Diane Lane

Diane Lane in “Untraceable”

Diane Lane in “Untraceable”

Before she was 20, Diane Lane was director Francis Coppola’s most reliable leading lady with performances in “The Outsiders,” “Rumble Fish,” and “The Cotton Club.” She began a lifetime in acting at age six at the La Mama Experimental Theatre in New York (her hometown) with a part in Euripides’ “Medea.” Her mother was a nightclub singer and Playboy centerfold named Colleen Farmington and Diane’s father was a cab driver and drama coach. By 14, she was on the cover of Time hailed as “the next great young actress,” and has had steady big screen work since 1980. Precocious is an understatement.

But by the mid-1980s, after Coppola’s films failed to rescue him from financial disaster or raise Diane to the heights of her profession, culture and Hollywood threatened to sink Diane’s career towards lowbrow fare catering to her sex appeal. Though recognition for her work in the epic miniseries “Lonesome Dove” brought Diane an Emmy nomination in 1989, the following decade saw Diane popping up in Sylvester Stallone’s “Judge Dredd,” Coppola’s “Jack,” and the Wesley Snipes political mystery thriller “Murder at 1600.” At this point in her career, Diane found far greater acting challenges on television, particularly in “Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All” and as Stella to Alec Baldwin’s Stanley in the 1995 version of “A Streetcar Named Desire.”

Diane’s perseverance and sheer endurance eventually paid off in the new millennium. A prelude to her success in this decade was in 1999’s “A Walk on the Moon,” which earned Diane an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Actress. With “Unfaithful,” the 2002 thriller with Richard Gere, Diane was not only “suddenly” Hollywood’s hottest thing at age 37, but it brought her at long last an Academy Award nomination (the statuette went to Nicole Kidman for “The Hours”).

More recently, Diane has emerged in the envious position of romantic comedy leading lady after appearing in such films as “Under the Tuscan Sun” and “Must Love Dogs.” But Diane will also dabble in Ashley Judd-esque pictures like “Untraceable,” as well as supporting performances as in “Jumper.” Recently, Josh Brolin (her husband since 2004) has been finally coming into his own as Diane did in 2002; perhaps a husband and wife teaming isn’t too far off?

Diane on Video and on the Web

Diane Lane on Instagram
Recent photos from beautiful Diane.

Celebrity Teaser – Diane Lane
News, photos and more from this celebrity blog.

Sexy Diane Lane photoshoot
Cool behind-the-scenes video.

Diane Lane Interview
Young Diane Lane Talks About Her 18th Birthday on Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show 1983.

Diane on the Screen

Her film debut is in 1979 in “A Little Romance,” and by 1980, she has the lead in “Touched by Love.” She’s Liza in “National Lampoon Goes to the Movies,” Cherry Valance in Coppola’s “The Outsiders,” Patty in “Rumble Fish,” and Vera Cicero in “The Cotton Club.” Diane earned an Emmy nod as Lorena in “Lonesome Dove,” and in 1992, she co-stars alongside then-husband Christopher Lambert in “Knight Moves.” She’s part of the star cast of “Chaplin,” Susannah Moore in the biopic “Wild Bill,” Christina in the George Clooney / Mark Wahlberg sea adventure “The Perfect Storm,” opposite Keanu Reeves in “Hard Ball,” Erin Glass in “The Glass House,” and Toni Mannix in the Ben Affleck vehicle “Hollywoodland.”

Diane Says

On an Oscar nomination:
“It’s a bigger dream than I dared to dream for myself.”

On self-esteem:
“I have just enough attention to feel glamorous and important.”

On husband Josh Brolin:
“Josh was mortified in the beginning, but now he’s completely hooked. I want to sit down, and I want to laugh. Nothing works better for me than watching somebody slip on a banana peel.”