The interview would be difficult for actress Diane Lane. She was booked as a guest on the Charlie Rose show to promote her latest movie. The show had been one of her father’s favorite programs, and he had passed away only a few months earlier. She couldn’t help but get emotional.
Diane’s father, Burt, had raised her alone since Diane was six, and they were close. “Like Siamese twins,” Burt once said. Living in residential hotels in Manhattan, Burt drove a taxicab to keep them afloat, and Diane liked to ride with him in the front seat as he picked up fares.
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He got her into acting in Off-Off- Broadway plays because, as he put it, “it was just better than day care.” Diane would wait for him after school or rehearsals, looking out for the yellow cab with his medallion number on top, 6F99.
“Or I would play hooky and be afraid I’d see it,” Diane told O magazine. Her dad sold the cab around the time Diane was 16, but the number stayed with her, indelibly linked to her dad.
Diane and her father grew apart during her late teens, when her acting career took off and she asserted her independence. But they had long since reconciled when Burt called to brace her for some tough news.
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“How strong are you?” he asked. He’d been diagnosed with cancer, and it was aggressive. Within five months, he was gone.
Diane tried to keep her emotions in check as a car took her to the studio for Charlie Rose. Stepping out at 59th and Lexington, Diane noticed a yellow cab at the curb, just about to pull away. The medallion number on top lit up: 6F99. She was ready for Charlie Rose.
