Karl Dane

Trivia

• Karl was also an auto racer and an aviator, being one of the first Danish aviators with the Danish Flying Corps.
• Before being in movies Dane worked as a carpenter.
• He and George K. Arthur formed the early comedy team of "Arthur and Dane."
• Biography in: "Who's Who in Comedy" by Ronald L. Smith. pg. 28-29 (article titled 'Arthur and Dane'). New York: Facts on File, 1992.
• Lived with Russian dancer/actress Thais Valdemar for several months in 1928. Though they told people they were married, in reality they never wed. In December 1928, after their split, she filed a lawsuit against him for $75,000 claiming breach of promise.
• Following his suicide with a gun in 1934, fellow Danish actor and MGM star Jean Hersholt, concerned that Dane would be placed in a pauper's grave, insisted that MGM step in and give him a proper burial. They did and he is interred in Hollywood Memorial cemetery. Hersholt and actor/former "Big Parade" co-star Tom O'Brien served as pallbearers.
• A noted animal lover, he rescued two dogs following the making of his movie The Trail of '98 (1928).
• The son of a Danish glove maker, he had an older brother (by a year), Reinald Marius Gottlieb. His parents divorced in 1903. He and his brother apprenticed as machinists for a railroad equipment company during their teens.
• Was involved in Children's Theater, or "Dukketeater" (doll theatre) in his early career, which was instigated by his father's love for Toy Theatre, a popular art form throughout Europe during the Victorian era.
• Quite athletic in his youth, he was an excellent swimmer, bicyclist and horseman. In his early years in Hollywood he was a sometime stunt man.