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David Hyde Pierce

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David Hyde Pierce (born April 3, 1959) is an American actor, best known for his role as anal-retentive psychiatrist extraordinaire Dr. Niles Crane on the sitcom Frasier.

Contents

Biography

Born and raised in Saratoga Springs, New York, he is the youngest child of George and Laura Pierce and 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, even receiving the Yaddo Medal for best Dramatic Arts student. 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 returned to his love of drama and 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.

David currently resides in Los Angeles with his two Wheaten Terriers, Emma and Mabel, and remains very close to his three siblings. He is an avid kickboxer.

Emmy Awards Wins

Throughout the 11-year run of Frasier (1993-2004), Pierce was nominated for an Emmy Award for Best Supporting Actor each year. He has won the award for best supporting actor in a comedy series four times (1995, 1998, 1999, 2004). He holds the record for an actor most nominated for an Emmy in the best supporting actor in a comedy category.

Professional Life

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 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.

Pierce has a distinctive voice and, like his Frasier co-star Kelsey Grammer, is called on often 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. In a deliberate in-joke, he has also voiced Sideshow Bob's brother, Cecil, in one episode of The Simpsons, in which he and Grammer essentially recreated the Frasier/Niles relationship. The episode was humourously titled Brother from Another Series.

In 2005, he joined Tim Curry and others in the stage production of Spamalot.

Personal Life

David Hyde Pierce is a supporter of the rights of the gay and lesbian community, but his own sexual orientation is not publicly known, as he prefers to keep it private. He is not married, and it is unknown if he lives with anyone. He has stated: "I live my life as an open book. I just don't intend to read it to anyone." Interestingly, Pierce's screen persona as an effete anal-retentive social climber, his physical appearance, and his taciturn manner about his sexuality closely mirror that of another Emmy-nominated sitcom actor, Tony Randall. Randall often played the foil to Rock Hudson in early 1960s comedy movies that also starred Doris Day. Pierce played the Randall-like role in the homage/send-up of the Hudson/Day picture, titled Down with Love.

Partial Filmography

External links

 

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