Rusty Lane (born James Russell Lane; May 31, 1899 – October 10, 1986),James Russell Lane in the California, U.S., Death Index, 1940-1997, retrieved from Ancestry.com was a college professor and professional actor. He left academia in his forties to appear in several Broadway productions during the 1940s and 1950s, including three years as an original cast member for Mister Roberts. He was in the original cast for another Tony award-winning play, The Desperate Hours. Lane also performed in 21 films and made hundreds of televisions appearances from 1950 up through 1973, including as the star of the TV series Crime with Father, and as a regular cast member of the daytime serial The Clear Horizon.
Early life James Russell Lane was born in Chicago, Illinois, the younger of two children for Mack M. Lane, a school teacher and principal, and Cora Barr Lane.1900 United States Federal Census for Russell J Lane, Illinois > Cook > Chicago Ward 34 > District 1078, retrieved from Ancestry.com1910 United States Federal Census for J Russell Lane, Illinois > Cook > Chicago Ward 7 > District 0431, retrieved from Ancestry.com As a young man he used his middle name in preference to his first, coming to be known by his nickname "Rusty". Later, as a teacher and professor he used "J. Russell Lane" for formal situations.
By age 17, his family had moved to suburban Crete, Illinois, from where Lane enlisted in the U.S. Army on July 17, 1917.James Russell Lane, in the U.S., Veterans Administration Master Index, 1917-1940, retrieved from Ancestry.comJames R Lane, in the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs BIRLS Death File, 1850-2010, retrieved from Ancestry.com Sent for training with the Illinois National Guard at Champaign, Illinois, he was assigned to the US 124th Field Artillery Regiment. By October, his regiment had moved to Camp Logan in Houston, Texas. He received a medical discharge on December 24, 1917, due to a foot injury. He then worked as a teacher in Pisgah, Iowa.U.S., World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918, for James Russell Lane, Iowa > Harrison County > ALL > Draft Card L, retrieved from Ancestry.com
College Lane was a student at the University of Illinois from 1922 thru 1926 when he graduated. He played football his first two years under coach Bob Zuppke, was a member of the 1923 championship team with Red Grange, but lost part of that season due to academic probation. His later college years were focused on theater and public speaking under the mentorship of Professor W. C. Troutman. He was elected president of the college dramatic society, took part in plays, and in his senior year represented Illinois at an interstate public speaking competition held in Madison, Wisconsin.
Academic career After graduation Lane took up a teaching position in Iowa City, Iowa. Lane taught public speaking at Iowa City High School, served as its dramatics director, and also took part in theater productions at the University of Iowa. After one year he left to take up a position at La Crosse State Teachers College (now the University of Wisconsin–La Crosse). He spent two years there, teaching public speaking and staging college plays, then was selected by his former college mentor, W. C. Troutman, who was then at the University of Wisconsin, to be business manager for the university theater in Madison.
Lane would spend nearly fourteen years at the University of Wisconsin, managing the university theater and teaching public speaking. During this time he brought many top stage stars to the university for performances, and helped develop some future stars (Don Ameche, Tom Ewell, Uta Hagen, Don Fellows, Cy Howard) as well. He also oversaw the opening of the new Wisconsin Union Theater, at which in April 1942, Knickerbocker Holiday, was staged as the one hundredth production of his college directing career. Lane resigned his position the same month. After several months doing radio and stage work in New York City, he took a position with the American Red Cross, producing entertainment for servicemen in England.
East Coast career Stage work While in London, Lane persuaded playwright Maxwell Anderson to allow the US Army to stage his play The Eve of St. Mark as a non-profit production. Lane supervised the production, which was mounted in the Scala Theatre and featured American soldiers and Red Cross workers in the cast. Lane returned to New York to direct Anderson's new play Storm Operation. Rehearsals began in November; by December 13, 1943, the play had its first tryout in Baltimore, followed by a week in Pittsburgh. However, in between tryouts Lane was replaced as director. Lane then went into the cast of Decision by Edward Chodorov, which had its first tryout on January 21, 1944, at the Wilmington, Delaware Playhouse. It premiered at the Belasco Theatre on February 2, 1944, with Lane drawing mild praise for his supporting role from The New York Times. John Chapman of the New York Daily News was more generous, writing: "Rusty Lane, a drama professor and director, makes his acting debut in the role of a lawyer, and proves that self-taught or not, he is well taught".
Decision ran until June 17, 1944, after which Lane went into the cast of Lower North by Martin Bidwell. A weak war training comedy drama, it closed after just nine days. Lane was then cast in his first screen role, Now It Can Be Told, a movie being made in New York by Louis de Rochemont for 20th Century-Fox. The film was released as The House on 92nd Street in late 1945 to generally good reviews. In May 1945 Lane was hired by the USO to produce and direct stage plays that its various entertainment troupes could take to overseas bases. During the next year he would craft five productions of popular plays for USO companies.
Lane next performed in Bathsheba by Jacques Deval, which opened March 26, 1947 and starred James Mason in his Broadway debut. Lane portrayed Joab, for which he received mild commendation from the Daily News critic, who was a bit hard on the two leads, James Mason and Pamela Kellino. The Brooklyn Daily Eagle said Deval's characters "seem to have gotten into his play simply because some clothes had come from a costumer's and needed men and women to fill them". The play closed on April 19, 1947. Two years later Lane told Earl Wilson "Oooh, what a stinker that one was!"
The Experimental Theatre presented Bertolt Brecht's Galileo in a limited engagement of six performances from December 7 through December 14, 1947. The play was translated by Charles Laughton, who would also star as the Italian astronomer. Lane was part of a supporting cast that included Joan McCracken, Wesley Addy, and John Carradine, under the direction of Joseph Losey.
Mister Roberts
After doing a trio of unsuccessful plays, Lane was cast in a critical and popular hit, the 1948 Tony Award winner Mister Roberts. This had an opening tryout at the Shubert Theatre in New Haven, Connecticut on January 23, 1948, where the reviewer predicted immediate success on Broadway and mentioned Lane favorably. Another tryout was mounted at Philadelphia's Walnut Theatre, before the play premiered on Broadway at the Alvin Theatre on February 18, 1948.
Lane's character, Chief Johnson, was a supporting role, the first on stage each night. However, he also understudied the lead role of "Doc", played by Robert Keith. When Keith was in an auto accident during May 1948, Lane took over as Doc until Keith was able to return, while his own part was played by ensemble cast member Robert Keith Jr, later better known as Brian Keith. Besides Doc, Lane was also understudy for the role of the Captain.
Though his evenings were committed to Mister Roberts, Lane was able to utilize his days to do a number of radio broadcasts for the anthology series Grand Central Station. He also had time to perform in his second movie, Johnny One-Eye, for a segment filmed near Washington Square Park during late July 1949. And he also moonlighted during June 1950 for his first known television performance on Hands of Destiny.
After almost three years of playing Chief Johnson, Lane was promoted to the lead role of the Captain, taking over from William Harrigan, who left in November 1950 for an RKO movie contract. Lane's name then appeared in the newspaper ads for the play along with the other three principals. He would play that part on tour even after the original Broadway production closed at the Alvin Theatre during January 1951 and formed a second road company.There had been a road company of Mister Roberts for the previous eighteen months. Lane's involvement with Mister Rogers finally came to end when the road company closed during May 1951. According to columnist Irvin Farman, Lane had played in "1,382 performances... He was the only member of the cast who played every Broadway and road tour performance, playing the chief 1,063 times, Doc 56 times, and the captain 263 times".
Crime with Father
With no stage commitments at hand, Lane moved into television acting during 1951. Besides doing anthology shows, he also starred in his own mystery series, Crime with Father. This program, debuting on ABC television on August 31, 1951, had him as police homicide detective Jim Riland, a widower whose daughter Chris Riland (Peggy Lobin) often aided and complicated his investigations. According to columnist Terry Vernon, the show was filmed on actual streets without using stock clips or background projections, and showed the home life of the Rilands. The New York Times review of the first episode said it was "...an obviously low-budgeted series, has a far better than average quality of production, even if the pistol shots still sound like cap pistols".
The series lasted for 21 episodes, its final original broadcast coming on January 18, 1952. Because it was a filmed series, it played longer in some markets. After it ended, Lane went right back to doing anthology series. He also did a recurring character called Porphory Pete on the family-orientated Captain Video and His Video Rangers. This was a live daily science-fiction program on the DuMont Television Network. Porphory Pete was a "raffish, interplanetary prospector" who was friends with Captain Video. A newspaper article by Robert Downing, who played a villain, establishes that Lane's participation in the daily show may have lasted for weeks, however, very few actual episodes can be identified today. Another television program for which Lane had at least a recurring, if not a regular role, was a short-lived NBC fantasy-adventure series, Operation Neptune.
Return to stage Stockade was a grim play, "a sobering drama" according to Brooks Atkinson, taken from chapters of From Here to Eternity that were left out of the film version. Atkinson praised the "vivid characterizations" of Lane and other actors, but Louis Sheaffer felt the play was "drab" and "uninspired", while John Chapman called it "cheerless, sadistic and pointless". The play flopped quickly at the Off Broadway President Theatre during early 1954, and Lane went on with doing anthology series on television.
However, the number of television episodes he did declined during the second half of 1954. The New York-based DuMont Television Network was failing, and the bulk of new production work was moving towards Hollywood. Lane, still resident in New York City, now filled the gaps between TV spots with lower-paying regional theater work. Towards the end of December 1954 he was cast in what would be his final Broadway performance.
The Desperate Hours The Desperate Hours was adapted by Joseph Hayes from his novel. The story concerns a suburban family of four whose quiet home is invaded by three escaped convicts. Staged by Robert Montgomery, it starred Karl Malden and Nancy Coleman as the parents, with Paul Newman as the convict leader. The play had its first tryout at the Shubert Theater in New Haven, Connecticut on January 6, 1955.