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Claude Rains

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Claude Rains (November 10, 1889 - May 30, 1967) was a British, and later American, theatre and film actor, best known for his many roles in Hollywood films.

Claude Rains
File:Crains.jpg
Claude Rains in Casablanca (1942)
Born
William Claude Rains

Life

Rains was born William Claude Rains (known as 'Willie') in Camberwell, London on November 10, 1889. He grew up with, according to his daughter, "a very serious cockney accent and a speech impediment".[1] His acting talents were recognized by Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree, founder of The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, and Tree paid for the elocution lessons that he needed to succeed as an actor. Later, Rains taught at the institution, working with John Gielgud and Laurence Olivier, among others.

Rains served in the First World War; he was involved in a gas attack that left him almost blind in one eye for the rest of his life. However, the war did aid his social advancement, and by its end he had risen from the rank of private to that of captain.

Having made his name in the theatre, Rains came late to film acting. His first screen test was a failure, but his voice won him the title role in James Whale's The Invisible Man (1933) when someone accidentally overheard his screen test being played in the next room.[2] Rains later credited the director Michael Curtiz with teaching him the more understated requirements of film acting, or, "what not to do in front of a camera".[3]

In 1939, Rains became a naturalized citizen of the United States. He married six times: to Isabel Jeans (1913 - 1915); Marie Hemingway (1920 - 1920); Beatriz Thomas (1924 - 8 April 1935); Frances Propper (9 April 1935 - 1956); Agi Jambor (4 November 1959 - 1960); and to Rosemary Clark Schrode (1960 - 31 December 1964) (her death). He acquired a 380-acre farm in Pennsylvania, and spent much of his time between takes reading up on agricultural techniques. He eventually sold the farm when his marriage to Frances Propper ended in 1956.

Following The Invisible Man, Universal Studios tried to typecast him in horror films, but he broke free with his Academy Award-nominated role as the conflicted corrupt senator in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), and followed that with probably his most famous role, the French policeman Captain Renault in Casablanca (1942).

File:Rainsphantom.JPG
Claude Rains in Phantom of the Opera.

In 1945, Rains became the first actor to receive a million dollar salary for his role as Julius Caesar in Caesar and Cleopatra.

In 1951, Rains won a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play for Darkness at Noon.

Onscreen, Rains remained a popular character actor in the '50s and '60s, continuing to appear in many films. Two of his more well-known later screen roles were in Lawrence of Arabia (1962), where he played Dryden, a cynical British diplomat, and The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965), where he was King Herod. The latter was his final film role.

Rains died from an internal haemorrhage, in Laconia, New Hampshire. He was 77 and is interred in the Red Hill Cemetery, Moultonborough, New Hampshire.

He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, at 6400 Hollywood Boulevard. In 1975, both Rains, and his memorable role as the Invisible Man was referenced in the opening song to the cult film The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Academy Award nominations

Filmography


Notes

  1. ^ Harmetz p. 147.
  2. ^ Harmetz p. 147.
  3. ^ Harmetz p. 190.

References

  • Harmetz, Aljean. Round Up the Usual Suspects: The Making of "Casablanca". Orion Publishing Co, 1993.
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