Richard Lane

Richard (Dick) Lane was an actor who appeared in many movies of the 1930s and 1940s, usually as a police captain or lieutenant, but could adeptly play other characters, too. He may be best remembered by some movie fans as 'Inspector Farraday' in the "Boston Blackie" movie series.

In the mid-1940s, Lane was teamed with a burlesque comedian, Gus Schilling, for their own series of comedy shorts at Columbia Pictures. They made eleven shorts before the series was canceled.

Mr. Lane later became a well-known tv announcer in Los Angeles during the 1950s, for various 'sporting events' shows, such as roller derby and wrestling. His famous phrase was "Whoaaaa Nellie!" whenever something fantastic happened during those events.

I sent him this photo in 1980, and returned it within two weeks. He signed it as 'Dick Lane', but he used a ballpoint pen, and such pens tend to 'skip' when writing on glossy photos, hence the "missing letters".

Below is a posed still as 'Inspector Farraday' in "Confessions of Boston Blackie" (1941).

And here is a scene still from the comedy short "Training for Trouble" (1947), with Gus Schilling on the left, next to Richard Lane.