Charles Lane (actor, born 1905)

Born in San Francisco,[5] Lane was the son of an executive at the Fireman's Fund Insurance Company, who was instrumental in rebuilding the city after the 1906 earthquake.[6]

Lane spent a short time as an insurance salesman before taking to the stage at the Pasadena Playhouse. Actor/director Irving Pichel first suggested that Lane go into acting in 1929, and four years later Lane was a founding member of the Screen Actors Guild. He appeared unbilled but always making his presence known in many famous early-1930s Warner Bros. films, beginning with Smart Money then going on to other Pre-Code classics such as Blonde Crazy, Employees' Entrance, Blessed Event, 42nd Street, Gold Diggers of 1933, and She Had to Say Yes, finally getting billing when away from Warners' in My Woman, Looking for Trouble, and Twentieth Century. He became a favorite of director Frank Capra; in It's a Wonderful Life, Capra gave Lane a twist on his usual screen persona by casting him as an apparently hard-nosed rent collector who startles his employer, Mr. Potter (played by Lionel Barrymore) by speaking highly of James Stewart's character.[7] Lane also appeared in the film Mighty Joe Young (1949) as one of the reporters cajoling Max O'Hara (Robert Armstrong) for information about the identity of "Mr. Joseph Young", the persona given featured billing on the front of the building, on opening night.

Among his many roles as a character actor, Lane played Mr. Fosdick in Dear Phoebe, which aired on NBC in 1954–1955. He also portrayed mean-spirited railroad executive Homer Bedloe in the situation comedy Petticoat Junction.[4] He guest starred on such series as ABC's Guestward, Ho!, starring Joanne Dru, and The Bing Crosby Show, as well as the syndicated drama of the American Civil War, The Gray Ghost.

He was a good friend of Lucille Ball, and his specialty in playing scowling, short tempered, no-nonsense professionals provided a comic foil for Ball's scatterbrained television character. He played several guest roles on I Love Lucy, including an appearance in the episode "Lucy Goes To the Hospital", where he is seated in the waiting room with Ricky while Lucy gives birth to their son; he later cited this as one of his favorite parts.[7] He also played the title role in the episode "The Business Manager", the casting director in "Lucy Tells The Truth," and the passport clerk in "Staten Island Ferry." Lane appeared twice in The Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour. He later had recurring roles as shopkeeper Mr. Finch on Dennis the Menace and during the first season (1962–1963) of Ball's The Lucy Show, playing banker Mr. Barnsdahl. According to The Lucy Book by Geoffrey Fidelman, Lane was let go because he had trouble reciting his lines correctly. However, Lane was in reality a placeholder for Ball's original choice, Gale Gordon, who joined the program in 1963 as Mr. Mooney after he was free from other contractual obligations.

In 1963, Lane appeared in the classic comedy It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, playing the airport manager. (On the DVD commentary track, historian Michael Schlesinger wryly noted, "You do not have a comedy unless you have Charles Lane in it.") His final acting role was at the age of 101 in 2006's The Night Before Christmas. His last television appearance was at the age of 90, when he appeared in the 1995 Disney TV remake of its 1970 teen comedy The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes, with Kirk Cameron. In 2005, the TV Land Awards paid tribute to Lane by celebrating his 100th birthday. Seated in a wheelchair in the audience, which had sung Happy Birthday to him, Lane was presented with his award by Haley Joel Osment and then announced "If you're interested, I'm still available [for work]!" The audience gave him a standing ovation.

Lane appeared in more than 250 films and hundreds of television shows and was uncredited in many of them. On his busiest days, Lane said he sometimes played more than one role, getting into costume and filming his two or three lines, then hurrying off to another set or studio for a different costume and a different role.[4] As for being typecast, Lane described it as "... a pain in the ass. You did something that was pretty good, and the picture was pretty good. But that pedigreed you into that type of part, which I thought was stupid and unfair, too. It didn't give me a chance, but it made the casting easier for the studio."[7] Lane is recorded as having appeared in sixty-seven parts in a span of just two years, 1940 to 1942.[3]

In 1931, Lane married Ruth Covell, and they remained together for 70 years until her death in 2002. They had a son, Tom, and a daughter, Alice.[7]

On January 26, 2007, Lane celebrated his 102nd birthday. He continued to live in the Brentwood home he bought with Ruth (for $46,000 in 1964, equal to $434,039 today) until his death. In the end, his son, Tom Lane, said he was talking with his father at 9 p.m. on the evening of Monday, July 9, 2007, "He was lying in bed with his eyes real wide open. Then he closed his eyes and stopped breathing."[7]

• Young, Jordan R. (1986) [First published 1975]. "Charles Lane". Reel Characters: Great Movie Character Actors (softcover) (Sixth ed.). Beverly Hills, Calif.: Moonstone Press. pp. 101–118. ISBN 978-0-940410-79-4.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Charles Lane (actor).

• Charles Lane at IMDb
• Charles Lane at the Internet Broadway Database
• Charles Lane at "Great Character Actors", DougMacaulay.com
• Charles Lane — Obituary and tribute
• Charles Lane 100th Birthday at the 2005 TV Land Awards
• Charles Lane Find a grave