Who

Broadway's top agent, George Lane heads up the New York office of Creative Artists Agency. He defected to CAA from William Morris in 2003.

Backstory

Manhattan-born Lane grew up in an adoptive family, and graduated from Hobart before working on Hugh Carey's 1976 gubernatorial campaign. He got his start in theater at the very bottom of the ladder—he took a job in the William Morris mailroom. Lane ended up spending 16 years with the company, and became the top agent in the theater department. In 2003, Creative Artists Agency bosses Richard Lovett and Bryan Lourd tapped Lane to head up the New York-based theater division of CAA. The reason behind the agent's decision to jump ship? Word is he left after William Morris chief Jim Wiatt wouldn't give him the $1 million salary he requested.

Of note

Lane's clients who moved with him to CAA include directors Joe Mantello, Sam Mendes, Robert Falls, Doug Hughes, and Michael Mayer, and writers Kenneth Lonergan, Martin Sherman, Eve Ensler, Douglas Carter Beane, and Eric Bogosian. But while virtually all his A-list clients have stayed with him, that doesn't mean he's always directed them to the right projects. Case in point: In 2006, he brought Julia Roberts to New York for her Broadway debut in Three Days of Rain, a drama written by Richard Greenberg and directed by Joe Mantello, both Lane clients. The show turned out to be a total debacle—the Times said Roberts' physicality on stage had "the unyielding stiffness of an industrial lamppost" and urged Greenberg fans to "definitely stay home."

In person

Lane is notorious for his short temper and bulldog personality; as producer Hal Luftig has observed, "no one describes George as warm and fuzzy." A Times profile noted that Lane's negotiating style "falls somewhere between tough and unbearable."

Personal

He's married to Suna Senman-Lane, a social worker who's active with the Unification Church. The couple lives in Chappaqua.