Claude Rains

Known for ActingBorn 1889-11-10Died 1967-05-30Clapham, London, England, UK

Claude Rains was an English stage and film actor whose career spanned 47 years; he later held American citizenship. He was known for many roles in Hollywood films, among them the title role in The Invisible Man (1933), a corrupt senator in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), and, perhaps his most famous performance, Captain Renault in Casablanca (1942). Rains was born William Claude Rains in Camberwell, London on November 10, 1889. He grew up, according to his daughter, with "a very serious cockney accent and a speech impediment". His father was British stage actor Frederick Rains, and the young Rains made his stage debut at 11 in Nell of Old Drury. His acting talents were recognised by Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree, founder of The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Tree paid for the elocution lessons Rains needed in order to succeed as an actor. Later, Rains taught at the institution, teaching John Gielgud and Laurence Olivier, among others. Rains served in the First World War in the London Scottish Regiment, with fellow actors Basil Rathbone, Ronald Colman and Herbert Marshall. Rains was involved in a gas attack that left him nearly 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 Captain. Rains began his career in the London theatre, having a success in the title role of John Drinkwater's play Ulysses S. Grant, the follow-up to the playwright's major hit Abraham Lincoln, and traveled to Broadway in the late 1920s to act in leading roles in such plays as Shaw's The Apple Cart and in the dramatizations of The Constant Nymph, and Pearl S. Buck's novel The Good Earth, as a Chinese farmer. Rains came relatively late to film acting and his first screen test was a failure, but his distinctive 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. Rains later credited director Michael Curtiz with teaching him the more understated requirements of film acting, or "what not to do in front of a camera".Read more

Movies & web series

Famous Monster: Forrest J Ackerman

Hallmark Hall of Fame

The Opera Ghost: A Phantom Unmasked

Lawrence of Arabia

Casablanca

The Wolfman

Alfred Hitchcock Presents

Monster by Moonlight! The Immortal Saga of 'The Wolf Man'

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

Notorious

Playhouse 90

Forever and a Day

The Adventures of Robin Hood

The Invisible Man

Now, Voyager

Hollywood Out-takes and Rare Footage

Rawhide

Kings Row

Ingrid Bergman Remembered

The Sea Hawk

Song of Surrender

The Wolf Man

Here Comes Mr. Jordan

Breakdowns of 1941

The Passionate Friends

James Stewart: A Wonderful Life

Gold Is Where You Find It

The Ed Sullivan Show

Saturday's Children

Sam Benedict

Strange Holiday

Lady with Red Hair

Four Mothers

Mr. Skeffington

Build Thy House

The Prince and the Pauper

This Earth Is Mine

The Unsuspected

Deception

Twilight of Honor

Sealed Cargo

The Greatest Story Ever Told

Passage to Marseille

The Making of a Great Motion Picture

Lisbon

Four Daughters

Angel on My Shoulder

Where Danger Lives