[2] According to the American Contract Bridge League (ACBL), he was "widely recognized as the top matchpoint player of all time"[3] —the tournament format commonly played in private clubs.
He was credited with directing numerous episodes of such series as Trapper John, M.D., The Incredible Hulk, Hawaii Five-O, CHiPs, Dallas, Wonder Woman, Mission: Impossible, and Mannix.
Crane, who won 15 North American championships,[5] was an ACBL Grand Life Master and traveled extensively to play in matchpoint pairs tournaments.
[5] During his lifetime, Crane accumulated 35,135.80 masterpoints (awarded by the ACBL for success in tournament play), more than any other player.
[2] The Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System led to a suspect in Crane's murder being taken into custody on May 9, 2019, based on fingerprint and DNA evidence linking him to the crime; additionally, according to a statement from the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), the suspect confessed to murdering Crane during an interview with LAPD detectives on March 8, 2019.