Harvey Forbes Fierstein is an American actor, playwright and screenwriter.
31 Facts About Harvey Fierstein
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Harvey Fierstein 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.
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Harvey Fierstein 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.
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Harvey Fierstein wrote the book for the Tony Award-winning musicals Kinky Boots, Newsies, and Tony Award-nominated, Drama League Award-winner A Catered Affair.
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Harvey Fierstein was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 2007.
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Harvey Fierstein was born in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, New York City, the son of Jacqueline Harriet, a school librarian, and Irving Harvey Fierstein, a handkerchief manufacturer.
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Harvey Fierstein attended High School of Art and Design and received a BFA from the Pratt Institute in 1973.
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Harvey 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.
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Harvey Fierstein's distinctive gravelly voice is a result of an overdeveloped vestibular fold in his vocal cords, essentially giving him a "double voice" when he speaks.
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Harvey Fierstein is best known for the play and film Torch Song Trilogy, which he wrote and starred in both off-Broadway and on Broadway.
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Harvey Fierstein wrote the book for La Cage aux Folles, winning another Tony Award, this time for Best Book of a Musical, and a Drama Desk nomination for Outstanding Book.
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In 2007, Harvey Fierstein wrote the book to the musical A Catered Affair in which he starred.
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Harvey Fierstein wrote the book for the stage musical Newsies, along with Alan Menken and Jack Feldman.
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Harvey Fierstein was nominated for the Tony Award for Book of a Musical.
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Harvey Fierstein wrote the book for a stage musical version of the film Kinky Boots with music and lyrics by Cyndi Lauper.
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In 2019 Harvey Fierstein wrote and starred in Bella Bella, a one-person play about New York Congresswoman Bella Abzug.
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Harvey Fierstein's I Was Better Last Night: A Memoir was released in 2022 and quickly became a New York Times Bestseller.
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Harvey Fierstein has appeared at La MaMa and other venues, but having some aspirations to become a painter, he enrolled at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn.
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Harvey Fierstein received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Pratt in 1973.
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Harvey Fierstein appeared three times in The Haunted Host by Robert Patrick: in Boston in 1975, at La MaMa, and then off-Broadway in 1991.
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Harvey Fierstein later replaced Alfred Molina as Tevye in the 2004 revival of Fiddler on the Roof.
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Harvey Fierstein 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.
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In 1993, Harvey Fierstein co-starred with Mara Wilson, Lisa Jakub, Matthew Lawrence, Sally Field, and Robin Williams in Mrs Doubtfire.
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On television, Harvey Fierstein was praised for his 1990 role 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.
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In 1994, Harvey 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.
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Harvey Fierstein sang a tribute to Katie Couric on "Today" on May 31,2006, her last day as anchor.
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Harvey Fierstein appeared as Heat Miser in the live-action remake of The Year Without a Santa Claus in December 2006.
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Harvey Fierstein 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.
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Harvey 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.
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Harvey Fierstein wrote and starred in the solo monologue play Bella Bella, about Bella Abzug.
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Harvey Fierstein avoided identifying as non-binary in the interview, saying he had thought about it a lot and "it's the term that bothers me", but concluded that "I don't think I've missed anything by not making up my mind".