Lane's formidable size (height 6'8" or 2.03 m, weight 275 lbs or 125 kg) led him to work in the King Bros. Circus boxing tent and wrestling tent where he would take on all comers. He also wrestled professionally under the name "Tarzan Mike" in 1952–1959.
On November 25, 1958, in the episode "The Hunted" of the ABC/Warner Brothers western series Sugarfoot, starring Will Hutchins in the title role, Lane plays a former soldier, John Allman, who has become mentally unbalanced as a result of the terror of an Apache attack on his United States Army unit. Despite the efforts of a sympathetic Sugarfoot, Allman engages in bank robbery and murder and is tracked down by an impatient posse led by Clay Calhoun (R.G. Armstrong). Francis De Sales appears as Major Sterling in the episode, which is based on a story in True West Magazine.
