Rusty Lane

Rusty Lane, born James Russell Lane on May 31, 1899, in Chicago, Illinois, was an actor and college professor who pursued a professional stage career after spending nearly two decades in academia. He died on October 10, 1986. The younger of two children born to Mack M. Lane, a school teacher and principal, and Cora Barr Lane, he grew up preferring his middle name and acquired the nickname "Rusty" in his youth. In formal academic settings he used the name J. Russell Lane.

By age 17, Lane's family had relocated to suburban Crete, Illinois. He enlisted in the U.S. Army on July 17, 1917, and was assigned to the US 124th Field Artillery Regiment, training with the Illinois National Guard in Champaign before the regiment moved to Camp Logan in Houston, Texas. A foot injury led to his medical discharge on December 24, 1917, after which he worked as a teacher in Pisgah, Iowa.

Lane enrolled at the University of Illinois in 1922 and graduated in 1926. During his first two years he played football under coach Bob Zuppke and was a member of the 1923 championship team alongside Red Grange, though academic probation cost him part of that season. His later undergraduate years shifted toward theater and public speaking under Professor W. C. Troutman, whose mentorship proved formative. Lane was elected president of the college dramatic society and in his senior year represented Illinois at an interstate public speaking competition in Madison, Wisconsin.

Following graduation, Lane taught public speaking and served as dramatics director at Iowa City High School while also participating in productions at the University of Iowa. After one year he moved to La Crosse State Teachers College, now the University of Wisconsin–La Crosse, where he spent two years teaching public speaking and staging college plays. Troutman, by then at the University of Wisconsin, then selected Lane to serve as business manager for the university theater in Madison.

Lane remained at the University of Wisconsin for nearly fourteen years, managing the theater, teaching public speaking, and bringing prominent stage performers to campus. Among the future stars he helped develop during this period were Don Ameche, Tom Ewell, Uta Hagen, Don Fellows, and Cy Howard. In April 1942 he oversaw the staging of Knickerbocker Holiday at the newly opened Wisconsin Union Theater, which marked the one hundredth production of his college directing career. He resigned that same month.

After several months of radio and stage work in New York City, Lane joined the American Red Cross and produced entertainment for servicemen in England. While in London he persuaded playwright Maxwell Anderson to permit the U.S. Army to stage The Eve of St. Mark as a nonprofit production, which Lane supervised at the Scala Theatre with American soldiers and Red Cross workers in the cast. He returned to New York to direct Anderson's Storm Operation, with rehearsals beginning in November 1943 and a first tryout in Baltimore on December 13, followed by a week in Pittsburgh. Lane was replaced as director between tryouts.

Lane's Broadway acting career began when he joined the cast of Decision by Edward Chodorov, which had its first tryout on January 21, 1944, at the Wilmington, Delaware Playhouse before premiering at the Belasco Theatre on February 2, 1944. His supporting role drew mild praise from The New York Times, while John Chapman of the New York Daily News wrote that Lane, a drama professor and director making his acting debut as a lawyer, proved himself well taught. Decision ran until June 17, 1944. Lane subsequently appeared in Lower North by Martin Bidwell, a war training comedy drama that closed after nine days.

He was then cast in his first screen role in a film being made in New York by Louis de Rochemont for 20th Century-Fox, released in late 1945 as The House on 92nd Street to generally favorable reviews. In May 1945 Lane was hired by the USO to produce and direct stage plays for entertainment troupes touring overseas bases, crafting five productions of popular plays for USO companies over the following year.

Lane returned to Broadway in Bathsheba by Jacques Deval, which opened March 26, 1947, and starred James Mason in his Broadway debut. Lane portrayed Joab in the production, receiving mild commendation from the Daily News critic. The play closed on April 19, 1947. Later that year, from December 7 through December 14, 1947, the Experimental Theatre presented Bertolt Brecht's Galileo in a limited engagement of six performances. The play was translated by Charles Laughton, who also starred as the Italian astronomer. Lane appeared in a supporting cast that included Joan McCracken, Wesley Addy, and John Carradine, under the direction of Joseph Losey.

Lane's most sustained Broadway engagement came with Mister Roberts, the 1948 Tony Award–winning production. The play had an opening tryout at the Shubert Theatre in New Haven on January 23, 1948, followed by another at Philadelphia's Walnut Theatre, before premiering at the Alvin Theatre on February 18, 1948. Lane played Chief Johnson, a supporting role that placed him first on stage each night, and also understudied the lead role of Doc, played by Robert Keith. When Keith was injured in an automobile accident in May 1948, Lane assumed the role of Doc until Keith recovered, while his own part was filled by Robert Keith Jr., later known as Brian Keith. Lane additionally understudied the role of the Captain.

While committed to Mister Roberts in the evenings, Lane performed in radio broadcasts for the anthology series Grand Central Station and appeared in his second film, Johnny One-Eye, in a segment filmed near Washington Square Park during late July 1949. In June 1950 he made his first known television appearance on Hands of Destiny. After nearly three years as Chief Johnson, Lane was promoted to the lead role of the Captain, taking over from William Harrigan, who departed in November 1950. Lane's name then appeared in newspaper advertisements alongside the other three principals. He continued in the role on tour after the original Broadway production closed at the Alvin Theatre in January 1951, and remained with a second road company until it closed in May 1951. According to columnist Irvin Farman, Lane had accumulated 1,382 performances in the production.

Lane continued his Broadway career with additional productions, including Stockade and The Desperate Hours, the latter a Tony Award–winning play in whose original cast he appeared. Over the course of his career Lane performed in 21 films and made hundreds of television appearances from 1950 through 1973. He starred in the television series Crime with Father and was a regular cast member of the daytime serial The Clear Horizon. His Broadway appearances spanned from 1944 to 1955.