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Claude Rains

Claude Rains

Birthday: 1889-11-10 | Place of Birth: Clapham, London, England, UK

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

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Known For

Acting

Year
Title

Role

2002
Lawrence of Arabia

as    Mr. Dryden

1961
Battle of the Worlds

as    Professor Benson

1960
The Lost World

as    Prof. George Edward Challenger

1956
Lisbon

as    Aristides Mavros

1951
Sealed Cargo

as    Capt. Henrik Skalder

1950
Where Danger Lives

as    Frederick Lannington

1950
The White Tower

as    Paul Delambre

1949
Rope of Sand

as    Arthur 'Fred' Martingale

1949
Song of Surrender

as    Elisha Hunt

1949
The Passionate Friends

as    Howard Justin

1947
The Unsuspected

as    Victor Grandison

1946
Deception

as    Alexander Hollenius

1946
Notorious

as    Alexander Sebastian

1946
Caesar and Cleopatra

as    Julius Caesar

1946
Angel on My Shoulder

as    Nick

1945
Strange Holiday

as    John Stevenson

1944
Passage to Marseille

as    Captain Freycinet

1944
Mr. Skeffington

as    Job Skeffington

1943
Casablanca

as    Captain Louis Renault

1943
Phantom of the Opera

as    Erique Claudin

1942
Kings Row

as    Alexander Tower

1942
Now, Voyager

as    Dr. Jaquith

1942
Moontide

as    Nutsy

1941
Four Mothers

as    Adam Lemp

1941
Here Comes Mr. Jordan

as    Mr. Jordan

1941
The Wolf Man

as    Sir John Talbot

1940
The Sea Hawk

as    Don José Alvarez de Cordoba

1940
Saturday's Children

as    Mr. Henry Halevy

1939
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

as    Joseph Paine