Priscilla Lane(1915-1995)
- Actress
- Soundtrack
Priscilla Lane attended the Eagin School of Dramatic Arts in New York
before she began touring with her sisters in the Fred Waring and the
Pennsylvanians Dance Band. She was a popular singer with her sisters
and, after 5 years, she was signed to a Hollywood contract with Warner
Brothers in 1937. Her first film was Varsity Show (1937) where she had the hard
task of portraying a singer with the Fred Waring Band. Priscilla was to
play the nice girl against the temperamental star played by her sister
Rosemary Lane. Over the years, Priscilla would play an assortment of
girlfriends, daughters and fiancees. She would team with her two
sisters, Rosemary Lane and Lola Lane, to make a series of dramas beginning
with the film Four Daughters (1938). That film would be the one that made John Garfield a
star. In most of her films, all Priscilla had to do was to look
attractive and give a good supporting performance. Priscilla would also
co-star with Wayne Morris in three 1938 releases. In The Roaring Twenties (1939), she would play
the girlfriend of James Cagney. In Arsenic and Old Lace (1944), which was released 3 years after
it was filmed, she would play the fiancee of Cary Grant. When Alfred Hitchcock was
unable to get Barbara Stanwyck, he cast Priscilla in Saboteur (1942) where she was on
the run with the hero. By that time, her movie career was almost
finished and she would appear in just a couple of films over the next
five years before retiring in 1948.