Claude Rains
William Claude Rains (born November 10, 1889 in London , England , † May 30, 1967 in Laconia , New Hampshire ) was a British theater and film actor. After the title role in the horror film The Invisible (1933), he was one of Hollywood's most recognized supporting actors over the next few decades. Often used in intelligent and charming villain roles, he was nominated four times for an Oscar . He became world famous as Captain Renault in Casablanca (1942), Rains also played in other classics such as The Adventures of Robin Hood , Mr. Smith Goes to Washington , Notorious and Lawrence of Arabia .
Live and act
From child actor to recognized actor
Claude Rains was born the son of director and actor Frederick William Rains. Herbert Beerbohm Tree encouraged him and, among other things, made sure that he improved his pronunciation. He began his acting career at the age of eleven in London. As a child actor he played there at His Majesty's Theater ; In 1912 he went on tour to the United States. From 1915 to 1919 Rains served with the London Scottish Regiment, in which other actors such as Basil Rathbone also served. Because of the consequences of a gas attack, he remained almost blind in one eye all his life. After the First World War, he took up a teaching position at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts and made his first film appearance in a British film in 1920, which, however, initially remained an isolated case. He also worked as a drama teacher during this time, with Laurence Olivier and John Gielgud among his students .
In the mid-1920s, Rains became a member of the New York Theater Guild. He worked permanently in the United States from 1926 and became a US citizen in 1938. In December 1926 he could be seen for the first time on Broadway, on which he participated in a total of 18 productions until 1956.
Hollywood career
Claude Rains made his American film debut in 1933 in the leading role of Dr. Jack Griffin in James Whale's H.G. Wells film adaptation of The Invisible Man , when he was 44 years old. His face can only be seen for a few seconds in the film, so that he could concentrate fully on his modulatable voice, which has become his trademark. After his stage work in the 1930s and 1940s, Rains developed into a sought-after character actor in film. The slender actor was often used as a villain, with his characters mostly being characterized by intelligence, cunning and a certain charm.
From 1936 he was under contract with Warner Brothers . Among other things, he played the power-hungry Prince John in the successful Technicolor adventure film Robin Hood, King of the Vagabonds with Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland in 1938 and, the following year, a corrupt, guilty US senator in Frank Capra's political satire Mr. Smith Goes to Washington . Perhaps his best-known role was as Captain Renault in Michael Curtiz 's cult film Casablanca (1942) in 1942, for which he received his third Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. In the role of the bribable and charming police prefect, he uttered the famous phrase "Round Up The Usual Suspects!", Which became a popular phrase in German as "Arrest the usual suspects!" From the late 1930s onwards, Rains was also cast several times alongside Bette Davis , for example in Juarez (1939), Journey from the Past (1942), The Life of Mrs. Skeffington (1944) and Deceptive Passion (1946). The two were also close friends in private.
Occasionally Rains also took on leading roles, such as the title role in The Phantom of the Opera and as Roman Emperor Caesar in the British film Caesar and Cleopatra alongside Vivien Leigh as Cleopatra. In 1946 he played the role of the Nazi sympathizer and mother's boy Alexander Sebastian in Alfred Hitchcock's thriller Notorious , who wanted to poison his wife ( Ingrid Bergman ) when she turned out to be an American spy. In the 1950s, Rains was seen less often in the cinema, he often had guest roles in various television programs. In 1951 he won a Tony Award for Best Actor in the play Darkness at Noon (1951). Rains had his last major film appearance in the epic Lawrence of Arabia (1961), in which he played the British diplomat Mr. Dryden in a supporting role. He had his last film role as King Herod in The Greatest Story Of All Time (1963).
Claude Rains was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his cinematic work . He was nominated four times for an Oscar for best supporting actor, but never won the trophy.
Private life
The actor was married six times. His first marriage to actress Isabel Jeans lasted from 1913 to 1915. In 1920 he married Marie Hemingway. From 1924 to 1935 he was married to Beatrix Thomson and from April 1935 to 1956 with Frances Proper. His marriage to the classical pianist Agi Jambor lasted only from 1959 to 1960. Rosemary Clark Schrode, his last wife, was taken from him by death in 1964. His only daughter, the actress Jessica Rains (* 1938), comes from his fourth marriage. A remarkable episode concerning his many wives occurred in the mid-1920s when he appeared in the play The Rivals not only with his then current wife Beatrix Thomson, but also with his ex-wives Isabel Jeans and Marie Hemingway.
Claude Rains owned a farm in Coatesville for many years , where he also farmed in his spare time. He spent his final years in Sandwich, New Hampshire . He died of an abdominal haemorrhage on May 30, 1967 at the age of 77 and was buried in Red Hill Cemetery , New Hampshire.
Filmography (selection)
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Awards
- 1940: Oscar nomination for best supporting actor for Mr. Smith goes to Washington
- 1944: Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor for Casablanca
- 1945: Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor for The Life of Mrs. Skeffington
- 1947: Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor for Notorious
- 1951: Tony Award for Best Actor for Darkness at Noon
- 1960: Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (Film category)
literature
- David J. Skal, Jessica Rains: Claude Rains: An Actor's Voice (2010)
Web links
- Claude Rains in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Literature by and about Claude Rains in the catalog of the German National Library
Individual evidence
- ^ The Broadway League: Claude Rains - IBDB: The official source for Broadway Information. In: ibdb.com. May 30, 1967. Retrieved January 1, 2015 .
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wsgpF-InEY
- ^ David J. Skal: Claude Rains. University Press of Kentucky, 2009, ISBN 9780813138855 , p. 38. Limited preview in Google Book Search
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Rains, Claude |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Rains, William Claude (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | English-American actor |
| DATE OF BIRTH | November 10, 1889 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | London , England, UK |
| DATE OF DEATH | May 30, 1967 |
| Place of death | Laconia , New Hampshire, United States |