Diane Lane played the cheating wife in the 2002 thriller Unfaithful (with Richard Gere), a role that cemented her position as a leading lady in Hollywood after more than two decades in the movies. Lane made an auspicious debut when she was 13 years old in A Little Romance (1979), and during the '80s starred in three films by Francis Ford Coppola: The Outsiders (1983), Rumble Fish (1984) and The Cotton Club (1984). In the next decade Lane appeared in several duds, but she stood out in the television mini-series Lonesome Dove (1989) and in a small role in Chaplin (1992, with Robert Downey, Jr.). Since then she has had a good run in solid Hollywood roles: The Perfect Storm (2000, with Mark Wahlberg); Hardball (2001, with Keanu Reeves); The Glass House (2001, with Lee Lee Sobieski); Under the Tuscan Sun (2003); Must Love Dogs (2005, with John Cusack); and Hollywoodland (2006, with Adrien Brody).
Lane's mother, Colleen Farrington, was a Playboy centerfold, Miss October of 1957.
Career Highlights: Rumble Fish, A Walk on the Moon, My New Gun
First Major Screen Credit: A Little Romance (1979)
Biography
With a smoldering sensuality that perfectly compliments her remarkable subtlety as an actress, critics and journalists have frequently singled out Diane Lane for her memorable work in such films as Rumble Fish (1983), A Walk on the Moon (1999) and The Perfect Storm (2000). From her earliest stage appearances to her later status as a powerful star of feature films, Lane's uncanny ability to project her character's innermost emotions into the hearts of filmgoers has earned her a much-deserved rank among the Hollywood elite. Diane Lane was born in New York City in 1965, the daughter of drama coach Burt Lane and Playboy centrespread Colleen Farrington; her eyes seemed to sparkle with stars from the tender age of six. Cast in a La Mama Experimental Theatre production of Medea, Lane would subsequently appear on stage in numerous productions, both in her native New York and abroad. It wasn't long before the late-'70s found Lane reaching the apex of her early career, and in 1978 she made her film debut in director George Roy Hill's A Little Romance. Cast alongside no less than Sir Laurence Olivier, Lane held her own in the role of an American student who finds love while studying abroad, and as a result gained remarkable exposure on the cover of Time Magazine in August of the following year. Lane was touted as one of the most promising actors of her generation, and this success parlayed her into a series of neglected films. In a number of these instances, she could not be faulted for choosing substandard material; her appearance in Lamont Johnson's fresh and rousing female western Cattle Annie and Little Britches (1981), for example (alongside Amanda Plummer, Burt Lancaster and Rod Steiger) drew lavish critical praise even as the studio inexplicably threw the film into the wastecan. Lane fared better with twin roles in a pair of teen dramas from director Francis Ford Coppola in 1983 (The Outsiders and Rumble Fish) once again earned the burgeoning film actress the spotlight and reminded audiences of her immense talent; she became a Coppola favorite, but didn't fare as well with his Cotton Club, a massive critical and commercial flop that did little to boost her career, even as it introduced her to co-star Richard Gere (with whom she would reteam, professionally, years later).
After rounding out the decade with yet another memorable turn in the television miniseries Lonesome Dove (1989), Lane's career once again became a more low-key affair, though her performances frequently outshined the otherwise unremarkable series of films she appeared in.
Though roles in such efforts as Chaplin (1992), A Streetcar Named Desire (1995), and Jack (1996) kept her from falling off the radar, Lane didn't truly shine again until her role as a housewife who embarks on a fragile extramarital affair in A Walk on the Moon (1998). Following that film with a pair of memorable performances in My Dog Skip and The Perfect Storm (both in 2000), Lane's career seemed to have achieved some stability, but it wasn't before a pair of forgettable features (Hardball and The Glass House, both in 2001) that Lane scored with yet another tale of marital infidelity. Director Adrian Lyne's Unfaithful, a retooling of Claude Chabrol's La Femme Infidèle, once again found Lane in the throws of an alluring stranger. Unfaithful - the anticipated onscreen reunion of Lane with Richard Gere - pondered the crushing reverberations of extramarital carnality, and Lane provided an ample and intriguing center of gravity for the film.
When February 2003 rolled around and the Academy announced its nominations for the previous year, Lane recieved her first-ever Oscar nod for her emotional turn in Unfaithful. It did not pay off with a win, but Lane's follow-ups with roles in substantial fare including Just Like Mona (2002) and the wildly-popular Under the Tuscan Sun (2003) suggested that Lane's career had finally found solid box-office ground. Time validated this assertion: 2005's Must Love Dogs, a romantic comedy vehicle co-starring Lane and John Cusack, drew positive responses from many moviegoers and did decent, if not spectacular, box office, despite the excoriation of some critics (Salon's Stephanie Zacharek moaned, "It's ostensibly about adults, but there's nothing remotely adult about it.") 2006's Hollywoodland casts Lane in a mystery about the enigmatic demise of Superman's George Reeves. The same year's Killshot boasts an inspirational pedigree, which includes director John Madden (Shakespeare in Love, Her Majesty Mrs. Brown), Wings of the Dove scenarist Hossein Amini, producers Bob and Harvey Weinstein and Quentin Tarantino, cinematographer Caleb Deschanel and co-starrers Thomas Jane and the gifted Mickey Rourke (who first pooled his talents with Lane in 1983's Rumble Fish). The film, an adaptation of Elmore Leonard's novel, tells the story of a married couple who wind up in the Federal Witness Protection Program - and on a hit man's X list - when their extortion scheme falls apart.
Married to Highlander Christopher Lambert from 1988 to 1994 (with a single daughter from that marriage), Lane wed actor Josh Brolin in late 2004. In addition to her high-profile movie career, she is also an avid photographer; the January 2005 issue of InStyle Magazine prominently published a series of landscapes that Lane shot during one of her road trips into the American west.
Lane was born in New York City, the daughter of Colleen Farrington, a night club singer and Playboy centerfold who was also known as "Colleen Price", and Burton Eugene Lane, a drama coach who also
worked as a cab driver.[1][2] Lane's maternal grandmother, Agnes Scott, was a Pentecostalpreacher, and Lane was influenced by the theatricality of
her grandmother's sermons.[2][3][4] Lane was raised by her father after her parents divorced while she was still a baby.[2]
Career
Lane began acting professionally at the age of six at the La Mama Experimental Theatre in New York, where she appeared in
acclaimed productions of Medea and The Cherry Orchard, among others.[2] At thirteen, she made her film debut opposite Sir Laurence Olivier in A Little Romance, and at
fourteen was featured on the cover of Time.[5][2]
One of few child actors to make a successful transition into adult roles, Lane made a hit
with audiences in the back-to-back cult films The Outsiders and
Rumble Fish, and for a time was designated a member of the so-called
"Brat pack". However the two films that could have catapulted her to star status,
Streets of Fire and The Cotton
Club, were both box office flops and her career languished as a result. It was not until 1989's popular and critically
acclaimed TV mini-seriesLonesome Dove that
Lane made another big impression on a sizable audience. She was nominated for an Emmy Award for the role. Lane won further praise
for her role in 1999's A Walk on the Moon, opposite Viggo Mortensen.[2]
Lane dated rock star Jon Bon Jovi in the 1980s and she was married to actor
Christopher Lambert from 1988 to 1994. They had a daughter, Eleanor Jasmine Lambert,
born September 51993, and were divorced following a prolonged
separation.
Lane married actor Josh Brolin on August 14,
2004. On December 20 of that year, she called police after an
altercation with him, and he was arrested on a misdemeanor charge of domestic battery. Lane declined to press charges, however, and the couple's spokesperson characterized the
incident as a "misunderstanding".[6]
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