Born on 22nd January in 1965, in New York, Diane Lane’s first brush with stardom came at the age of just 6 as she appeared on stage in “The Cherry Orchard” and “Medea”. It wasn’t long before the talented young Lane was noticed by Hollywood and in 1979 was cast opposite Sir Laurence Olivier in “A Little Romance”. Although “A Little Romance” was not a huge success the young Diane Lane won high praise from Olivier declaring her “The New Grace Kelly”.

Although praised by Olivier and finding herself being touted as the next major movie star by several magazines, Lane’s career for the most slumped for a few years as she appeared in such unmemorable movies as “National Lampoon’s Movie Madness” and “Six Pack”. But things picked up again when legendary director cast Diane Lane in his 1983 movies “Rumble Fish” and “The Outsiders” both of which have become cult classics.

Back on top after those early flops Diane Lane would then appear in two promising movies “Streets of Fire” and “The Cotton Club”, which was to be her first of 3 movies with Richard Gere. Although these movies were expected to be hits they never reached their critical peak on original release causing Diane Lane at the young age of just 19 to retire from the movie business. Ironically both of these movies have since become somewhat cult classics with “Streets of Fire” getting quite a surprisingly large following.

Despite retiring Diane Lane returned to movies a few years later for “Lady Beware” and the much praised “The Big Town” which saw Lane cast in one of what was to become many sexy roles. Although back making movies it would be the TV series “Lonesome Dove” which brought her back to the attention of the major directors which included Richard Attenborough who cast her in a small role in “Chaplin” and also Mike Bender who cast her in the seriously under-rated “Indian Summer” (1993). Around the same time Lane also co-starred in “Knight Moves” with her husband at the time Christopher Lambert.

Having once more made a name for herself Lane found herself co-starring in a series of relatively high profile movies including Sylvester Stallone’s “Judge Dredd” and alongside Wesley Snipes in “Murder at 1600”. But again whilst proving herself as a more than capable actress she still wasn’t the major movie star that early signs promised. And whilst she yet again won praise for her role in the 1999 independent movie “A Walk on the Moon” it would take another year before she really started to become a well known name as she appeared alongside George Clooney and Mark Wahlberg in “The Perfect Storm”.

21 years after being praised by Sir Laurence Olivier, Diane Lane was now the major movie star with movies such as “Under the Tuscan Sun”, “Must Love Dogs” and “Hollywoodland” amongst many continuing to win praise and fans in equal measures. And at the same time she would go on to make two more movies alongside Richard Gere, the tear jerker “Nights in Rodanthe” an adaptation of a Nicholas Sparks novel and probably Diane Lane’s most popular movie “Unfaithful” where she starred as an adulterous housewife.

What of Diane Lane now, well later on in 2010 “Secretariat” her first movie for 2 years will be released which sees her playing Penny Chenery the owner of the famous racehorse. And according to imdb she is also lined up to appear alongside Tim Robbins in “Cinema Verite” about the first American family to appear on reality TV.