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'David Hyde Pierce' (born April 3, 1959) is a Screen Actors Guild, Tony and Emmy Award-winning American actor, best known for his role as psychiatrist Dr. Niles Crane on the sitcom ''Frasier''.

Contents

Early life

Career

Voice work

Personal life

Selected credits

1980s

1990s

2000s

Footnotes

External links

Early life

Pierce was born in Saratoga Springs, New York, the youngest child of George Hyde Pierce,^[1] an insurance agent and aspiring actor, and Laura Marie Hughes.^[2] He has two older sisters, Barbara and Nancy, and an older brother, Thomas. As a child he became very interested in the piano and frequently played organ at the local Bethesda Episcopal Church in Saratoga Springs. He began acting in high school and was recognized as best Dramatic Arts student. He also received the Yaddo Medal^[3] for character and scholarship, and worked in theater while a counselor at Camp Kabeyun, in New Hampshire. However, his love of music was still strong so he decided to study classical piano at Yale University. Unfortunately, he soon grew bored with music history lessons and found that he wasn’t dedicated enough to practice the required amount of hours to become a successful concert pianist. Instead, he graduated in 1981 with a double major in English and Theatre Arts. Pierce then moved to New York City, where he worked several menial jobs (including selling ties at Bloomingdales and working as a security guard) while acting in the theater during the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Career

Pierce’s first big television break came in the early 1990s with Norman Lear’s ''The Powers That Be''. Pierce played Theodore, a suicidal Congressman on the political comedy. Despite positive reviews from critics, the show was cancelled after a brief run. Pierce has commented in interviews that the cancellation came as a shock to him and that he was very disappointed the show did not continue. His career would soon, however, take off with a role on another sitcom. Because of his physical resemblance to Kelsey Grammer, the role of Niles Crane on the ''Cheers'' spin-off ''Frasier'' was created for him. For this role, Pierce was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Emmy for a record eleven consecutive years, winning in 1995, 1998, 1999 and 2004. For the last few years of the run of the show, Pierce was paid up to USD$1 million per episode.
Pierce also acts in movies from time to time. He appeared alongside Meg Ryan in ''Sleepless in Seattle'', with Jodie Foster in ''Little Man Tate'' and alongside Ewan McGregor in ''Down With Love''. He also provided the voice for Doctor Doppler in Disney’s 42nd animated feature ''Treasure Planet'', the walking stick in Pixar's ''A Bug's Life'' and Abe Sapien in Guillermo del Toro’s ''Hellboy''.
In his role in ''Sleepless in Seattle'' Pierce plays Ryan’s character’s brother, a professor at the Johns Hopkins University. Upon his sister’s admission that she has been fantasizing about the man in Seattle, Hyde-Pierce’s character replies, “It rains nine months of the year in Seattle.” This was roughly one year before the start of ''Frasier''.
In 2005, Pierce joined Tim Curry and others in the stage production ''Spamalot''. In August/September 2006, he starred in ''Curtains'', a new Kander and Ebb musical at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles, which transferred to Broadway in March 2007. On 10 June 2007 Pierce won the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical at the 61st Tony Awards for his role in ''Curtains''.

Voice work

Pierce has a distinctive voice and, like his ''Frasier'' co-star Kelsey Grammer, is often called upon to provide voice work. Some of his more notable roles in this calling include the walking stick insect Slim in ''A Bug’s Life'' and the amphibian Abe Sapien in ''Hellboy'' (of note is the fact that Pierce refused credit for his ''Hellboy'' role, because he felt that it was Doug Jones’ performance, and not his own voice, which ultimately brought the character of Abe Sapien to life).^[4] He provided the voice for Drix, a cold pill in the animated comedy ''Osmosis Jones''. In a deliberate in-joke, he has also voiced Sideshow Bob’s brother, Cecil, in an episode of ''The Simpsons'', "Brother from Another Series", in which he and Grammer essentially recreated the Niles/Frasier relationship (at one point, Cecil mistakes Bart for Maris, the unseen wife of Niles on ''Frasier''), and will be returning for another episode in Season 19. In 2006, he co-starred in the animated pilot for ''The Amazing Screw-On Head'' as the Screw-On Head’s arch-nemesis Emperor Zombie. It is not yet known if the pilot will be picked up for a series.
His commercial voiceover work includes voicing the Tassimo coffee system, an appropriate role as his trademark character Niles Crane was known for being an excessively fussy coffee connoisseur.

Personal life

Pierce's relationship with longtime partner, TV writer/director/producer Brian Hargrove, was first covered by the media in a 30 May 2007 CNN.com interview with Pierce, whose publicist soon confirmed that he and Hargrove were a couple.^[5][6] When accepting his Tony Award for ''Curtains'', Pierce thanked "my partner, Brian, because it's 24 years of listening to your damn notes — that's why I'm up here tonight."^[7]
Pierce and Hargrove live in Los Angeles with two Wheaten Terriers, Maude and Mabel. Pierce is very active in fighting for research into Alzheimer's Disease, as his father and grandfather suffered from the disease. He is also a regular supporter of AIDS charities and LGBT causes.

Selected credits

1980s

★ ''The Appointments of Dennis Jennings'' (1988)

★ ''Bright Lights, Big City'' (1988)

★ ''Crossing Delancey'' (1988)

★ ''Rocket Gibraltar'' (1988)

★ ''Vampire's Kiss'' (1989)

1990s

★ ''Across Five Aprils'' (1990)

★ ''Little Man Tate'' (1991)

★ ''The Fisher King'' (1991)

★ ''The Powers That Be'' (1992) (TV)

★ ''Sleepless in Seattle'' (1993)

★ ''Frasier'' (1993 - 2004) (TV)

★ ''Addams Family Values'' (1993)

★ ''Wolf'' (1994)

★ ''Ripple'' (1995)

★ ''Nixon'' (1995)

★ ''Mighty Ducks'' (1996) (TV)

★ ''The Outer Limits'' (1996) (TV)

★ ''A Bug’s Life'' (1998)

★ ''Jackie’s Back'' (1999)

★ ''The Mating Habits of the Earthbound Human'' (1999)

2000s

★ ''Isn’t She Great'' (2000)

★ ''Chain of Fools'' (2000)

★ ''The Tangerine Bear'' (2000)

★ ''Titus'' (2001) (TV)

★ ''Wet Hot American Summer'' (2001)

★ ''On the Edge'' (2001)

★ ''Happy Birthday'' (2001)

★ ''Osmosis Jones'' (2001)

★ ''Laud Weiner'' (2001)

★ ''Full Frontal'' (2002)

★ ''Treasure Planet'' (2002)

★ ''Down with Love'' (2003)

★ ''Hellboy'' (2004) - ''Uncredited''

★ ''The Amazing Screw-On Head'' (2006) (TV)

Footnotes

1. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~battle/celeb/pierce.htm
2. http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/ent_radio/story/502141p-423441c.html
3. http://www.saratogaschools.org/hs/yaddo/yaddo.htm
4. Doug Jones interview
5. CNN.com interview - David Hyde Pierce 30 May 2007
6. "David Hyde Pierce joins list of out gay actors" - AfterElton.com 30 May 2007
7. "Rants & Raves," ''The Advocate'', # 989, 17 July 2007, p. 26.

External links

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★ Pierce interview on the Diane Riehm Show

★ 2007 David Hyde Pierce interview at Broadway.com

★ Star File: David Hyde Pierce at Broadway.com

★ David Hyde Pierce ''Downstage Center'' XM radio interview at American Theatre Wing, 2007

★ David Hyde Pierce is officially outat AfterElton.com