Harvey Fierstein
Harvey Forbes Fierstein ( ; born June 6, 1954) is an American actor, playwright and screenwriter, known for his distinctive gravelly voice. He is best known for his theater work in Torch Song Trilogy and Hairspray and film 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 Tony Award-nominated, Drama League Award-winner A Catered Affair. He was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 2007. For his role on the television show Cheers, Fierstein was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series. Early life and education Harvey Fierstein was born in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, New York City, the son of Jacqueline Harriet ( Gilbert), a school librarian, and Irving Fierstein, a handkerchief manufacturer. Fierstein has a brother, Ronald Fierstein. Prior to puberty, Fierstein was a soprano in a professional boys' choir. Fierstein graduated from the High School of Art and Design and received a BFA from the Pratt Institute in 1973. Career As one of the first openly gay celebrities in the United States, Fierstein helped make gay and lesbian life into a viable subject for contemporary drama "with no apologies and no climactic suicides". Fierstein has authored op-eds for The New York Times and the PBS series In the Life. 1970s Fierstein 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 other early roles included "a transvestite in his own Flatbush Tosca...a 300-year-old woman, Lillian Russell, and 26 other parts in Ronald Tavel's My Fetus Lived on Amboy Street". Fierstein also performed his own drag routine in Greenwich Village, including an impersonation of Ethel Merman singing "You Can't Get a Man With a Gun". 1980s 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. Fierstein is the first openly gay actor to win a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play. The film adaptation of Torch Song Trilogy 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