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David Hyde Pierce
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David Hyde Pierce (born April 3, 1959) is an American actor, known for his role as psychiatrist Dr. Niles Crane on the sitcom Frasier.
Contents
- 1 Biography
- 1.1 Early life
- 1.2 Career
- 1.3 Voice work
- 1.4 Personal life
- 2 Filmography
- 3 Footnotes
- 4 External links
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Biography
Early life
Pierce was born in Saratoga Springs, New York, the youngest child of Laura Marie Hughes and George Hyde Pierce,[1] an insurance agent and aspiring actor.[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. 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 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.
In his role in Sleepless in Seattle Hyde-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, he joined Tim Curry and others in the stage production of Spamalot.
In August/September 2006, he starred in Curtains a new Kander and Ebb musical at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles, and will follow the show to Broadway in 2007. He has also starred in television commercials as the voice of the “Tassimo” coffee system.
Voice work
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 (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).
[citation needed] He also 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 one episode of
The Simpsons, in which he and Grammer essentially recreated the Frasier/Niles relationship (at one point, Cecil mistakes Bart for Maris, the unseen wife of Niles on
Frasier). The episode was humorously titled
Brother from Another Series. 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.
Personal life
Pierce resides in Los Angeles with his two Wheaten Terriers, Maud and Mabel, and remains very close to his three siblings. Pierce’s father and grandfather suffered from Alzheimer’s Disease, resulting in him being very active in fighting for research into the disease.
Filmography
Footnotes
