Diane Lane Pictures & Short Biography

Diane Lane was born in New York City on January 22, 1965, to acting coach father Burt Lane and nightclub singer/centerfold Colleen Farrington. With those two for parents, it was almost genetically inevitable that Diane would possess a mix of acting ability, stunning good looks and smoldering sexuality. Of course, she would have to grow into those last two attributes.

The acting ability came almost as soon as she was born, and by age 6 Diane had made her stage debut in acclaimed theater director Andrei Serbian's Medea. Her performance captivated Serbian so much that he continued to cast her in his productions for the next five years.

By 1976, her reputation as a talented and capable child star landed her in Joseph Papp's productions of The Cherry Orchard and Agamemnon at the Lincoln Center in New York. Performing at such a distinguished venue meant that her reviews would be read throughout the United States, most notably in Hollywood.

Film director George Roy Hill cast young Diane to star opposite Sir Lawrence Olivier in his 1978 feature film A Little Romance. Despite the film's critical praise, its box office success was mediocre at best. But Olivier was very vocal in press interviews about how wonderful an actress his young costar was. He even went so far as to call her the new Grace Kelly. Eventually, all of this media hype placed Diane on the cover of Time in August of 1979 at the age of 14.

Expectations were running high for Diane's follow-up projects and none of them lived up to their promise. Touched by Love (1980), Cattle Annie and Little Britches (1981), National Lampoon Goes to the Movies (1981), Ladies and Gentlemen, the Fabulous Stains (1981), and Six Pack (1982) were all box-office duds.