Joseph Stephen Crane

Joseph Stephen "Steve" Crane (February 7, 1916 – February 6, 1985) was an American actor and restaurateur. A Columbia Pictures actor in the early 1940s, Crane opened the Luau, a popular celebrity restaurant, in 1953 and established a successful 25-year career in the restaurant industry. In addition to his own accomplishments, Crane is often remembered as Lana Turner's ex-husband.

Born Joseph Stephenson Crane in Crawfordsville, Indiana, he was the son of William E. and Katheryn Stephenson Crane. The Crane family was well known in Crawfordsville due to their business, the Stephenson Crane Cigar Store.

In Crawfordsville, Crane was known to family and friends as "Joe". Active in drama and debate, Crane graduated from Crawfordsville High School in 1933. Crane was voted "Most Attractive" by his peers his senior year. Following high school, Crane enrolled in Wabash College, a men's liberal arts college in Crawfordsville. A member of the fraternity Sigma Chi and the dramatic theater Scarlet Masque, Crane graduated with a B.A. in Business in 1937.

Joe Crane and his younger brother, Billy, were on a trip to Mexico City when they decided to visit Hollywood on a whim in the summer of 1937. Crane briefly married Indianapolis native, Carol Ann Kurtz, and managed the family cigar store, but after separating from Kurtz, decided to take his chances in Hollywood in 1939.

Now known as Stephen, the young Indiana native began his brief film career in 1944. Signed to Columbia Pictures, Crane was cast in the B-picture The Cry of the Werewolf. Starring alongside Nina Foch and Osa Massen, Crane starred as a scientist who discovers his father has been killed by a werewolf. The Crime Doctor's Courage (1945) proved to be another murder mystery B-picture. Crane's third and final film appearance was in Tonight and Every Night (1945). Starring Rita Hayworth and Lee Bowman, this World War II musical was nominated for two Academy Awards in 1946. Crane had several lines and walk-on appearances as character Leslie Wiggins, a friend of Bowman's character.

Although he had successfully been involved in local Crawfordsville plays in his youth, Crane was the first to admit that his acting skills were less than par. In 1967, Crane would reflect, "To be honest, I was a very poor actor". Crane's daughter suggests that the abrupt end to her father's acting career may be attributed to his attraction to a Polish ballerina, who turned out to be Columbia Pictures President Harry Cohn's girlfriend.