lawrence dane's early life (up to 1959)

[miscellanium]

 [this is what i've managed to gather so far from various newspaper findings and other public records - it's entirely possible there's more comprehensive information out there in resources i haven't been able to access yet (toronto public library...let me in.......) but for the time being this is the best i can provide. some biographical basics were already covered here with a discussion of a relatively in-depth profile from 1960, and in my introduction post for him here, so will try not to re-tread those too much. if there's access issues with the newspaper.com links or other difficulties i can re-upload the news items elsewhere so please let me know if that's needed.]

 

dane’s talked about how he was encouraged to perform from an early age, and a news item from 1949 shows that his father, joseph michael zahab, was active in local societies while also running the family grocery store. with this level of community involvement it makes total sense that dane’s family would support him in local theater and the like. while joseph zahab et al were catholic - his funeral service and burial were on catholic grounds and multiple family members were associated with the same church or other catholic churches - this didn’t necessarily get in the way of business. mr. zahab was convicted and fined for selling soda on a sunday in 1940! 45 armstrong street was the address of the grocery store, so there’s no doubt here that this is dane’s father. i’ve yet to see any mention of familial disapproval of a given acting role, even after the sponsorship-pulling controversy with his first major role in “shadow of a pale horse”, and the consistent support isn’t surprising if mr. zahab was willing to violate a christian law for practical reasons lol.

 

(side note: there was at least one relative in this branch of the family who fought in world war ii and was held as a prisoner of war in 1942. joffre was a paternal uncle of dane’s - a son of his father's sister, per this 1926 obit for the sister. dane would have been only five years old or so, too young to really be aware, but it’s still interesting to think about the potential impact on his household. joffre survived the war, received decorations for his military service, and was buried in ottawa in 1982.)

 

with this family commitment to community engagement and the expectations for men at the time it naturally follows that dane would have been encouraged to do sports. there’s the football i addressed in that earlier post, but i also found that he played softball and was on a championship-winning team when he was 12! (reproducing this clipping below, link is just so you have the source newspaper)

 

 

hard to believe this little kid becomes over six feet tall in just a couple years omg. but he's already recognizable here with that smile....

 

the obituaries for dane’s father describe him as dying suddenly, but i wonder if he wasn’t already ailing some since in an interview promoting “only god knows” in 1974 there’s a passing mention of how dane quit high school at 16 to help run the family store. he would have been 16 in 1953, and his father died in 1954. it's possible that he didn't drop out until after his father died, since that was in january before he would have turned 17, but i have not yet found something that confirms whether he dropped out before or after the death. (that interview clip gives me rabies in a good way because the descriptions of him are incredible, lmfao, also because he says he hated being both actor and producer but then he turned around and did it again with “rituals” just a few years later…. and the anecdote about him falling asleep in a restaurant…. baby……. Anyway,)

 

supporting his family didn’t take all of his time, though, since he still found opportunities to stay involved with local stage acts. even if he dropped out of school he stayed connected enough to become manager of a group of singing high schoolers in 1955 while also playing football on championship-winning teams in 1954 and 1955. the 1960 profile mentions that he was president of a school community center as well.

 

in 1957 he lost an older brother. three years after his father died and on april 16 too, not long after his birthday. only 30 and a “long illness” - i wonder if it was some kind of cancer. theoretically possible that it was related to pancreatitis, since that can start in one’s twenties, but considering how much dane smoked i suspect that his own cancer diagnosis had little to do with inherited risk.

 

the 1960 profile says he started formally acting in 1958 and by 1959 there’s an independent record of him acting on stage - he’s not in either photo available on the theatre’s site but it looks like a wild production! hope he had fun. it also seems that one of his first screen roles was in a 1959 episode of "the unforeseen", which was apparently a canadian take on the twilight zone, but i haven’t yet been able to locate any copies of the episode in archives. it doesn’t seem as though LAC has it, since they list a handful of other episodes but not that one. (if i’m wrong pls lmk! i will also consider reaching out to the cbc again.)

at some point between 1957 and december 1959 he did manual labor in detroit for some extra income while starting his career as an actor, per the 1960 profile, though i haven't been able to identify any record of official border crossings. border control was a lot more lax back then, especially if it wasn't part of a formal immigration process. this part of his life hasn't come up in any later interviews with him that i've found, so most likely it was a short stint that didn't leave a lasting impression years down the line. maybe seasonal work of some kind?

 

then, of course, in 1960 he splashed onto the scene with his lead role as the young man accused of murder in “shadow of a pale horse”. his character, an irish immigrant to australia, is convicted of the murder and hanged. general motors considered the hanging scene so graphic for the time that they yanked their sponsorship for the production, but the cbc aired it anyway and launched dane's career. boosted by the public controversy surrounding that production as well as the praise for his acting, he got a bunch of roles on stage and screen before heading to england in 1963 and adopting the stage name of lawrence dane.

there is a lot to get into from this point on, including all the "pale horse"-related press and an interview with him where he directly addresses the change of name, but that’ll have to be saved for next time. i got copyright-holder permission to obtain a reproduction of “pale horse” but put off actually making the request since i knew i'd be moving very soon and didn’t want to risk mail getting lost in limbo. i have my new mailing address now, so once the dust settles i’ll reach out to LAC about reproductions. look forward to it!

 

Comments

[pendulumscale]

i cant remember what pale horse was about? is this the movie you're trying to hunt down?

[miscellanium]

pale horse is mentioned in the 1960 profile and in the macleans profile (linked at top of the second part of the rituals review) but i can update this post to have more information about it soon. didn't want to spend too much time on it if the eventual follow-up to this post is gonna focus on it!

it was a canadian production of an australian play. dane was cast as the character of jem, the young man at the center of the play. (idk why that wikipedia page doesn't mention the canadian version but whatever.) general motors was supposed to be the sponsor since it was part of a series called g.m. presents but they thought the execution scene where dane is convicted and hanged was too graphic and yanked their sponsorship. the cbc showed it anyway lol.

so, yes, it's one of the things i've been hunting down since it's basically his acting debut. very excited to eventually watch it!

[shadowbliss]

Okay, cool.