Lane was born as Tommy Lee Jones on December 17, 1937.[1][2]
His career started when he appeared in several episodes of NBC series Flipper in mid-1960s.
He was best remembered by roles in Shaft and Live and Let Die. In Shaft he played a gangster named Leroy, employed by Harlem crime boss Bumpy, who attacks the title character, only to be defeated and thrown through a window.
His Live and Let Die role as Adam earned the character 90th place in a group of 104 James Bond villains as rated by Esquire.[3][4]
He played a guy known as 44 in Ossie Davis’ Cotton Comes to Harlem[5] and also appeared in such films as Ganja & Hess, Shamus with Burt Reynolds and Eureka (1983).[6] On TV, he appeared in 1980s series Simon & Simon.
Lane also had a career as a jazz musician in the 1980s. He played trumpet and flugelhorn at New York City's Blue Note.[1]
Lane died after a long battle with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease on November 29, 2021, at the age of 83.[7][8] His survivors include wife Raquel Bastias-Lane, seven children and a stepson, and several grandchildren and great-grandchildren.[5]
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