Richard Lane

Acting

Richard Lane

Born 1899-05-27 · Rice Lake, Wisconsin, USA

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Richard Lane (May 28, 1899 – September 5, 1982) was an American television announcer and actor who made his mark broadcasting wrestling and roller derby shows on KTLA-TV, mainly from the Grand Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles. Lane was born in 1899 in Rice Lake, Wisconsin to a farm family. Early in life he developed talents for reciting poetry and doing various song-and-dance acts. By his teenage years, he was doing an "iron jaw" routine in circuses around Europe and worked as a drummer touring with a band in Australia. After the decline of vaudeville, Lane obtained extensive work in motion pictures and was best known at the time for playing Inspector John or William Faraday or Farraday (depending on the film) in all fourteen Boston Blackie Columbia Pictures features starring Chester Morris, starting with Meet Boston Blackie in 1941. During World War II, he appeared as emcee with USO troops entertaining G.I.s. His unit appeared at Fort MacArthur in September 1944. Lane also announced for the Jalopy Derby and Destruction Derby at Ascot Park, Gardena California. Lane also played Faraday in the first radio version of Boston Blackie, which ran on NBC from June 23, 1944 to September 15, 1944.

Acting credits

Union Pacific poster
6.7

One of the last bills signed by President Lincoln authorizes pushing the Union Pacific Railroad across the wilderness to California. But financial opportunist Asa Barrows hopes to profit from obstructing it. Chief troubleshooter Jeff Butler has his hands full fighting Barrows' agent, gambler Sid Campeau; Campeau's partner Dick Allen is Jeff's war buddy and rival suitor for engineer's daughter Molly Monahan. Who will survive the effort to push the railroad through at any cost?

Union Pacific

1939

Devil Ship poster
6.5

Captain Biff Brown owns a boat used to ferry prisoners from the mainland to Alcatraz. The police find some escape tools on his boat and, although Brown isn't involved, his contract is terminated and he goes back to tuna fishing. Brown takes his friend Sanderson to his boarding house and introduces him to his sweetheart Madge Harris and Sanderson also falls in love with her. A gang headed by Red Mason and trying to escape the country bribe Brown's engineer, Venatti, and are hiding on the boat the next time Brown and Sanderson take it out. They take over the boat but a storm is approaching...

Devil Ship

1947

Wise Girl poster
7.1

Snooty heiress decides to track down her dead sister's kids, who are living a Bohemian life with their uncle in Greenwich Village. Once she finds them, she discovers that the Bohemian life is fun and free of the constraints her country-club life places on her. But she decides to take the uncle to court anyway to free him from the kids so he can paint.

Wise Girl

1937

The Amazing Mr. Williams poster
6.0

Kenny Williams, a lieutenant on the homicide squad, is engaged to Maxine Carroll, the Mayor's secretary. Or isn't he rather married with his job? For each time he has a date with his longtime fiancée, he is prevented from keeping it by his devotion to duty. Maxine, in desperation, decides to take action and bring Kenny to the altar. Who will win, Maxine's curves or the glorious fight against crime?

The Amazing Mr. Williams

1939

It Ain't Hay poster
6.5

Abbot and Costello must find a replacement for a woman's horse they accidentally killed after feeding it some candy. They head for the racetrack, find a look-a-like and take it. They do not realize that the nag is "Tea Biscuit," a champion racehorse.

It Ain't Hay

1943

Out of the Blue poster
6.5

Set in an apartment building whose occupants include Arthur Earthleigh, a meek and mild type married to the beautiful-but-domineering Mae; a Bohemian artist, David Galleo and his always-there model, Deborah Tyler; and Olive Jensen, a Greenwich Village type who is always slightly-but-continuously inebriated, and whose motto is "love and let love." She calls on George while his wife is out, and when she passes out during his attempts to get her out before his wife returns, he thinks she is dead and deposits her on Galleo's terrace. Galleo takes advantage of the situation by using it in a blackmail scheme against Arthur, which is shaky, at best, as Olive refuses to stay dead.

Out of the Blue

1947

The Shaggy D.A. poster
5.8

Wilby Daniels, a successful lawyer running for District Attorney, suddenly finds himself being transformed into an English sheepdog. Somehow he has to keep his change a secret and find just what is causing it, all the while eluding the local dog catcher.

The Shaggy D.A.

1976

Brother Orchid poster
6.6

When retired racket boss John Sarto tries to reclaim his place and former friends try to kill him, he finds solace in a monastery and reinvents himself as a pious monk.

Brother Orchid

1940

Mr. Winkle Goes to War poster
7.1

Wilbert Winkle, a henpecked, mild-mannered, middle-aged bank clerk and handyman finds himself in the midst of battle in the South Pacific.

Mr. Winkle Goes to War

1944

The Penalty poster
7.4

In this crime drama, a ruthless gangster's son is soon following in his father's footsteps. When his daddy kills an FBI agent and a cabby, the boy sees it all. Fortunately the courts intervene and send the lad off to live with a family of farmers.

The Penalty

1941

Air Force poster
6.5

The crew of an Air Force bomber arrives in Pearl Harbor in the aftermath of the Japanese attack and is sent on to Manila to help with the defense of the Philippines.

Air Force

1943

Arabian Nights poster
6.0

Two half brothers battle each other for the power of the throne and the love of sensual, gorgeous dancing girl Scheherazade.

Arabian Nights

1942

Gung Ho! poster
5.4

A true-life epic that revolves around an exclusive bataillon of the U.S. Marine Corps during World War II, "Carlson's Raiders," whose assignment is to take control of a South Pacific island once possessed by the United States but now under Japanese command.

Gung Ho!

1943

Two Girls on Broadway poster
7.0

Eddie Kerns sells his song to a Broadway producer and also lands a job dancing in the musical. He sends for his dance partner-fiancée Molly Mahoney who brings her younger sister Pat. Upon seeing Molly and Pat dance, the producer picks Pat for the show and gives Molly a job selling cigarettes. A wealthy friend of the producer named "Chat" Chatsworth also has his eye on Pat. Pat is teamed with Eddie in the specialty number as Kerns and Mahoney. Pat and Eddie soon realize that they are in love and must tell Molly. Pat balks at hurting Molly and goes out with Chat who already has five ex-wives. Remake of The Broadway Melody (1929).

Two Girls on Broadway

1940

Hired Wife poster
6.8

Ad man Stephen Dexter asks his secretary Kendall to marry him as a loophole in order to protect his finances during an important business deal. Once the deal is completed, he asks Kendall for a divorce and is dismayed when she refuses.

Hired Wife

1940

Here Come the Co-Eds poster
5.9

Molly, her brother, Slats, and his pal, Oliver, are taxi dancers at the Miramar Ballroom. As a publicity stunt, Slats plants an article about Molly claiming her ambition is to earn enough money to attend staid, all-girl Bixby College. Bixby's progressive dean offers Molly a scholarship. Molly accepts on the condition that Slats and Oliver come along too as campus caretakers. But the pompous Chairman threatens to foreclose on the school's mortgage if Molly isn't expelled. Together, the trio, with the help of some new friends, concocts a scheme to raise enough money to save the school. The plan involves a bet on the Bixby basketball team, which is playing in a game rated at 20 to 1 by the local bookie. But the bookie has other plans for their dough and hires a group of ringers to step in for the opponents. All is not lost, at least while Oliver has the chance to turn things around for his friends-one way or another.

Here Come the Co-Eds

1945

Boom Town poster
7.0

Two buddies who rise from fly-by-night wildcatters to oil tycoons over a twenty year period both love the same woman. McMasters and Sand come to oil towns to get rich. Betsy comes West intending to marry Sand but marries McMasters instead. Getting rich and losing it all teaches McMasters and Sand the value of personal ties.

Boom Town

1940

Take Me Out to the Ball Game poster
6.7

The Wolves baseball team gets steamed when they find they've been inherited by one K.C. Higgins, a suspected "fathead" who intends to take an active interest in running the team. But K.C. turns outs to be a beautiful woman who really knows her baseball. Second baseman Dennis Ryan promptly falls in love. But his playboy roommate Eddie O'Brien has his own notions about how to treat the new lady owner and some unsavory gamblers have their own ideas about how to handle Eddie.

Take Me Out to the Ball Game

1949

No artwork available
7.0

To dim-bulb accountants find themselves working for a bookie in this comedy. Their jobs and their lives are placed in jeopardy when they accidently fumble $50,000 worth of the bookie's cash over to the secretary who wastes no time in spending $44,000 of it in less than 8 hours. The bookkeepers are given 36 hours to get all of the money back by their infuriated boss.

For Love or Money

1939

The Life of the Party poster
6.2

A singer finds another heir (Gene Raymond) to marry, to avoid the one (Joe Penner) her mother found.

The Life of the Party

1937

Talk About a Lady poster
5.0

A country girl, wanting to break into show-business, comes to New York City and, by her actions, manages to restore the optimism of a jaded and disillusioned nightclub owner. Eventually, she marries the manager of one of the man's nightclubs.

Talk About a Lady

1946

Wonder Man poster
6.6

Boisterous nightclub entertainer Buzzy Bellew was the witness to a murder committed by gangster Ten Grand Jackson. One night, two of Jackson's thugs kill Buzzy and dump his body in the lake at Prospect Park in Brooklyn. Buzzy comes back as a ghost and summons his bookworm twin, Edwin Dingle, to Prospect Park so that he can help the police nail Jackson.

Wonder Man

1945

The Chance of a Lifetime poster
6.7

A mad scramble for stolen loot ensues after Boston Blackie has prisoners released for work in a wartime defence plant.

The Chance of a Lifetime

1943

Ride 'Em Cowboy poster
6.0

Two peanut vendors at a rodeo show get in trouble with their boss and hide out on a railroad train heading west. They get jobs as cowboys on a dude ranch, despite the fact that neither of them knows anything about cowboys, horses, or anything else.

Ride 'Em Cowboy

1941