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Cabaret' actor Joel Grey, 82, comes out as gay man: 'It took time to embrace that other part of who I always was', Broadway legend Joel Grey no longer has to act a part he's played off-stage all this life.

The 82-year-old Tony- and Oscar-winner came out as gay in an interview with People magazine.

"I don't like labels, but if you have to put a label on it, I'm a gay man," Grey told the gossip magazine.Grey, best known for his iconic role in the stage and screen production of "Cabaret," says his family knew about his sexuality for years, but he hid it from the general public.

"It took time to embrace that other part of who I always was," says Grey.Born Joel David Katz in Cleveland, Ohio, he remembers growing up in an era where he heard "the grownups talk in the next room, my mother included, talking derisively about 'fairies' and men being dragged off to jail and even worse for being who they were."

Grey was married to actress Jo Wilder for 24 years, with the couple producing a son, Jeff, and a daughter, Jennifer, an actress in her own right.The "Dirty Dancing" actress told People that she was "very happy" for her father.

"Mostly because the more people are free to own their true nature and can hopefully come closer to love and accept themselves as they really are," she said in a statement.

No matter what age, no matter how long it takes, to finally be free of the lies or half-truths, it is freedom."

The elder Grey did add that he counts the period he was married to Wilder as "the happiest of my life."

Joel Grey has worked steadily on television over the last few years, with his most recent credit a guest role in a 2014 episode of "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation."