.

[on The Lion King (1994)] I just thought that it was amazing that they've gone this far, because it was so dark, I mean it was again, the death of a parent. But then the most twisted thing was Jeremy Irons coming out of nowhere and saying to him "Simba, what have you done?". I'll always remember that thinking "Wow, they're also going to lay in guilt," and sending him off, banishing him, and trying to kill him but he gets away. But I thought "That's really something", that's the darkest they've been since Bambi that I can recall. Because the film at that point had gotten so heavy, when Ernie and I came on, there was such relief when I saw it with an audience. People laughed twice as hard because they were so glad to see two upbeat characters. And it was great fun to do, and Ernie and I just had a blast.

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The thing that everyone remembers about Bambi (1942) is that moment. The Lion King (1994) took it to quite an extreme, because it was an action sequence, his father was killed in a wildebeest stampede - I related, because mine was too. It's an ugly story, I won't go into it now. And the guilt, the evil uncle laying some guilt on him. But the minimal version,...

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[on Robin Williams] I feel I have to say something more than just 'heartbreaking and shocking' which everyone has said and I feel as well, but something a little more personal. Thus the following: One day in 1995 while riffing in the character of a snobby French toy store owner, Robin made me laugh so hard and so long that I cried. It seemed to please him no end. Yesterday, I cried again at the thought that he was gone. What I will always remember about Robin, perhaps even more than his comic genius, extraordinary talent, and astounding intellect, was his huge heart - his tremendous kindness, generosity, and compassion as an acting partner, colleague, and fellow traveler in a difficult world.

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[on accepting his first Tony Award] This means a lot to me because, as you know, I'm an enormously unstable, desperately needy little man.

[on William Duell] The audience adored him. The first time around he'd get a huge laugh. The second time he'd get a huge laugh. The third time, he'd just hold up his fingers - and it brought the house down.

I told my mother I was gay, and she s... and she... and then her face went white, and then she said, "I would rather you were dead." And I said, "I knew you'd understand." And then once I got her head out of the oven, everything was fine. She came from a generation where, yes, of course, she would have preferred if I was straight and had gotten married, but she, uh, you know, she was very accepting. What she enjoyed most is when I was in a musical. She would always say, um, "I'm not saying this because I'm your mother; I'm saying it because it's true: you were the best one.". [To James Lipton on Inside the Actors Studio (1994)].

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[Coming "Out" following the death of Matthew Shepard] It was like somebody slapped me awake. At this point, it's selfish not to do whatever you can... If I do this story and say I'm a gay person, it might make it easier for somebody else.

[on being gay] From the time I told my mother, I've been living openly. But really, I was born in 1956. I'm one of those old-fashioned homosexuals, not one of the newfangled ones who are born joining parades. My family referred to them as "fags", and that was it.

[asked by a reporter about his "loud" persona on stage] You have to be loud... it's the theater.

[on working in the Broadway flop "Merlin"] Doug Henning's greatest magic trick was making the audience disappear.

There's not a day in my life I'm not proud of being gay but I just wasn't ready for that attention to be placed on it. I remember being on Oprah. Well, not on Oprah. Near Oprah. She started saying, "Now, Nathan, you got all those girlie moves going down in The Birdcage (1996), where's all that coming from? You're so good at all that girlie stuff!".

I fell in love with the whole ritual. The lights going down, the curtain going up, telling a story to a large group of people in the dark. It was one of those moments where you think, "I can do that." You're in control on stage. And I love telling the whole story in one fell swoop. With movies, you never think, "I nailed it." In theater, you get to go back a...

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I don't know what goes on in their heads out in Hollywood.