Nathan Lane Reveals Why He Changed His Name — and the Musical Theater Character That Inspired the Switch
Nathan Lane Reveals Why He Changed His Name — and the Musical Theater Character That Inspired the Switch
Kimberlee SpeakmanWed, April 22, 2026 at 8:45 PM UTC
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Nathan Lane appears on SiriusXM's 'The Howard Stern Show' on April 21.Credit: Cindy Ord/Getty -
Nathan Lane revealed in a new interview why he changed his name when he entered Hollywood and how he came up with the idea for it
The actor said that his close family, including brothers Robert and Daniel, still call him "Joe," a nickname from his birth name Joseph Lane
Lane is currently promoting his new Broadway role as Willy Loman in Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman
Nathan Lane wasn’t always known by that name.
The 70–year-old actor, who was born Joseph Lane, appeared on SiriusXM's The Howard Stern Show on Tuesday, April 21 where he opened up about the process of changing his name when he entered Hollywood.
“There was already a Joe Lane in the [actor’s] union,” the Death of a Salesman actor told Stern, explaining he couldn't keep his own name because the union requirement each member to have a unique professional working name to prevent confusion in credits, billing, and residuals.
Needed to chose a new monikur, Lane turned to the classic Frank Loesser musical Guys & Dolls — and the lead character of Nathan Detroit he had recently played in a local dinner theater. “I took [the name ‘Nathan’] because I played ‘Nathan Detroit,' " he said. "I loved the character. So, I became Nathan.”
“Then people thought I was Jewish and I had changed my last name from Rabinowitz to Lane,” he jokingly added.
Nathan Lane poses at the opening night after party for 'Death of a Salesman.'Credit: Bruce Glikas/Getty
While Lane's colleagues in show business knew him as 'Nathan,' he said that his close family would still refer to him by his 'Joe' in private settings.
“You know my mother would very often, when she would refer to me as 'Nathan,' " he said. "There were quotation marks around it!"
When asked if his brothers Robert and Daniel call him 'Nathan,' Lane admitted, “Sometimes.” He explained, “Mostly they call me 'Joe,' but yes, they’ll refer to me as 'Nathan.' "
“It’s just my brothers [that refer to me as ‘Joe’]. It’s just family,” he added.
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Host Howard Stern then revealed that he had considered changing his name to “Miles August” and even “tried it out for one day.”
“I remember being on the air and going, ‘Hey this is Miles August,’ and I go, ‘What am I doing? This isn’t gonna work,’ “ Stern recalled.
“It’s like some sixties blues singer,” Lane chimed in of the name. “The mellow sounds of Miles August.”
Nathan Lane attends the 'Spellbound' Premiere on November 11, 2024.Credit: Bryan Bedder/Getty
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Lane was on The Howard Stern Show to promote his latest Broadway role as Willy Loman in Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, which he stars in opposite Laurie Metcalf, Chris Abbott and Ben Ahlers.
"It's like an athletic event," he said of the play, which is directed by Joe Mantello and is currently running at the Winter Garden Theatre in New York City through Aug. 9. "It's not a fun mind to live in, Willy Loman's, but when you see the reaction, when you hear that kind of silence that you only hear in the theater and when you hear people weeping in the dark..."
"The reward is doing it,' he added. "Is the privilege of getting to do this masterpiece by Arthur Miller. The undeniable power of this play that every time it's done, it always is teaching us and it always becomes relevant to where we are in this country and to who we are as human beings."
Tickets to Death of a Salesman are now on sale.
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Source: “AOL Entertainment”
