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Wasn’t this guy in Howie’s death pool? Charles Lane will not be down for breakfast.

SANTA MONICA, Calif. — Charles Lane, the prolific character actor whose name was little known, but whose bespectacled face and crotchety persona made him instantly recognizable to generations of movie-goers, has died, his son said Tuesday. He was 102.

The actor’s son, Tom Lane, said he was talking with his father Monday evening. “He was lying in bed with his eyes real wide open,” the younger Lane said. “Then he closed his eyes and stopped breathing.”

Lane, whose career spanned more than 60 years, appeared in such film classics as “It’s a Wonderful Life,” “Mr. Deeds Goes to Town” and “Twentieth Century.”

He also had a recurring role as the scheming railroad man, Homer Beadle, on the 1960s TV sitcom “Petticoat Junction” and appeared often on television’s “I Love Lucy.”