You know his face and manner, oh boy do you know his face and manner - crone-like, bespectacled and with a gaunt physique that was constantly in the throes of a professional snit, Charles Lane was arguably the most hard-working, prolific character actor ever to grace film and television, and he died peacefully on July 9 of natural causes at his Los Angeles home. He was 102.

He was born Charles Levison in San Francisco on January 26, 1905. His first professional career was selling insurance until he was encouraged to go into acting by some friends. In 1929, he joined the Pasadena Playhouse, a highly praised theater group that came into vogue during the transition to talkies for its troupe of highly skilled actors. He made his film debut as a hotel clerk in the Edward G. Robinson/James Cagney star powered vehicle, Smart Money (1931). Amusingly, Lane played a desk clerk in no less than three more films that same year: The Road to Singapore, Blonde Crazy, and Manhattan Parade. Although he was uncredited, his hallmark features were well caught on film, particularly his beady eyes and somewhat high nasal delivery.

When he started getting credited parts, it was in comedies such as the Carole Lombard vehicle Twentieth Century (1934) or Harold Lloyd's The Milky Way (1936). And such comedies pointed out what an apt straight man he was. Better still, it would be two films he made for Frank Capra that would prove to be very memorable: the first was the incredulous IRS agent who can't fathom Lionel Barrymore's lack of respect for his country's tax structure in You Can't Take It With You (1938); and as the snooping reporter that raises the ire in James Stewart for Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939). By the '40s, Lane played a series of harried, impatient professionals and did them quite well in a string of hit films: The Big Store (1941), Arsenic and Old Lace (1944), for Capra again in It's a Wonderful Life (1946), and as Doc Prouty in the Ellery Queen series. In all of these films, Lane proved he had the qualities that mark all good characters actors: precision, dependability and consistency.

Television would bring Lane some additional fame. He was memorable in a series of appearances on the I Love Lucy show. Most noteworthy was the Staten Island Ferry episode which casts him as a fussy bureaucrat who has trouble giving a drugged up Lucy her passport due to her "Intoxicated" state. But a younger generation would grow to love him as the scheming (but still somewhat sympathetic) J. Homer Bedloe, the railroad executive who had it in for the owners of the Shady Rest Hotel in the hit sitcom Petticoat Junction (1963-68). Lane's list of appearance from this point on are simply too innumerable to mention here, although some highlights include a recurring role as a judge on Soap (1978); and a creepy cameo as an antique store owner in the resurrection of Dark Shadows (1991).

Most amusingly, when Lane received a tribute for surviving into his second century at the TV Land Awards in 2005, Lane shouted out to the audience "If you're interested, I'm still available!" And damned if he didn't get one more gig, as a narrator for the German short The Night Before Christmas. He was 101 at the time of production. There will never be another one like him. His wife of 70 years, actress Ruth Covell, died in 2002. Lane is survived by his son, Tom; daughter, Alice; and a granddaughter.

by Michael T. Toole