Born in Masson, Quebec, Dane was raised in Ottawa, and was from a Lebanese family.
[3] He began acting at the stage as an old policeman in the play Our Town at Ottawa's Fisher Park Community Centre under Lynne Gorman's direction in 1958.
[4] His screen career began when he met film maker F. R. Crawley in the same year.
Crawley gave him a job as an extra and stand-in for John Perkins as Constable Frank Scott in the TV series R.C.M.P..[4] In addition to acting, he cowrote and directed the film drama Heavenly Bodies (1984).
His producing credits include The Rowdyman, written by and starring Gordon Pinsent, and the slasher film Rituals.