Sara Lane

Sara Lane's relatively brief fling with show biz began in 1966 when she was cast as the orphaned Wyoming frontier girl Elizabeth Grainger in the long-running NBC western series The Virginian (1962). Opposite her co-stars James Drury and Doug McClure, she went on to feature in some 105 episodes until the penultimate season concluded in 1970. Blonde and blue-eyed, she was born Susan Russell Lane in New York, the oldest of three siblings, to Broadway and screen actors Rusty Lane and Sara Anderson. As a nine months-old toddler, she appeared in an advertisement for a brand of soap and in an educational film about 'bathing babies'. The family later relocated to California where Sara attended Santa Monica High School, and, aged 12, made a TV commercial for vitamin pills. Producer/director William Castle noticed her picture in a newspaper covering her participation as a semi-finalist in a Miss Los Angeles Teen beauty contest. This led to a successful audition and a featured role (as one of two teenage telephone pranksters who get more than they bargained for) in the Joan Crawford thriller I Saw What You Did (1965). Sara's approach to acting as a profession was reticent. She persisted in order to, in her own words, earn enough money to keep "making clothes, making jewelry, and raising quarter horses" (she owned two). In 1966, she was signed by the future head of Universal TV, Frank Price, to play the female lead in season five of The Virginian. Her casting for the role was aided by her skills as an equestrian. In fact, her experience on horseback allowed her to perform many of her own stunts. In the mid-70s, Sara appeared (now billed as Russell Lane) in several low budget productions that are best forgotten. After retiring from film work in 1977, Sara and her husband were co-founders seven years later of the Havens Winery in Napa Valley, which, over time, acquired a solid reputation for producing red wine blends. In 2010, the business was acquired by the Smith-Anderson Wine Group. Susan Russell Lane died from breast cancer on March 3 2023 and was survived by her husband of 43 years Jon Scott and her two children.