David Hyde Pierce
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David Hyde Pierce (born April 3, 1959) is an American actor, best known for the role of Dr. Niles Crane on the situation comedy Frasier.
Born and raised in Saratoga Springs, New York, Pierce began acting in high school and attended Yale University, where he majored in English and theater. Pierce held an assortment of jobs, including security guard and tie salesman in New York City before breaking into film in the late 1980s.
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 ten 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 plays 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 forty-second animated feature, Treasure Planet.
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. 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 Fraiser/Niles relationship.
In 2005 he joined Tim Curry and others in the stage production of Spamalot.