Happy Charles Lane Day!

That's Charles Lane in his (brief) scene in It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World with Mickey Rooney and Buddy Hackett. It was only one of a couple hundred movies in which he appeared, usually playing a banker or a lawyer or some other officious presence. Every time I've seen Mad World with an audience, there's a laugh of recognition when Mr. Lane appears on the screen and you can hear people muttering, "That guy." They may not know his name but they know the face and voice from films as diverse as You Can't Take It With You (he played an I.R.S. agent), Arsenic and Old Lace (he played a snoopy reporter), Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (he played another snoopy reporter), It's a Wonderful Life (he played a rent collector), The Big Store (he foreclosed on Groucho's car) and so many more.

Mr. Lane turned 102 today. I doubt he's spending it Googling himself so he probably won't see this. But maybe somebody he knows him will let him know that he has a lot of fans out here on the 'net and that we're thinking of him.