My father was brought up in an orphanage in the Catskills. He was a factory worker. And because his family wasn't there for him, family was everything. We could disagree inside the house, but outside the house it was us against the world. So when I became a drag actor, he looked sideways but said okay.

He received a Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) from Pratt in 1973. Fierstein appeared three times in "The Haunted Host" by Robert Patrick: in Boston in 1975 and at La MaMa and then Off-Broadway in 1991. in Andy Warhol's only play Pork.

Harvey Forbes Fierstein (born June 6 1952) is an American actor and playwright noted for the distinction of winning Tony Awards for both writing and originating the lead role in his long-running play Torch Song Trilogy about a gay drag-performer and his quest for true love and family as well as writing the award-winning book to the musical La Cage aux Folles.