CHARLES LANE: 1905-2007 / Actor made major impact in minor roles / '06 quake survivor nailed hundreds of film, television parts

** FILE ** Character actor Charles Lane poses for a photograph at his home in the Brentwood area of Los Angeles, in this Jan. 19, 2005, file photo. Lane, whose career spanned more than 60 years, died at his home Monday night, July, 9, 2007. He was 102. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes) less ** FILE ** Character actor Charles Lane poses for a photograph at his home in the Brentwood area of Los Angeles, in this Jan. 19, 2005, file photo. Lane, whose career spanned more than 60 years, died at his ... more Photo: Damian Dovarganes Photo: Damian Dovarganes Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close CHARLES LANE: 1905-2007 / Actor made major impact in minor roles / '06 quake survivor nailed hundreds of film, television parts 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

Charles Lane died peacefully Monday night at home in Santa Monica at age 102, according to his son Tom Lane. And you really do care, only you just don't know it.

Never mind that he was born in San Francisco and was one of the last survivors of the 1906 earthquake. You know Charles Lane. You just never knew his name. He was That Guy in all those movies. You know, that skinny guy with the glasses, the beaky nose and the white hair -- or the dark hair, depending on how far back you go. Sometimes he was a hotel clerk. Sometimes a reporter. He was on the 1960s sitcom "Petticoat Junction" for five years as a cranky railroad official. As an actor on film and television, he appeared in well over 250 roles, which means that, to avoid ever seeing him over the past 70 years, you would probably have had to avoid film and television completely.

Someone should do a Charles Lane festival. He made some exceptional movies: "Blonde Crazy" (1931), with James Cagney; "Blessed Event" (1932), with Lee Tracy; "Employees' Entrance" (1933), with Warren William; the Busby Berkeley musicals "42nd Street" and "The Gold Diggers of 1933"; the renowned screwball comedy "Twentieth Century" (1934); the Capra classics "Mr. Deeds Goes to Town" (1936), "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" (1939), "Arsenic and Old Lace" (1944) and "It's a Wonderful Life" (1946); "Teacher's Pet" (1958); "The Music Man" (1962); and "Good Neighbor Sam" (1964).

True, he had little to do with what made these films exceptional, and, in fact, for the vast majority of them, Lane received no credit at all. In the studio days, the guy who played the radio operator ("Central Airport") or the campaign reporter ("The Farmer's Daughter") wasn't identified for audiences. He was considered part of that studio's furniture. But credit or no credit, Lane was never furniture, and he was never wallpaper. He was vivid -- as well as competent and precise. Give him a job, and he got it done.

Take, for example, his appearance in "The Gold Diggers of 1933." He is in one scene, as a society reporter, but the scene is significant. For the whole beginning of the film, a mystery is made as to the true background of Dick Powell, who plays a songwriter. Now at a Broadway opening, Lane spots him, thinks he recognizes him and tells his friends during intermission. That's Lane's whole role, a small one -- but he nails it. We know, from just a few lines from Lane, that this reporter is smart and tenacious, and that he's not going to quit until he finds out the truth. So the next day when we see the screaming newspaper headline, we're not surprised.

There are two ways for a bit player to screw up. One way, the forgivable way, is to be inconspicuous. The other way is to act as though you're the star of the picture. Lane did neither. He simply brought truth to his brief moments on screen. With Lane, the audience understood that the reporters, clerks, salesmen and managers he played were people in the midst of their own day -- a day that just happened to intersect with the world of the movie. As such, he had no need to be especially patient or ingratiating. He was rarely nasty, but he usually seemed busy and impatient. He had something he was doing, that he wanted to do, and then Gary Cooper or Barbara Stanwyck or somebody had to come over and interrupt him.

Lane was born Charles Levison in San Francisco on Jan. 26, 1905. In the beginning of his career, he kept the name of Levison, but it wasn't much of an issue because the name rarely turned up in the credits. He made his first screen appearance in the 1931 film "Smart Money," with James Cagney and Edward G. Robinson. He played a hotel desk clerk. In those days, film executives assumed that once you did something once, you were an expert at it. And so Lane played a hotel desk clerk in five of his next six movies. In the sixth, he was a luggage checkroom clerk at a railway station.

It's usually at this point in an obituary that the actor's "big break" is mentioned. But no. In his 50s, Lane was still playing the kind of uncredited role he was playing in his 20s, only now -- after 30 years in the business -- the public knew him. People didn't know his name, but they knew him. Most actors arrive on the public consciousness with a jolt. Lane did something rare. He just oozed into public awareness, until at a certain point it felt as though he'd always been there.

Lane's most high-profile work was in television. He had guest roles on "I Love Lucy" in the 1950s and on a number of shows in the 1960s, including "The Lucy Show," "Perry Mason," "The Beverly Hillbillies," "Gomer Pyle," "The Twilight Zone," "The Andy Griffith Show," "The Munsters," "Bewitched" and "The Wild Wild West." He was a series regular on the sitcom "Petticoat Junction," as a railroad executive who wants to do away with the town's beloved locomotive.

He often worked in comedy, though he rarely smiled. He was usually the relentless, unsympathetic force with whom the hero or heroine had to contend, but there was also something decent and human underneath that hard surface, which was why Lane was most frequently cast in comedy.

Through the 1970s, he worked steadily, appearing on shows such as "Maude," "Lou Grant" and "Little House on the Prairie." He also continued to make movies. He made his final feature film, "Date With an Angel" in 1987. In 1988, he played Adm. William Standley in the World War II miniseries "War and Remembrance." His final screen appearance was in the 1995 TV movie "The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes."

Not long after he turned 100, he was honored at the TV Land Awards, where many in the viewing audience were delighted to find out he was still alive. Given the lifetime achievement award, Lane told the crowd, "I'm still available."