Biography of Harvey Fierstein

Harvey Forbes Fierstein (/ˈfaɪərˌstiːn/ FIRE-steen; born June 6, 1954) is an American actor, playwright and screenwriter. He is best known for his theater work in Torch Song Trilogy and Hairspray and movie roles in Mrs. Doubtfire, Independence Day, and as the voice of Yao in Mulan and Mulan II. Fierstein won two Tony Awards, Best Actor in a Play and Best Play, for Torch Song Trilogy. He received his third Tony Award, Best Book of a Musical, for the musical La Cage aux Folles and his fourth, the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical, for playing Edna Turnblad in Hairspray. Fierstein also wrote the book for the Tony Award-winning musicals Kinky Boots, Newsies, and A Catered Affair. He was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 2007.


For his role on the television show Cheers, he was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series.

Early life and education

Fierstein was born in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, New York City, the son of Jacqueline Harriet (née Gilbert), a school librarian, and Irving Fierstein, a handkerchief manufacturer. He was raised Jewish, but later rejected the faith and became an atheist.


Fierstein attended High School of Art and Design and received a BFA from the Pratt Institute in 1973. He began working in the theater as a founding member of The Gallery Players of Park Slope before being cast in Andy Warhol's only play, Pork.


Fierstein's signature gravelly voice is a result of an overdeveloped vestibular fold in his vocal cords, essentially giving him a "double voice" when he speaks. Prior to puberty, Fierstein was a soprano in a professional boys' choir.

Career

Fierstein is best known for the play and film Torch Song Trilogy, which he wrote and starred in both off-Broadway (with a young Matthew Broderick) and on Broadway (with Estelle Getty and Fisher Stevens). The 1982 Broadway production won him two Tony Awards, for Best Play and Best Actor in a Play; two Drama Desk Awards, for Outstanding New Play and Outstanding Actor in a Play; and the Theatre World Award. The film adaptation earned him an Independent Spirit Award nomination as Best Male Lead.


Fierstein also wrote the book for La Cage aux Folles (1983), winning another Tony Award, this time for Best Book of a Musical, and a Drama Desk nomination for Outstanding Book. Legs Diamond, his 1988 collaboration with Peter Allen, was a critical and commercial failure, closing after 72 previews and 64 performances, but the songs live on in Peter Allen's biographical musical, The Boy from Oz.


In 2007, Fierstein wrote the book to the musical A Catered Affair in which he also starred. After tryouts at San Diego's Old Globe Theatre in September 2007, the show opened on Broadway April 17, 2008. It received 12 Drama Desk Award nominations and won the Drama League Award for Distinguished Production of a Musical.


Fierstein wrote the book for the stage musical Newsies, along with Alan Menken (music) and Jack Feldman (lyrics). The musical opened on Broadway in March 2012. Fierstein was nominated for the Tony Award for Book of a Musical.


Fierstein wrote the book for a stage musical version of the film Kinky Boots with music and lyrics by Cyndi Lauper. After a fall 2012 run at the Bank of America Theatre in Chicago, it opened at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre on Broadway in April 2013. The musical was nominated for thirteen 2013 Tony Awards and won six, including best musical.


Fierstein's play Casa Valentina was produced on Broadway by the Manhattan Theatre Club at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre. The play opened in April 2014. It was directed by Joe Mantello, with a cast that featured Patrick Page, John Cullum, and Mare Winningham.


In April 2016, Fierstein, along with his Kinky Boots collaborator Cyndi Lauper, was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.


In 2019 Fierstein wrote and starred in Bella Bella, a one-person play about New York Congresswoman Bella Abzug. It premiered at Manhattan Theatre Club's Stage One at City Center.


His other playwriting credits include Safe Sex, Spookhouse, and Forget Him.


Fierstein wrote the teleplay for the December 3, 2015 NBC TV broadcast of The Wiz Live!, featuring Stephanie Mills as Aunt Em, Queen Latifah as The Wiz, and David Alan Grier as the Lion. The teleplay is an adaptation of The Wiz Broadway production which ran from October 1974 until January 1979.


Fierstein then wrote the teleplay for, and starred in, the 2016 NBC TV broadcast of Hairspray Live! with Ariana Grande, Jennifer Hudson, Kristin Chenoweth, and Martin Short.


As one of the first openly gay celebrities in the United States, Fierstein helped make gay and lesbian life into viable subjects for contemporary drama "with no apologies and no climactic suicides".


In addition to his theatrical work, Fierstein has authored op-eds for The New York Times, HuffPost, and PBS.

Acting

Fierstein made his acting debut at La MaMa, E.T.C. in Andy Warhol's only play, Pork. Fierstein continued to appear at La MaMa and other venues but, also having some aspirations to become a painter, enrolled at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. He received a Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) from Pratt in 1973. Fierstein appeared three times in The Haunted Host by Robert Patrick: in Boston in 1975, at La MaMa, and then off-Broadway in 1991. In addition to Torch Song Trilogy, La Cage aux Folles, and A Catered Affair, Fierstein's Broadway acting credits include playing the mother, Edna Turnblad, in Hairspray (2002), for which he won a Tony Award for Best Leading Actor in a Musical. He later replaced Alfred Molina as Tevye in the 2004 revival of Fiddler on the Roof.


Besides his leading role in the film version of Torch Song Trilogy co-starring Matthew Broderick and Anne Bancroft, Fierstein's film roles include Woody Allen's Bullets over Broadway and Merv Green in Death to Smoochy, in addition to parts in Garbo Talks, Duplex, Kull the Conqueror, and Independence Day. He narrated the documentary The Times of Harvey Milk, for which he won a News & Documentary Emmy Award. He also voiced the role of Yao in Disney's animated feature Mulan, a role he later reprised for the video game Kingdom Hearts II and the direct-to-DVD sequel Mulan II.


In 1993 Harvey Fierstein co-starred with Mara Wilson, Lisa Jakub, Matthew Lawrence, Sally Field, and Robin Williams in Mrs. Doubtfire.


On television, Fierstein was featured as the voice of Karl, Homer Simpson's assistant, in the "Simpson and Delilah" episode of "The Simpsons" and the voice of Elmer in the 1999 HBO special based on his children's book The Sissy Duckling, which won the Humanitas Prize for Children's Animation. In 1994, Fierstein became the first openly gay actor to play a principal gay character in a television series when he appeared as fashion designer Dennis Sinclair in the short-lived CBS series Daddy's Girls. Additional credits include Miami Vice; Murder, She Wrote; the Showtime television movie Common Ground (which he also wrote); and Cheers, which earned him an Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series. He sang a tribute to Katie Couric on "Today" on May 31, 2006, her last day as anchor. He appeared as Heat Miser in the live-action remake of The Year Without a Santa Claus in December 2006. More recent television performances include an episode of Family Guy and a second-season episode of the series Nurse Jackie. He also provided the voice-over for Lily in the episode "Last Cigarette Ever" of How I Met Your Mother, when she gets a sore throat due to smoking.


Fierstein returned to the theatre when he reprised the role of Tevye, replacing an injured Chaim Topol, in the national tour of Fiddler on the Roof starting in December 2009. On February 15, 2011, he replaced Douglas Hodge as Albin/Zaza in the Broadway revival of La Cage aux Folles playing opposite Jeffrey Tambor as Georges, although days later Tambor pulled out, which the producers have stated was due to "complications from a recent hip surgery"; Christopher Sieber quickly replaced Tambor. The show closed on May 1, 2011, after playing 433 performances and 15 previews.


Fierstein wrote and starred in the solo monologue play Bella Bella, about Bella Abzug. The play opened off-Broadway at the Manhattan Theatre Club's City Center Stage 1 on October 1, 2019, directed by Kimberly Senior.

Theater credits

Year	Title	Role	Venue	Category
1982–1985	Torch Song Trilogy	Arnold Beckoff	Little Theatre	Broadway
1986			Albery Theatre	West End
1987	Safe Sex	Ghee	Lyceum Theatre	Broadway
2002	Hairspray	Edna Turnblad	5th Avenue Theatre	Regional
2002-2004, 2008-2009			Neil Simon Theatre	Broadway
2004–2006	Fiddler on the Roof	Tevye	Minskoff Theatre	Broadway
2008	A Catered Affair	Winston	Walter Kerr Theatre
2010–2011	La Cage aux Folles	Albin	Longacre Theatre
2019	Bella Bella	Bella Abzug	Manhattan Theater Club	Off-Broadway

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1984	Garbo Talks	Bernie Whitlock
	The Times of Harvey Milk	Narrator	Voice role
1988	Torch Song Trilogy	Arnold Beckoff	Also the screenwriter (wrote the 'Torch Song Trilogy' play then adapted it into a screenplay)
1992	The Harvest	Bob Lakin
1993	Mrs. Doubtfire	Francis "Frank" Hillard
	Bullets Over Broadway	Sid Loomis
1995	Dr. Jekyll and Ms. Hyde	Yves DuBois
1996	The Celluloid Closet	Himself	Interview about LGBT movies
	Independence Day	Marty Gilbert
	Everything Relative	The Moyle
	Elmo Saves Christmas	Easter Bunny
1997	White Lies	Art Hoarder
	Kull the Conqueror	Juba
	Three Little Pigs	The Big Bad Wolf	Voice role (short film)
1998	Mulan	Yao	Voice role
	Safe Men	Leo
1999	Jump	Dish Macense
2000	Playing Mona Lisa	Bennett
Unreleased	Kingdom of the Sun	Huaca	Voice role
2002	Death to Smoochy	Merv Green
2003	Duplex	Kenneth
2004	Mulan II	Yao	Voice role; Direct-to-video
2006	Farce of the Penguins	Sheila	Voice role; Direct-to-video
2012	Foodfight!	Fat Cat Burglar	Voice role; Direct-to-video
2014	Russian Broadway Shut Down	Book Writer	Short film
2017	Animal Crackers	Esmerelda	Voice role
2019	The Little Mermaid: An Immersive Live-to-Film Concert Experience	Ursula	Voice role
2020	Disarm Hate	Narrator	Voice role (documentary)

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1983	The Demon Murder Case	Demon	Voice role (television film)
1986	Miami Vice	Benedict	Episode: "The Fix"
	Apology	The Derelict	Television film
1988	Tidy Endings	Arthur	Television film
1990	The Simpsons	Karl	Voice role (Episode: "Simpson and Delilah")
1991	ABC Afterschool Specials	Andrew	Episode: "In the Shadow of Love: A Teen AIDS Story"
1992	Cheers	Mark Newberger	Episode: "Rebecca's Lover... Not"
	Murder, She Wrote	Stan Hatter	Episode: "The Dead File"
1994	Daddy's Girl	Dennis Sinclair	Series regular (3 episodes)
1997	The Larry Sanders Show	Harvey Fierstein	Episode: "The Matchmaker"
	Fame L.A.	Jeremy Pinter	Episode: "Do or Die"
	Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child	Mrs. Leaperman	Voice role (Episode: "Thumbelina")
1998	Ellen	Himself	Episode: "It's a Gay, Gay, Gay, Gay World!"
	Hercules	Argus Panoptes	Voice role (Episode: "Hercules and the Bacchanal")
	Stories from My Childhood	Grambo	Voice role (Episode: "Alice and the Mystery of the Third Planet")
1999	Double Platinum	Gary Millstein	Television film
1999	The Sissy Duckling	Elmer	Voice role (television film)
2000	Common Ground	Don	Television film
	Behind the Music	Himself	Episode: "1984"
2004	Biography	Himself	Episode: "John Waters"
2004–07	Sesame Street	Himself	Recurring role (3 episodes)
2006	The Year Without a Santa Claus	Heat Miser	Television film
2008	Family Guy	Tracy	Voice role (Episode: "The Former Life of Brian")
2009	How I Met Your Mother	Lily's smoking voice (voice)	Episode: "Last Cigarette Ever"
2010	Nurse Jackie	John Decker	Episode: "Monkey Bits"
2011	The Good Wife	Judge Francis Flamm	Episode: "Feeding the Rat"
2012	Submissions Only	Auditioner #5	Episode: "Another Interruption"
2013	Smash	Himself	Episode: "The Fallout"
	Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen	Himself	Episode: "Harvey Fierstein & Kim Zolciak"
2014	Saturday Night Live!	Himself	Episode: "Bill Hader/Hozier"
2015	Family Guy	Buster Keaton	Voice role (Episode: "Stewie Is Enceinte")
	The Wiz Live!	—	Television special (teleplay writer)
2016	Hairspray Live!	Edna Turnblad	Television special (also teleplay writer)
2017	BoJack Horseman	iOvulate bracelet	Voice role (Episode: "Commence Fracking")
2018-2020	Big Mouth	Jerome	Voice role (Episode: "Guy Town", "Horrority House")
	Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen	Himself	Episode: "Jane Curtin & Harvey Fierstein"
2019	The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance	The Gourmand	Recurring voice role (7 episodes)

Video games

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1998	Disney's Animated Storybook: Mulan	Yao
	Mulan Story Studio
2005	Kingdom Hearts II		English version
2007	Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix+

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Work	Result
1982	New York Drama Critics' Circle	Best American Play	Torch Song Trilogy	Nominated
1983	Tony Award	Best Play		Won
		Best Actor in a Play		Won
	Drama Desk Award	Outstanding Play		Won
		Outstanding Actor in a Play		Won
	Theatre World Award	Theatre World Award		Won
1984	Tony Award	Best Book of a Musical	La Cage aux Folles	Won
	Drama Desk Award	Outstanding Book of a Musical		Nominated
1992	Primetime Emmy Award	Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series	Cheers	Nominated
2003	Tony Award	Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical	Hairspray	Won
	Drama Desk Award	Outstanding Actor in a Musical		Won
	Outer Critics Circle Award	Outstanding Actor in a Musical		Nominated
	Drama League Award	Outstanding Performance		Won
2008	Drama League Award	Outstanding Production of a Musical	A Catered Affair	Won
	Drama Desk Award	Outstanding Book of a Musical		Nominated
2012	Tony Award	Best Book of a Musical	Newsies	Nominated
	Outer Critics Circle Award	Outstanding Book of a Musical		Nominated
2013	Tony Award	Best Book of a Musical	Kinky Boots	Nominated
	Outer Critics Circle Award	Outstanding Book of a Musical		Nominated
2014	Tony Award	Best Play	Casa Valentina	Nominated

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