Curtain Closes on Charles Lane

Character actor Charles Lane passed away last Monday at the age of 102.

Character actor Charles Lane passed away last Monday at the age of 102. Chances are the name Charles Lane means nothing to you. It is very likely, however, that you have seen his skinny, bespectacled face. In a long and incredibly prolific acting career he played small, mostly uncredited parts in dozens of movies and television shows.

He made his movie debut in 1932, in a James Cagney, Edward G. Robinson gangster picture called Smart Money. In those days he nearly always played some sort of desk or hotel clerk. He would later be known for playing uptight businessmen or by-the-book government employees. His best remembered movie role was in It’s a Wonderful Life as Old Man Potter’s rent collector. In the early 1950’s he made the transition to television where he is probably best remembered for his recurring role on Petticoat Junction.

Here is but a sample of some of his other credits.

Movies: 42nd Street (1933), Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933), Twentieth Century (1934), Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936), You Can't Take It with You (1938), Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), Arsenic and Old Lace (1944), State of the Union (1948), Mighty Joe Young (1949), The Music Man (1962) and It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963).

Television: I Love Lucy, Perry Mason, The Twilight Zone, Maverick, Mister Ed, Dennis the Menace, The Lucy Show, The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, Make Room for Daddy, Get Smart, The Andy Griffith Show, The Munsters, F Troop, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., The Wild Wild West, Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C., Green Acres, The Beverly Hillbillies, Bewitched, The Odd Couple, Rhoda, One Day at a Time, Chico and the Man, Maude, Soap, Mork & Mindy, Little House on the Prairie, St. Elsewhere and L.A. Law. Whew!

His last real acting role came at the age of 90, in the 1995 Kirk Cameron television remake of The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes, and just last year he provided the narration for an animated Holiday short. In 2005 TVLand honored him on the occasion of his 100th birthday. Although wheelchair bound he enthusiastically announced to the crowd, "In case anyone's interested, I'm still available!"

Good night to Charles Lane an American original!