Nathan Lane

Nathan Lane is an American actor, comedian, and voice actor who is one of the best-known comedians of the last four decades of Broadway. Cinema audiences know him for his voice of Timon in The Lion King and his role in The Birdcage, while television audiences know him for his guest characters on Modern Family and Only Murders in the Building.

He was born as Joseph Lane on February 3, 1956, in Jersey City, New Jersey. He had to choose a new name because there was someone else registered with the same name in the actors' union Actors' Equity, and he took the name Nathan, inspired by the character Nathan Detroit in the musical Guys and Dolls. He has been working on stage and screen in both comic and dramatic roles since 1975.

Stage career

Lane played the eponymous Nathan Detroit in the 1992 revival of Guys and Dolls. In 1996, he won his first Tony Award for best actor in a musical for his role as Pseudolus in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. In 2001, he received the same award for the second time as Max Bialystock in Mel Brooks' musical The Producers; He continued the role in the 2005 film adaptation.

In 2018, he won his third Tony for best supporting actor in the play for his portrayal of Roy Cohn in Angels in America. In 2026, he played Willy Loman in the new rendition of Death of a Salesman and was nominated for a Tony again for this role.

Cinema and television

He voiced Timon in 1994's The Lion King; In 1996, he starred in The Birdcage. On television, she made recurring appearances as Pepper Saltzman on Modern Family. He won a Primetime Emmy Award in 2022 for his guest role in Only Murders in the Building.

Lane, who has won Tony, Emmy, Drama Desk and Laurence Olivier awards, stands out as a versatile actor who can do justice to both musical comedy and heavy dramatic texts.