Charles Lane

An unusual effort in that it was silent as well as black and white, it paid overt homage to the great silent comics of yore and garnered critical acclaim for its sensitive, Chaplinesque portrayal of a homeless man who cares for an abandoned little girl. Lane followed up with the decidedly more expensive and mainstream comedy "True Identity" (1991), based on an Eddie Murphy "Saturday Night Live" sketch about a black actor who disguises himself …