Singer and actress Rosemary Lane was one of three talented sisters who graced Hollywood from the late 1920s to the mid-1940s. Though younger sibling Priscilla Lane achieved the most success on the silver screen and older sister Lola Lane had a longer career, Rosemary made her mark playing dramatic roles opposite Humphrey Bogart and James Cagney. Rosemary was also a competent vocalist who, along with Priscilla, appeared as a member of Fred Waring's Glee Club during the 1930s.
Growing up in Indianola, Iowa, Lane and her sisters were encouraged to sing and perform by their mother. When Priscilla moved to New York in 1931 to attend the Fagen School of Dramatics, Rosemary and her mother followed. Together the two young girls began to audition for various Broadway shows. One day in 1933, while they were singing at a music publishing house, they were heard by Fred Waring, who offered them a contract. They accepted and soon became featured vocalists with Waring's orchestra, with sister Lola briefly joining them.
When Waring's group was offered a spot in the 1937 Hollywood musical Varsity Girl, both Lane sisters landed top acting roles in the film. Audiences approved of the two young girls, and in 1938 Warner Brothers bought out their contracts from Waring and they were quickly put to work. Rosemary went on to appear in more than 20 films over the next eight years. Ill health forced her to retire in the mid-1940s.
Rosemary also appeared in the Broadway production Best Foot Forward and was for a time married to makeup artist Bud Westmore. Rosemary Lane passed away in 1974 from pulmonary obstruction and complications related to diabetes.