Lane began acting professionally at the age of six at the La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club in New York, where she appeared in a production of Medea. Lane's grandmother, Eleanor Scott, was a Pentecostal preacher of the Apostolic denomination, and Lane was influenced theatrically by the demonstrative quality of her grandmother's sermons. Main article: List of Diane Lane performancesĮarly work: From A Little Romance to A Walk on the Moon Lane did not speak to her mother for the next three years, but they eventually reconciled. Lane and her father challenged her mother in court, and six weeks later, she was back in New York. However, Lane's mother kidnapped her and took her back to Georgia. In 1981, she enrolled in high school after taking correspondence courses. Lane later remarked, "It was reckless behavior that comes from having too much independence too young." She returned to New York and moved in with a friend's family, paying them rent.
When Lane was 15, she declared her independence from her father and flew to Los Angeles for a week with actor and friend Christopher Atkins with whom she starred in the 1981 movie Child Bride of Short Creek. Lane and her father lived in a number of residential hotels in New York City and she rode with him in his taxi. Lane's father received custody of her after Lane's mother moved to the state of Georgia. Lane's mother went to Mexico and obtained a divorce while retaining custody of Lane until she was six years old. When Lane was 13 days old, her parents separated.
Her father, Burton Eugene Lane, was a Manhattan drama coach who ran an acting workshop with John Cassavetes, worked as a cab driver, and later taught humanities at City College. Her mother, Colleen Leigh Farrington, was a nightclub singer and Playboy centerfold (Miss October 1957), who was also known as "Colleen Price". Lane was born January 22, 1965, in New York City.
She was especially lauded and honored for the 2002 film Unfaithful, which earned her Satellite, New York Film Critics Circle, and National Society of Film Critics awards for Best Actress in a Motion Picture (Drama). It was not until 1999 that Lane earned further recognition for her role in A Walk on the Moon, and that was followed by her performance alongside George Clooney and Mark Wahlberg in the 2000 blockbuster The Perfect Storm.
After taking a break, Lane returned to acting to appear in The Big Town and Lady Beware, but did not make another big impression on a sizable audience until 1989's popular and critically acclaimed TV miniseries Lonesome Dove, for which she was nominated for an Emmy Award. The two films that could have catapulted her to star status, Streets of Fire and The Cotton Club, were both commercial and critical failures, and her career languished as a result.
Laurence Olivier, who played a major supporting role in the film, called her "the new Grace Kelly". Born and raised in New York City, Lane made her screen debut at age 14 in George Roy Hill's 1979 film A Little Romance. Diane Colleen Lane (born January 22, 1965) is an American actress and producer.