Biografía

Born Joseph Lane, he had to change his first name in order to join Actors Equity because there was already another actor named Joseph Lane. He chose the name Nathan after the character Nathan Detroit from the Broadway musical "Guys and Dolls". Coincidentally, he later played that role in the hugely successful 1992 revival of "Guys and Dolls" on Broadway.

His second Broadway show was "Merlin", one of the most notoriously expensive flops in Broadway history. The show was conceived as a vehicle for the magic of Doug Henning, with Henning in the title role; other stars of the production included Chita Rivera and a young Christian Slater.

Frequently works with Matthew Broderick. They appeared together in four films: El rey león (1994), El rey león 2: El reino de Simba (1998), El rey león 3: Hakuna Matata (2004) and Los productores (2005). They also appeared together in the original Broadway production of "The Producers", and in a revival of "The Odd Couple".

He was considered to play the role of George Costanza on Seinfeld (1989), which went to Jason Alexander.

Has starred on Broadway as Max Bialystock in "The Producers" and Pseudolus in "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum". Zero Mostel played both characters in the earlier film versions. Lane won Tony Awards for both roles. When he accepted his second Tony Award, he said he shared the award with Zero Mostel who was an inspiration to all who saw him.

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

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 and do it again, which to me is much more satisfying.

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 La jaula de los pájaros (1996), where's all that coming from? You're so good at all that girlie stuff!".

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

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