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Actors....Do you want a Charles Lane Career?

Well, let's see...we have a Richard Burton thread, a Donald Wolfit thread, Vivien Leigh and Joan Fontaine threads, Peter O'Toole thread. How about a Charles Lane thread? Who???!!! He was CPA with no acting experience. William Wyler cast him as a CPA in Counsellor at Law, and he never stopped working from then on. Never held a day gig or a waiter's gig from 1932 to 2007 when he kicked the bucket. So do want to be an unemployed actor working as a waiter and looking for the big break, or do you want a Charles Lane career? A full-time working actor getting paid, and contributing to a SAG pension by doing everything from one-liners to supporting roles, sometimes in classics, and thereby being part of a legacy, and never having to worry about paying the rent, the mortgage, health insurance, and accumulating weeks and weeks of unemployment insurance to boot.

by Anonymousreply 15January 10, 2022 3:04 PM

Yes, I’d love it. I don’t want to be famous, I just want to work. He had a wonderful career.

by Anonymousreply 1January 10, 2022 4:39 AM

Actors like Charles Lane are the ones who really deserve Honorary Oscars instead of the woke parade that's gone on over the past few years.

by Anonymousreply 2January 10, 2022 4:44 AM

You are acting as if you're presenting the only two options.

Plenty of people if not every actor would enjoy a long varied career.

He was pals with Lucille Ball from her RKO days and he appeared on a bunch of ILL episodes.

by Anonymousreply 3January 10, 2022 4:49 AM

Charles Lane is the reason George C. Scott did not show up to accept his Academy Award for Patton. He thought actors shouldn't have to compete like cattle being herded for slaughter. And reply 2, Charles Lane and a gazillion other character actors should have honorary Oscar for consistently brilliant work. Does anyone remember J. Carrol Naish?

by Anonymousreply 4January 10, 2022 4:59 AM

Yes R4, recently I watched J Carrol Naish in Sahara when it came on the afternoon TV. Great actor

by Anonymousreply 5January 10, 2022 5:03 AM

Charles Lane should have got together with Francis Lederer and made a Hollywood centenarians movie

by Anonymousreply 6January 10, 2022 5:07 AM

No, with Cuddles Sakall

by Anonymousreply 7January 10, 2022 5:11 AM

For 50+ years I have confused Charles Lane with Malcolm Atterbury, and vice versa. I only got them straight 2-3 years ago by binge watching The Andy Griffith Show; Charles Lane played a shady farmer with a secret, while M. Atterbury played a bitter felonious ne'er-do-well asshole with an adorable dog who deserved better.

by Anonymousreply 8January 10, 2022 5:16 AM

My dad was in the Marines during WWII and Charles Lane was in the Coast Guard -- they met on a Navy ship, where everyone knew him from the movies and called him "that guy!" until they met him and learned his name. Charlie spent as much time as possible playing cards and was friendly, easy-going, and funny, just the opposite of his character roles. Years later, they ran into each other attending a track meet at Stanford, where Charlie's daughter was competing -- he said he remembered my dad, which may or may not have been true, but of course my dad recognized him because he always looked the same and we constantly saw him on TV. He probably had a much happier life than the big stars did.

by Anonymousreply 9January 10, 2022 5:19 AM

Some times it seems that Charles Lane was in every movie made between 1930 and 1960 - when he switched to television.

by Anonymousreply 10January 10, 2022 5:26 AM

The countless, countless character actors (actors meaning woman too), who go unnoticed, who are consistently in the moment and turn in nothing but spectacular performances - George Zucco, Peter Cushing, George Sanders, Vincent Price, Lloyd Nolan, Lee Tracy, Lee Van Cleef, Sidney Blackmer, Thelma Ritter, Florence Bates, Mary Boland, Edna May Oliver, Ed Begley, Nazimova, Arnold Stang, John Fiedler, Charles Dingle, the list goes on and on - are actors we should keep alive, and as another thread stated, never darkened the door of the Actors' Studio.

by Anonymousreply 11January 10, 2022 5:57 AM

Well, R11, some of the people you mentioned hardly went unnoticed. Cushing and Price are legends and Thelma Ritter was nominated for several Oscars (and should have gotten an Honorary one). George Sanders was an Oscar winner, Lee Van Cleef was a Spaghetti Western star and Nazimova was a sensation in her day.

by Anonymousreply 12January 10, 2022 6:11 AM

Burt Mustin!

Say his name!

by Anonymousreply 13January 10, 2022 7:05 AM

Did Charles Lane do any nude scenes?

by Anonymousreply 14January 10, 2022 7:15 AM

Yes, he even worked as a fluffer to keep his record of never being unemployed

by Anonymousreply 15January 10, 2022 3:04 PM
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