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Biography: Claude Rains

The son of British stage actor Frederick Rains, Claude Rains gave his first theatrical performance at age 11 in Nell of Old Drury. He learned the technical end of the business by working his way up from being a two-dollars-a-week page boy to stage manager. After making his first U.S. appearance in 1913, Rains returned to England, served in the Scottish regiment during WWI, then established himself as a leading actor in the postwar years. He was also featured in one obscure British silent film, Build Thy House. During the 1920s, Rains was a member of the teaching staff at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art; among his pupils were a young sprout named Laurence Olivier and a lovely lass named Isabel Jeans, who became the first of Rains' six wives. While performing with the Theatre Guild in New York in 1932, Rains filmed a screen test for Universal Pictures. On the basis of his voice alone, the actor was engaged by Universal director James Whale to make his talking-picture debut in the title role of The Invisible Man (1933). During his subsequent years at Warner Bros., the mellifluous-voiced Rains became one of the studio's busiest and most versatile character players, at his best when playing cultured villains. Though surprisingly never a recipient of an Academy award, Rains was Oscar-nominated for his performances as the "bought" Senator Paine in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), the title character in Mr. Skeffington (1944), the Nazi husband of Ingrid Bergman in Notorious (1946), and, best of all, the cheerfully corrupt Inspector Renault in Casablanca (1942). In 1946, Rains became one of the first film actors to demand and receive one million dollars for a single picture; the role was Julius Caesar, and the picture Caesar and Cleopatra. He made a triumphant return to Broadway in 1951's Darkness at Noon. In his last two decades, Claude Rains made occasional forays into television (notably on Alfred Hitchcock Presents) and continued to play choice character roles in big-budget films like Lawrence of Arabia (1962) and The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide less

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Strange Holiday (1945)
Tags: Political Drama Drama
Length: 61min
In many ways, the history of the cautionary fable Strange Holiday is more fascinating than the film itself. Written and directed by radio's Arch Oboler (of "Lights Out" fame), the story concerns American businessman John Stephenson (Claude Rains), who...
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Forever and a Day (1943)
Cast: Ida Lupino
Tags: Period Film Ensemble Film Drama
Length: 106min
The 80-star cast of Forever and a Day would certainly not have been feasible had not most of the actors and production people turned over their salaries to British war relief -- a point driven home during the lengthy opening credits by an unseen...
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Passage to Marseille (1944)
Cast: Peter Lorre
Tags: Escape Film War Drama Drama War
Length: 110min
Designed as a followup to the enormously successful Casablanca, Passage to Marseille utilizes the talents of many of the on- and off-screen personnel of the earlier Warner Bros. classic. Unfolded in a complex flashback-within-flashback structure, this...
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Mr. Skeffington (1944)
Cast: Bette Davis Jack L. Warner
Tags: Drama Romantic Drama Marriage Drama
Length: 147min
From a novel of the same name by "Elizabeth", the film begins in 1914, with Bette Davis cast as vain, flighty society woman Fanny Trellis. Informed by Jewish-American financier Job Skeffington (Claude Rains) that her brother Trippy (Richard Waring)...
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Now, Voyager (1942)
Tags: Romance Melodrama Romantic Drama
Length: 117min
Olive Higgins Prouty's popular novel was transformed into nearly two hours of high-grade soap opera by several masters of the trade: Warner Bros., Bette Davis, Paul Henreid, director Irving Rapper, and screenwriter Casey Robinson. Davis plays...
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The Phantom of the Opera (1943)
Tags: Drama Melodrama Period Film Musical Drama
Length: 92min
This Technicolor retelling of the Gaston Leroux "grand guignol" classic The Phantom of the Opera has a little more opera than phantom, but that's because the stars are soprano Susannah Foster and tenor Nelson Eddy. Claude Rains carries the acting...
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The Wolf Man (1941)
Cast: Warren William Bela Lugosi
Tags: Creature Film Horror
Length: 70min
"Even a man who is pure at heart/And says his prayers by night/May become a wolf when the wolf-bane blooms/And the moon is full and bright." Upon first hearing these words, Larry Talbot (Lon Chaney) dismisses them as childish folderol. After all, this...
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Casablanca (1942)
Cast: Michael Curtiz Humphrey Bogart Ingrid Bergman Conrad Veidt
Tags: War Romance Romance Romantic Drama Drama
Length: 102min
One of the most beloved American films, this captivating wartime adventure of omance and intrigue from director Michael Curtiz defies standard categorization. Simply put, it is the story of Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart), a world-weary ex-freedom...
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Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941)
Cast: Edward Everett Horton
Tags: Heaven-Can-Wait Fantasies Fantasy Comedy Heavenly Comedy Romantic Comedy
Length: 94min
Robert Montgomery plays saxophone-playing boxer Joe Pendleton, who insists upon piloting his own plane, much to the consternation of his manager Max Corkle (James Gleason). Just before a championship bout, Joe's plane crashes. When he revives, he...
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Moontide (1942)
Cast: Fritz Lang Jean Gabin Claude Rains
Tags: Melodrama Crime Drama Drama
Length: 94min
Forced to flee Paris during the Occupation, the great French leading man Jean Gabin starred in a brace of Hollywood films, the best of which was the first, 20th Century-Fox's Moontide. Cast to type, Gabin plays Bobo, a brooding itinerant dock-worker...
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Claude Rains

Biography: Claude Rains

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