11 May 2013

Grace Lane

Grace Lane (1876 - 1956) was a British stage actress, who also appeared in some films in the 1920’s and 1930’s. She and matinee idol Lewis Waller were a popular pair on the stages of the West End and on Broadway in the early 1910’s.

Grace Lane
British postcard by G.B. & Co, London, no. 7134. Sent by mail in 1903. Photo: R. Thiele, London.

Glamorous Matinee Idol
Grace Mabel Lane was born in London, England, in 1876. She was the daughter of Pierrpont G. Lane and his wife Rosina Grace née Lilley. Grace was the sister of actress Dorothy Lane and actor Horace Lane. In 1902, she became a popular star of the West End with the play Monsieur Beaucaire with Lewis Waller as Beaucaire. This romantic comedy by Booth Tarkington and Mrs E. G. Sutherland ran for 430 performances at the Comedy Theatre. With glamorous matinee idol Waller, she appeared in several other plays on the stages of the West End and on Broadway during the early 1910’s. Later, she appeared with another popular leading man of the Edwardian stage, Bertram Wallis in the melodrama Beau Brocade (1911) at the Globe Theatre.

Grace Lane, Lewis Waller
British postcard, no. 1595. Photo: Rotary Photo. A still from the popular 1902 play Monsieur Beaucaire with Lewis Waller as Beaucaire and Grace Lane as Mary.

Bertram Wallis, Grace Lane
British postcard by Rotary Photo, E.C., no. 11642-D. Photo: Foulsham & Hanfield, Ltd., London. Publicity still for the play Beau Brocade (1911) with Bertram Wallis as Beau Brocade and Grace Lane as Lady Patience Gascoyne.

The Honeypot
Grace Lane’s first film appearance was a supporting part in the romance The Honeypot (1920, Fred LeRoy Granville) with Lilian Hall-Davis. Another silent film in which she played was Owd Bob (1924) with Ralph Forbes. The film was directed by the well known British actor Henry Edwards who also directed 67 films between 1915 and 1937. Grace Lane next appeared in two early sound pictures, the Gainsborough comedy Taxi for Two (1929, Denison Clift, Alexander Esway), and the romance The Feather (1929, Leslie S. Hiscott). She played her last supporting film parts in The Mad Hatters (1935, Ivar Campbell) with the British It Girl Chili Bouchier, and Twelve Good Men (1936, Ralph Ince) starring Henry Kendall. At 79, Grace Lane died in 1956 in Hove, England. She was married to stage actor Kenneth Douglas. They were the parents of actor/dramatist Gerald Savory (1909 - 1996).

Grace Lane
British postcard by the Philco Publishing Co., London, no. 3024E. Sent by mail in 1904. Photo: Lafayette.

Sources: Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos), Stage Beauty, Wikipedia and IMDb.

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