American citizen on 13 July 1928 and legally changed his name to Karl Dane. Marriages and relationships Dane's first marriage was to Carla Dagmar Hagen. The couple married 10 September 1910 at Saint Paul's Church in Copenhagen. Dane's only living children were born during this union; son Ejlert Carl, in 1911 and daughter Ingeborg Helene in 1912. When Dane immigrated to the US, in 1916, he intended to send for his family later. However, by the time his career became successful, Dane had begun to lose touch with his family. Carla no longer wanted to join him, as she was suffering from ill health. The pair separated in 1918 and divorced in 1919. In early 1921, Dane met Swedish immigrant Helen Benson. It was then he quit films and moved to Van Nuys. The couple married on 15 June 1921. Benson died in childbirth 9 August 1923, as did the couple's daughter. Unable to cope with the loss of his wife and daughter, Dane rushed into a marriage with telephone operator supervisor Emma Awilda Peabody Sawyer, seven years his senior. The couple married on 8 March 1924, and separated on 30 September 1924. In June 1928, Dane reportedly fell in love with a Russian dancer, Thais Valdemar. The couple began dating and eventually claimed to be married though they indeed never were (many sources incorrectly state that she was his legal wife). The couple lived together at Dane's Beverly Hills home, until November 1928, when Valdemar moved out. By December, she filed a breach of promise suit against Dane for $75,000, but the case was ultimately dropped in 1929. Later years and death By the summer of 1933, Dane had given up on his film career and made a second attempt at mining. He spent three months driving up and down the West Coast trying to find a good mining deal. In September 1933, Dane lost $1,100 on a mining deal that failed to gain traction and advance. Deeply depressed by this lack of success, Dane subsequently worked as a mechanic and as a carpenter, but he was unable to stay employed for an extended period. In 1933, Dane began working as a waiter in a "tiny cafe" in Westwood, Los Angeles. According to Dane's biographer, Laura Petersen Balough, oft-told accounts that Dane "bought stake in a hot dog stand outside the gates of MGM Studios" which was supposedly shunned