Diane Lane was born on January 22, 1965, in New York. She is the
daughter of acting coach Burton Eugene "Burt" Lane and nightclub
singer/centerfold Colleen Farrington. Her parents' families were both
from the state of Georgia. Diane was acting from a very young age and
made her stage debut at the age of six. Her work in such acclaimed
theater productions as "The Cherry Orchard" and "Medea" led to her
being called to Hollywood. She was 13 when she was cast by director
George Roy Hill in his wonderful 1979
film Ich liebe dich - I love you - je t'aime (1979),
opposite Sir Laurence Olivier. The film
only did so-so commercially, but Olivier praised his young co-star,
calling her the new Grace Kelly.
After her well-received debut, Diane found herself on magazine covers
all over the world, including "Time", which declared her the "new young
acting sensation". However, things quietened down a bit when she found
herself in such critical and financial flops as
Touched by Love (1980),
Zwei Mädchen und die Doolin-Bande (1980),
Movie Madness (1982),
Ladies and Gentlemen, the Fabulous Stains (1982)
and, most unmemorably, Six Pack (1982),
all of which failed to set her career on fire.
She also made several TV movies during this period, but it was in 1983
that she finally began to fulfill the promise of stardom that had
earlier been predicted for her. Acclaimed director
Francis Ford Coppola took note of
Diane's appeal and cast her in two "youth"-oriented films based on
S.E. Hinton novels. Indeed,
Rumble Fish (1983) and
Outsider: Rebellen ohne Grund (1983) have become
cult classics and resulted in her getting a loyal fan base. The
industry was now taking notice of Diane Lane, and she soon secured lead
roles in three big-budget studio epics. She turned down the first,
Splash: Jungfrau am Haken (1984) (which was a surprise hit
for Daryl Hannah). Unfortunately, the other
two were critical and box-office bombs:
Walter Hill's glossy rock 'n' roll
fable Straßen in Flammen (1984) was
not the huge summer success that many had thought it would be, and the
massively troubled Coppola epic
Cotton Club (1984)
co-starring Richard Gere was also a
high-profile flop. The back-to-back failure of both of these films
could have ended her career there and then -- but thankfully it didn't.
Possibly "burned out" by the lambasting these films received and
unhappy with the direction her career was taking, she "retired" from
the film business at age 19, saying that she had forgotten what she had
started acting for. She stayed away from the screen for the next three
years. Ironically, the two films that were the main causes of her
"retirement" have since grown in popularity, and "Streets of Fire"
especially seems to have found the kind of audience it couldn't get
when it was first released.
The process of rebuilding her career was a slow and gradual one. First
came the obscure and very sexy straight-to-video thriller
Hautnah (1987), followed by the
critically acclaimed but little seen
Chicago Blues (1987) with
Matt Dillon and
Tommy Lee Jones. In the former, Diane
plays a very mysterious and sexy stripper and her memorable strip
sequence is a highlight of the film. Despite her sexy new on-screen
image, it wasn't until 1989's smash hit TV mini-series
Der Ruf des Adlers (1989) that Diane
made another big impression on a sizable audience. Her performance in
the hugely popular and critically acclaimed western epic as a
vulnerable "whore with a heart" won her an Emmy nomination and much
praise. Film producers were interested in her again. Another
well-received TV production,
Blutiger Engel (1990),
was followed by smaller roles in major films like
Richard Attenborough's
Chaplin - Das Leben der unsterblichen Filmlegende (1992) and Mike Binder's
Ein Sommer unter Freunden (1993), and larger
parts in small independent films like
My New Gun (1992),
Crisis (1990) and
Knight Moves - Ein mörderisches Spiel (1992). Indeed, the
latter two films co-starred her then-husband,
Christopher Lambert, with
whom she had a daughter named Eleanor.
Diane was now re-established in Hollywood and started to appear in
higher-profile co-starring roles in some big-budget, major movies like
Walter Hill's
Wild Bill (1995), the
Sylvester Stallone actioner
Judge Dredd (1995), the
Robin Williams's comedy
Jack (1996) and
Mord im Weißen Haus (1997) co-starring
Wesley Snipes. However, all of these still
did not quite make Diane a "big-name star" and, by 1997, she found
herself, possibly by choice, back in smaller, personal projects.
Her next role as a frustrated 1960s housewife in the independent hit
A Walk on the Moon (1999)
deservedly won her rave notices and, at last, gave her career the big
lift it needed. The cute but tear-jerking comedy
Mein Hund Skip (2000) also proved to be
a small-scale success. However, it was the £330-million worldwide
grossing blockbuster hit
Der Sturm (2000) that
finally made Diane Lane the household name that she always should have
been.
After the worldwide success of "The Perfect Storm", she was more in
demand than ever. She played
Leelee Sobieski's sinister junkie
guardian in the slick thriller
The Glass House (2001), and
co-starred with Keanu Reeves in the #1
smash hit Hardball (2001). However,
her greatest career moment was still to come with her lead role in the
enormous critical and commercial hit
Untreu (2002), in which she
superbly portrayed Richard Gere's
adulterous wife. Her performance won the respect of critics and
audiences alike, as well as many awards and nominations including Best Actress Oscar and Golden Globe nominations.
Her follow-up films including Unter der Sonne der Toskana (2003), Frau mit Hund sucht Mann mit Herz (2005), Die Hollywood-Verschwörung (2006), Secretariat - Ein Pferd wird zur Legende (2010), and the blockbuster, Man of Steel (2013), were all received and her performances were highly praised. She won further Best Actress Golden Globe nominations for her roles in Unter der Sonne der Toskana (2003) and Cinema Verite - Das wahre Leben (2011).
She is very well regarded within the industry, adored by film fans, and
has a credibility and quality that is all too rare today. Her immense
talent at playing human and real characters, her "drop dead gorgeous"
beauty and down-to-earth grittiness guarantees that she will stay on
top, and she guarantee has already shown the kind of resilience that
will keep her working for a long, long time.
