David Hyde Pierce joins list of out gay actors

Pierce was born in 1959 in Sarasota Springs, New York. He is the youngest of four children and began his acting career while still in high school. Also an accomplished musician, when he first started attending Yale University he studied to be a classical pianist. Ultimately, he decided that wasn't the field he wished to pursue and instead graduated with degrees in English and Theater Arts.

Upon graduating, he moved to New York where he supported himself in various ways including working as a security guard and at Bloomingdale's department store. Pierce paid his acting dues during the 1980's and '90s performing in a variety of plays. Norman Lear gave him his most significant break by casting him on The Powers That Be, a TV show on NBC, as Theodore, a suicidal congressman. The show was well received, but nonetheless was canceled after only a short run.

It was Pierce's resemblance to Cheers' start Kelsey Grammer that landed him the role of Niles Crane. In fact, the role was specifically created for Pierce who was so successful in portraying Frasier's fussy, younger brother that the actor would be nominated for the Emmy for Best Supporting Actor a record eleven years in a row. Pierce collected the trophy four times in 1995, 1998, 1999, and in 2004.

Pierce also found some small success in the movies. He had parts in the Robin Williams-starrer The Fisher King, Meg Ryan's Sleepless in Seattle and Ewan McGregor's Down with Love, doing a clever widely hailed impersonation of Tony Randall in various Doris Day comedies. He also appeared with Jodie Foster in Little Man Tate and was the voice of Walking Stick in A Bug's Life.

In 2001 Pierce made what seemed a deliberate attempt to counter his buttoned-down television image by appearing in the raucous 80's-inspired indie summer camp ensemble comedy Wet Hot American Summer, in which he played an astrophysicist who fell for camp director Janeane Garofalo. While his character was straight, the cult fave film does feature a hilarious gay love story (between Alias' Bradley Cooper and Michael Ian Black), and Pierce's character spouted some decidedly non-Niles-like dialog.

More recently, Pierce has found success on Broadway performing in Spamalot and is currently starring in the new Kander and Ebb musical Curtains for which he received a Tony nomination. The last line of Pierce's "Playbill" bio in the Curtains program says, "This one is for Brian."

Interestingly, Pierce plays the lead in Curtains, a detective who romances the leading lady. Along with T.R. Knight and Neil Patrick Harris, this makes Pierce a third well-known gay actor successfully playing a straight role.

Since Pierce has been so reticent about his private life (until today, both Wikipedia and IMDB report Pierce as living in "Los Angeles with his two Wheaton terriers, Emma and Mable"), little is known about his partner Brian Hargrove. What is known is that Hargrove is a writer, producer, and composer, having worked on shows including Caroline in the City, Dave's World, and as executive producer on Titus.

While Pierce was not out publicly, he did donate time and money to a variety of AIDS organizations as well as other causes including Habitat for Humanity, the National Mental Health Association, and various Alzheimer's organizations, a disease from which both his father and grandfather suffered.