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Claude Rains

Claude Rains

Actor · 1889 – 1967 · Clapham, London, England, UK

Claude Rains (November 10, 1889 – May 30, 1967) 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 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".

Movies24

  • Movie8.0

    Lawrence of Arabia

    1962 · 3.6K votes

  • Movie8.1

    Casablanca

    1943 · 6.2K votes

  • Movie7.5
  • Movie6.2

    Phantom of the Opera

    1943 · 224 votes

  • Movie7.7

    Notorious

    1946 · 1.8K votes

  • Movie7.8
  • Movie7.5

    The Invisible Man

    1933 · 987 votes

  • Movie6.4
  • Movie7.0

    The Wolf Man

    1941 · 697 votes

  • Movie6.2

    Caesar and Cleopatra

    1945 · 59 votes

  • Movie6.8

    Mr. Skeffington

    1944 · 74 votes

  • Movie7.2

    The Sea Hawk

    1940 · 161 votes

  • Movie7.0

    Here Comes Mr. Jordan

    1941 · 125 votes

  • Movie5.8

    The Lost World

    1960 · 117 votes

  • Movie7.4

    Now, Voyager

    1942 · 238 votes

  • Movie6.8

    The Passionate Friends

    1949 · 63 votes

  • Movie6.6

    This Earth Is Mine

    1959 · 8 votes

  • Movie6.7

    The Unsuspected

    1947 · 60 votes

  • Movie6.3

    They Made Me a Criminal

    1939 · 40 votes

  • Movie6.8
  • Movie6.7

    Deception

    1946 · 50 votes

  • Movie6.5

    Juarez

    1939 · 25 votes

  • Movie5.8

    Rope of Sand

    1949 · 36 votes

  • Movie7.5

    Forever and a Day

    1943 · 12 votes

Series8

  • TV5.7

    Dr. Kildare

    1961 · 19 votes

  • TV5.7

    Naked City

    1958 · 13 votes

  • TV7.8

    Alfred Hitchcock Presents

    1955 · 266 votes

  • TV7.2

    Rawhide

    1959 · 49 votes

  • TV6.8

    The Ed Sullivan Show

    1948 · 23 votes

  • TV6.7

    Sam Benedict

    1962 · 3 votes

  • TV7.5

    Playhouse 90

    1956 · 10 votes

  • TV8.8

    Hallmark Hall of Fame

    1951 · 8 votes