Lane, Priscilla (1917–1995)

American actress . Name variations: Priscilla Howard. Born Priscilla Mullican on June 12, 1917, in Iowa City, Iowa; died at age 77 on April 4, 1995, in a nursing home in Andover, Massachusetts; one of five daughters of a dentist; younger sister of Lola Lane (1909–1981), Rosemary Lane (1914–1974), and Leota Lane; attended Simpson College, a music conservatory in Des Moines, Iowa; married Oren Haglund (a screenwriter), in 1940 (annulled); married Joseph A. Howard (a pilot turned building contractor), in 1943; children: Larry Howard; Hannah Howard; Judith Howard; James Howard.

Filmography:

Varsity Show (1937); Love Honor and Behave (1938); Men Are Such Fools (1938); Cowboy From Brooklyn (1938); Four Daughters (1938); Brother Rat (1938); Yes, My Darling Daughter (1939); Daughters Courageous (1939); Dust Be My Destiny (1939); The Roaring Twenties (1939); Four Wives (1939); Brother Rat and a Baby (1940); Three Cheers for the Irish (1940); Ladies Must Live (1940); Four Mothers (1941); Million Dollar Baby (1941); Blues in the Night (1941); Saboteur (1942); The Meanest Man in the World (1943); Arsenic and Old Lace (1944); Fun on a Weekend (1947); Bodyguard (1948).

The youngest of five sisters, three of whom were in films during the 1930s and 1940s, Priscilla Lane was born in Iowa City, Iowa, in 1917 and enjoyed the most successful career among the sisters. A blue-eyed, sweet-looking blonde, Lane began performing as a child with her sister Rosemary . The two were discovered by Fred Waring and joined his orchestra, The Pennsylvanians, in 1931. After years of touring, the sisters appeared with Waring in the Warner Bros. film Varsity Show (1937). Both were signed to long-term contracts and joined older sister Lola , who was already established in films, in a series of sentimental dramas about a family with four girls, the fourth played by Gale Page . The popular films included Four Daughters (1938), Daughters Courageous (1939), Four Wives (1939), and Four Mothers (1941). Also notable among Priscilla Lane's films were Brother Rat (1938), The Roaring Twenties (1939), Saboteur (1942), and Arsenic and Old Lace (1944). After a three-year absence from the screen, she returned to make Fun on a Weekend (1947) and Bodyguard (1948).

Married briefly to screenwriter Oren Haglund (the union was said to have been annulled after one day), Lane was married for a second time in 1943 to Joseph A. Howard, a bombardier pilot who later became a successful contractor in Andover, Massachusetts. Lane abandoned her career to raise her four children, immersing herself in school activities and scouting and fiercely protecting her family's privacy. Aside from a brief stint on her own local television show in Boston and a commercial for hosiery, she avoided the spotlight. Priscilla and her husband spent their later years in their former summer home in Derry, New Hampshire, beside their own private bay. The actress died in 1995, at age 77.

sources:

Katz, Ephraim. The Film Encyclopedia. NY: Harper-Collins, 1994.

Lamparski, Richard. Whatever Became of … ? 4th Series. NY: Crown.

Obituary. The Day [New London, CT]. April 6, 1995.

Barbara Morgan , Melrose, Massachusetts