[3] Lane also took up screen acting, performing in 21 films and making hundreds of televisions appearances from 1950 up through 1973, including as the star of the TV series Crime with Father,[4] and as a regular cast member of the daytime serial The Clear Horizon.

[15] He played football his first two years under coach Bob Zuppke, was a member of the 1923 championship team with Red Grange, but lost part of that season due to academic probation.

He was elected president of the college dramatic society,[17] took part in plays,[18] and in his senior year represented Illinois at an interstate public speaking competition held in Madison, Wisconsin.

[25] He also oversaw the opening of the new Wisconsin Union Theater, at which in April 1942, Knickerbocker Holiday, the one hundredth production of his college directing career was staged.

[27] After several months doing radio and stage work in New York City, he took a position with the American Red Cross, producing entertainment for servicemen in England.

[12] While in London, Lane persuaded playwright Maxwell Anderson to allow the US Army to stage his play The Eve of St. Mark as a non-profit production.

[33] John Chapman of the New York Daily News was more generous, writing: "Rusty Lane, a drama professor and director, makes his acting debut in the role of a lawyer, and proves that self-taught or not, he is well taught".

[41] Lane portrayed Joab, for which he received mild commendation from the Daily News critic, who was a bit hard on the two leads, James Mason and Pamela Kellino.

[41] The Brooklyn Daily Eagle said Deval's characters "seem to have gotten into his play simply because some clothes had come from a costumer's and needed men and women to fill them".

[44] Lane was part of a supporting cast that included Joan McCracken, Wesley Addy, and John Carradine, under the direction of Joseph Losey.

[44] After doing a trio of unsuccessful plays, Lane was cast in a critical and popular hit, the 1948 Tony Award winner Mister Roberts.

This had an opening tryout at the Shubert Theatre in New Haven, Connecticut on January 23, 1948, where the reviewer predicted immediate success on Broadway and mentioned Lane favorably.

[51] Though his evenings were committed to Mister Roberts, Lane was able to utilize his days to do a number of radio broadcasts for the anthology series Grand Central Station.

[55] After almost three years of playing Chief Johnson, Lane was promoted to the lead role of the Captain, taking over from William Harrigan, who left in November 1950 for an RKO movie contract.

He would play that part on tour even after the original Broadway production closed at the Alvin Theatre during January 1951 and formed a second road company.

[61] A newspaper article by Robert Downing, who played a villain, establishes that Lane's participation in the daily show may have lasted for weeks, however, very few actual episodes can be identified today.

[64] Atkinson praised the "vivid characterizations" of Lane and other actors, but Louis Sheaffer felt the play was "drab" and "uninspired",[65] while John Chapman called it "cheerless, sadistic and pointless".

[3] Lane's role in this play as a police lieutenant was smaller than his parts in Mister Roberts and Stockade, and reviewers mention him only in passing.

[75] After 212 performances, The Desperate Hours closed on Broadway on August 13, 1955, and a road company was sent out to the West Coast that included Lane and his wife Sara Anderson.

[76] By late October 1955, Lane was back in New York for filming of The Harder They Fall,[77] but he returned to Los Angeles for Beyond a Reasonable Doubt in March 1956.

[5] The show's creator and head writer, Manya Star, a former WAVES officer, was adamant the program was not a soap opera: "The emphasis is on the men, and the women know how to cope with things, instead of wringing their hands".

[81] Among the show's secondary storylines was that of Corporal Davis (James Edwards), a Negro soldier who fights to get into Officer Candidate School, and the difficulty in finding housing for his wife after he does.

Columnist Allen Rich queried CBS VP for Daytime Programs Bruce Lansbury about the switch from soap operas like Clear Horizon and Full Circle to game shows.

[83] Less than a year later, a new CBS VP for Daytime Programs, Lawrence White, announced that The Clear Horizon would resume new episodes on February 26, 1962,[fn 3] citing popular demand for its return.

[84][85] The second life of The Clear Horizon lasted only until June 15, 1962, when it was dropped from the CBS daytime schedule in favor of a traditional soap opera, The Brighter Day, which was expanded from 15 minutes to a half-hour.

[92] Columnist Whitney Bolton reported that whenever Lane found himself in a long-running stage production, he'd populate his theatre dressing room with wildlife.