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. 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. 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. His final screen appearance was at the age of 90, 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."
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