Lane Pryce
Portrayed by	Jared Harris
First appearance	Out of Town
Final appearance	Commissions and Fees
Details
Gender	Male
Occupation	Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce Partner
Residence	New York City
Relations
Wife	Rebecca Pryce
Parent(s)	Robert Pryce
Child(ren)	Nigel

Lane Pryce worked for Puttnam, Powell, and Lowe and had been sent to Sterling Cooper as financial officer.^[1]

Early History

Lane had been raised in a strict London household (mostly under his father). In his adult years, he met the girl of his dreams and eventually married her. She later gave birth to their son.

At some point he earned a degree in advertising and landed a job at Puttnam, Powell, and Lowe. While there, he became their go-to man to handle recent mergers and takeovers.

He invested in SCDP agency heavily and was a partner.

But with no bonuses for 3 years, Lane got into debt and stole company money by forging Don Drapers signature on checks.

Don found out and asked him about it. When Lane confessed to stealing the money, Don fired him.

Lane took the confrontation badly and that weekend tried to commit suicide in the new Jaguar his wife bought for him the same day.

His attempt failed, so he went to the Madison Avenue offices at night and hanged himself.

His corpse was later found by his co-workers and Don and a few others cut him down.

No-one knew what had happened and Don didn't tell anyone that he had had words with Lane before his suicide.

Sterling Cooper

When Puttnam, Powell, and Lowe purchased Sterling Cooper, Lane was sent to be financial officer in New York City.

A New Company

Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce was formed in December 1963 when it became clear that McCann Erickson was going to purchase Puttnam, Powell, and Lowe. After the merger would occur, Lane was slated to be sent to India. Lane was convinced to free Don Draper, Bertram Cooper, and Roger Sterling from their employment contracts to start a new advertising agency.

After being fired, they began to collect their portfolios to convince the companies to move to their new firm. They were able to convince Pete Campbell, Peggy Olson, Harry Crane and Joan Harris to join the new firm.^[2]

After Don discovered that Lane had been both embezzling from the company and forging Don's signature, Lane was forced to resign. With no idea what to tell his family or what he would do afterward, Lane hung himself in his office and left a boilerplate letter of resignation for the some of the senior staff to find.^[3]

References