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"Great Shades of Elvis!"
 Lane Smith
was born on April 29, 1936 in Elvis Presley's hometown of Memphis,
Tennessee. He studied alongside actors like Al Pacino and Dustin
Hoffman at the prestigious Actors Studio. His feature film debut
was in "The Last American Hero" in 1973. Some of his
early television appearances include "Kojak" and "The
Rockford
Files."
After
playing small parts in various movies and television shows,
Lane finally stepped into the limelight when he won a Golden
Globe award for his portrayal of Richard Nixon in the TV mini-series,
"The Final Days" in 1989. From there he went on to
appear in "My Cousin Vinny," "The Distinguished
Gentleman," and "The Mighty Ducks."
On
"Lois & Clark," Lane Smith played Daily Planet
Editor-In-Chief Perry White, who was always on hand to offer
his intrepid reporters some sound advice or words of encouragement,
usually in the form of a story about "The King."
One
of Lane's favorite "Lois & Clark" moments was
getting to impersonate Elvis in the episode "Pheromone,
My Lovely." "I think the most fun I've had so far
is the episode where everybody got sprayed with that stuff and
made everybody horny," Smith said in a 1994 Museum of Television
and Radio appearance. "The scene as it was written was
I was going to go over to my maid's house and stand outside
with a boom box playin' 'Burning Love,' and I said, no, no,
let me sing it. And they did, and we went over there and just
had a great time."
Since
then, Lane has appeared in films like "Why Do Fools Fall
In Love," "The Legend of Bagger Vance," and in
the TV movie version of "Inherit the Wind" with Jack
Lemmon and George C. Scott. He has also appeared on the popular
TV drama "The Practice," lent his voice to an episode
of the animated "King of the Hill," and guest starred
on "Judging Amy" (the series which gave "Smallville"
star Tom Welling his television debut).
Lane
Smith has also acted on stage, where his performances include
"Glengarry Glen Ross" and a starring role as Randall
McMurphy in a revival of "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest."
Sadly,
Lane Smith passed away in June 2005. He had suffered from ALS,
or Lou Gehrig's Disease.
Bio
written by Russ Dimino
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