Lane Pryce
| Lane Pryce | |
|---|---|
| Mad Men character | |
Jared Harris as Lane Pryce.
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| First appearance | "Out of Town" (3.01) |
| Last appearance | "Commissions and Fees" (5.11) |
| Created by | Matthew Weiner |
| Portrayed by | Jared Harris |
| Information | |
| Family | Robert Pryce |
| Spouse(s) | Rebecca Pryce |
| Children | Nigel Pryce |
Lane Pryce is a fictional character in Mad Men, portrayed by Jared Harris.
A newcomer to the United States as of 1963, he initially acts as financial officer at Sterling Cooper, but eventually leaves, along with a handful of his co-workers, to form a new agency, Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce.
For his performance, Harris was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series in 2012.
Born circa May 10, 1916, Lane was raised by a strict and abusive father, himself a middle-class traveling salesman. In his adulthood, Lane served in World War II as a supply assistant in Rosyth, and married a woman named Rebecca, with whom he had a son named Nigel. He also worked for ad agency Putnam Powell and Lowe, where he was given the task of handling mergers and takeovers.
Lane is portrayed as being caught between two worlds: he enjoys his new life in the United States, but has trouble adapting to his adopted country's customs. He often appears stiff and reserved but does let his hair down on occasion, usually after enjoying a drink. He isn't particularly keen on football, though he successfully uses an outing to the pub for the 1966 World Cup Final to set up a potential account with Jaguar.
PPL sends Lane to Sterling Cooper, which the company had recently acquired, tasking him with trimming operating expenses. He begins by firing many employees, including long-time employee Burt Peterson, who was the head of accounts, and naming Pete Campbell and Ken Cosgrove as his joint successors. Lane angers Don and becomes isolated from the company when he expresses PPL's lack of interest in a potentially lucrative account with Madison Square Garden. Although he is initially unaware of PPL's plans for Sterling Cooper, he later learns that he has been instructed to cut overhead so that the company can be sold for a profit. Lane's superiors at PPL then transfer him to India - a plan that is aborted after his would-be replacement is injured in a freak accident.Roger Sterling, Bertram Cooper, and Don Draper convince him to join them in starting a new agency, making him a named partner in exchange for "firing" the three of them in order to void their contracts, which contain non-compete clauses that would have otherwise prohibited their continued work in advertising.
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