Priscilla Lane

Birthday: Jun 12, 1915

Bio: American actress Priscilla Lane was trained for a musical career at Iowa's Simpson College. Shortly before graduation Priscilla and her sister Rosemary Lane toured as vocalists with the Fred Waring Band. In 1937, both Lane sisters were signed by Warner Bros. to appear in Varsity Show; they were cast as adversaries, with "nice" Priscilla impersonating "nasty"… More Bio: American actress Priscilla Lane was trained for a musical career at Iowa's Simpson College. Shortly before graduation Priscilla and her sister Rosemary Lane toured as vocalists with the Fred Waring Band. In 1937, both Lane sisters were signed by Warner Bros. to appear in Varsity Show; they were cast as adversaries, with "nice" Priscilla impersonating "nasty" temperamental movie star Rosemary. A third Lane sister, Lola, joined her siblings and actress Gale Page to play the title characters in Warners' Four Daughters (1938), but it was Priscilla who was shown to best advantage by sharing the "fates are against me" scene with costar John Garfield. The actress had the good luck to work with some of Hollywood's top male stars during her Warners' tenure, including Cary Grant (Arsenic and Old Lace [1941]) and James Cagney (The Roaring Twenties [1939]). While on loanout to 20th Century-Fox, Lane was allowed to deliver a sharp comic performance opposite Jack Benny in The Meanest Man in the World (1943). Lane even worked with Hitchcock in Saboteur (1942), though truth to tell she was hardly the director's first choice (he wanted Barbara Stanwyck). Retiring from movies in favor of married life in 1948, Priscilla Lane made a brief professional reappearance in the late '50s as hostess of a daily movie telecast on Boston's WBZ-TV. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi