Known For
Acting
Born
Nov 10, 1889
Died
May 30, 1967
Place of Birth
Clapham, London, England, UK
Credits
86 titles
Claude Rains
Biography
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".
Known For
Filmography
Classic Movie Bloopers: Uncensored
Self (archive footage)
Famous Monster: Forrest J Ackerman
Self (archive footage)
The Opera Ghost: A Phantom Unmasked
Erique Claudin (archive footage)
Monster by Moonlight! The Immortal Saga of 'The Wolf Man'
Self (archive footage)
Ingrid Bergman Remembered
Self (archive footage)
Halloween Monster Bash
Maximus (archive footage)
James Stewart: A Wonderful Life
Self (archive footage)
Hollywood Out-takes and Rare Footage
Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
The Horror Show
(archive footage)
The Wolfman
Sir John Talbot
The Greatest Story Ever Told
King Herod
Twilight of Honor
Art Harper
Lawrence of Arabia
Mr. Dryden
Sam Benedict
Battle of the Worlds
Professor Benson
Dr. Kildare
Edward Fredericks
The Lost World
Prof. George Edward Challenger
This Earth Is Mine
Philippe Rambeau
Judgment at Nuremberg
Judge Dan Haywood
Rawhide
Alexander Longford
Naked City
John Winfield Weston
The Pied Piper of Hamelin
Mayor of Hamelin
On Borrowed Time
Mr. Brink
Playhouse 90
Judge Dan Haywood
Lisbon
Aristides Mavros
Alfred Hitchcock Presents
John Fabian
The Man Who Watched Trains Go By
Kees Popinga
Hallmark Hall of Fame
Mr. Brink
Sealed Cargo
Capt. Henrik Skalder
Where Danger Lives
Mr. Lannington
The White Tower
Paul Delambre
Song of Surrender
Elisha Hunt
Rope of Sand
Arthur 'Fred' Martingale
The Passionate Friends
Howard Justin
The Ed Sullivan Show
Self
The Unsuspected
Victor Grandison
Blow-Ups of 1946
Self
Deception
Alexander Hollenius
Angel on My Shoulder
"Nick"
Notorious
Alexander Sebastian
Caesar and Cleopatra
Julius Caesar
This Love of Ours
Joseph Targel
Strange Holiday
John Stevenson
Mr. Skeffington
Job Skeffington
Passage to Marseille
Captain Freycinet
Phantom of the Opera
Erique Claudin
Forever and a Day
Ambrose Pomfret
Casablanca
Captain Louis Renault
Breakdowns of 1942
Self
Now, Voyager
Dr. Jaquith