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{{Short description|British-American actor (1889–1967)}}
{{for|the Heroes character|Claude (Heroes)}}
{{For|the ''Heroes'' character|Claude (Heroes)}}
{{Infobox actor
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2020}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Claude Rains
| name = Claude Rains
| image = Claude Rains in Mr Skeffington trailer headcrop.jpg
| image = Claude Rains in Now Voyager trailer.jpg
| alt = <!-- descriptive text for use by speech synthesis (text-to-speech) software -->
| imagesize = 195px
| caption = in the ''[[Mr. Skeffington]]'' trailer ({{fy|1944}})
| caption = Rains in ''[[Now, Voyager]]'' (1942)
| birthname = William Claude Rains
| birth_name = William Claude Rains
| birthdate = {{birth date|1889|11|10|df=yes}}
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1889|11|10|df=yes}}
| birthplace = [[London]], [[England]]
| birth_place = [[Clapham]], [[London]], England
| deathdate = {{death date and age|1967|5|30|1889|11|10|df=yes}}
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1967|5|30|1889|11|10|df=yes}}
| deathplace = [[Laconia]], [[New Hampshire]], [[United States|U.S.]]
| death_place = [[Laconia, New Hampshire]], U.S.
| citizenship = {{hlist|United Kingdom|United States}}
| occupation = [[actor]]
| alma_mater = [[Royal Academy of Dramatic Art]]
| yearsactive = {{fy|1920}}&ndash;{{fy|1966}}
| occupation = Actor
| spouse = [[Isabel Jeans]] (1913-1915) <br> Marie Hemingway (1920-1920) <br> Beatriz Thomas (1924-1935) <br> Frances Propper (1935-1956) <br> [[Agi Jambor]] (1959-1960) <br> Rosemary Clark Schrode (1960-1964)
| years_active = 1900–1965
| father = [[Fred Rains]]
| spouse = {{plainlist|
* {{Marriage|[[Isabel Jeans]]|1913|1915|reason=divorced}}
* {{Marriage|Marie Hemingway|1920|1920|reason=divorced}}
* {{Marriage|[[Beatrix Thomson]]|1924|1935|reason=divorced}}
* {{Marriage|Frances Propper|1935|1956|reason=divorced}}
* {{Marriage|[[Agi Jambor]]|1959|1960|reason=divorced}}
* {{Marriage|Rosemary Clark Schrode|1960|1964|reason=died}}
}}
}}
| children = 1
}}
'''William Claude Rains''' (10 November 1889{{Spaced ndash}}30 May 1967) was a [[British-American]] actor whose career spanned almost seven decades. After his American film debut as [[Griffin (The Invisible Man)|Dr. Jack Griffin]] in ''[[The Invisible Man (1933 film)|The Invisible Man]]'' (1933), he appeared in ''[[The Adventures of Robin Hood]]'' (1938), ''[[Mr. Smith Goes to Washington]]'' (1939), ''[[The Wolf Man (1941 film)|The Wolf Man]]'' (1941), ''[[Casablanca (film)|Casablanca]]'' (1942), ''[[Kings Row]]'' (1942), ''[[Notorious (1946 film)|Notorious]]'' (1946), ''[[Lawrence of Arabia (film)|Lawrence of Arabia]]'' (1962), and ''[[The Greatest Story Ever Told]]'' (1965).


He was a [[Tony Award]]–winning actor and a four-time nominee for the [[Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor]]. Rains was one of the screen's great character stars who played cultured villains.<ref>{{cite web| last=Erickson| first=Hal| url=https://www.nytimes.com/movies/person/58546/Claude-Rains/biography| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305232356/http://www.nytimes.com/movies/person/58546/Claude-Rains/biography| url-status=dead| archive-date=5 March 2016| department=Movies & TV Dept.| newspaper=[[The New York Times]]| title=Claude Rains| author-link=Hal Erickson (author)| date=5 March 2016| access-date=30 December 2015}}</ref><ref name="McFarlane">{{cite web| last=McFarlane|first=Brian|url=http://www.screenonline.org.uk/people/id/546482/| title=Rains, Claude (1889-1967)| website=[[British Film Institute]]| access-date=30 December 2015}} From McFarlane's ''Encyclopedia of British Film''. London: Methuen/BFI, 2003, p. 545</ref>
'''William Claude Rains''' ([[10 November]] [[1889]]&ndash;[[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 Invisible Man (film)|The Invisible Man]]'', the corrupt senator in ''[[Mr. Smith Goes to Washington]]'', and perhaps his most-famous performance, the amoral Captain Renault in ''[[Casablanca (film)|Casablanca]]''.


==Early life==
==Early life==
William Claude Rains was born on 10 November 1889 at 26 Tregothnan Road in [[Clapham]], [[County of London|London]].<ref name="ODNB">{{Cite ODNB|id=55624|title=Rains, (William) Claude (1889–1967)}}</ref> His parents were Emily Eliza ([[née]] Cox) and stage actor [[Fred Rains|Frederick William Rains]].<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=d_mUJebJ4uwC&pg=PA181 |title=International Stars at War| isbn=978-1-5575-0965-9| last1=Wise| first1=James E.| last2=Baron| first2=Scott| year=2002|publisher=Naval Institute Press }}</ref> He lived in the slums of London.<ref name="Soister pg.1">Soister, p. 1</ref> Rains was one of twelve children, of whom all but four died while still infants. His mother took in boarders in order to support the family. Rains grew up with a [[Cockney accent]] and a [[speech impediment]].<ref name="Harmetz p. 147">Harmetz, p. 147</ref>
Rains was born in [[Camberwell]], [[London]] on November 10, 1889. He grew up, according to his daughter, with "a very serious [[cockney accent]] and a speech impediment".<ref name="Harmetz p. 147">Harmetz p. 147.</ref>
[[File:Captain Claude Rains.jpg|thumb|right|Rains in his captain's uniform during the First World War]]

Because his father was an actor, the young Rains would spend time in theatres and was surrounded by actors and stagehands. There he observed actors as well as the day-to-day running of a theatre. Rains made his stage debut at age 10 in the play ''Sweet Nell of Old Drury'' at the [[Haymarket Theatre]], so that he could run around onstage as part of the production. He slowly worked his way up in the theatre, becoming a [[call boy (theatre)|call boy]] (telling actors when they were due on stage) at [[Her Majesty's Theatre|His Majesty's Theatre]] and later a prompter, stage manager, understudy, and then moving on from smaller parts with good reviews to larger, better parts.
[[File:Actor, Claude Rains aged 23.jpg|thumb|right|A 23-year-old Rains in one of his early theatre roles, 1912]]

==Early career and military service==
Rains moved to the United States in 1912 owing to the opportunities that were being offered in the New York theatres. However, at the outbreak of World War I in 1914, he returned to England to serve in the [[London Scottish Regiment]],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.londonscottishregt.org |title=Welcome to The London Scottish Regiment Website |website=London Scottish Regt |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070412093636/http://www.londonscottishregt.org/|archive-date=12 April 2007 }}</ref> alongside fellow actors [[Basil Rathbone]], [[Ronald Colman]], [[Herbert Marshall]] and [[Cedric Hardwicke]].<ref>{{cite book| last=Hastings| first=Max| year=2013| title=Catastrophe: Europe Goes to War 1914| url=https://archive.org/details/catastropheeurop0000hast/page/486/mode/2up?q=rains| publisher=William Collins| isbn=978-0-007-51974-3| page=486}}</ref> In November 1916, Rains was involved in a [[Chemical weapons in World War I|gas attack]] at [[Vimy]], which resulted in his permanently losing 90 percent of the vision in his right eye as well as suffering [[Vocal cords|vocal cord]] damage.<ref name=BFI>{{cite web |last=Parkinson |first=David |date=7 November 2018 |title=Roll of honour: 15 movie legends who served in the First World War |url=https://www.bfi.org.uk/features/film-people-first-world-war |website=British Film Institute |access-date=26 February 2020}}</ref> He never returned to combat but continued to serve with the Transport Workers Battalion of the [[Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Regiment|Bedfordshire Regiment]], in which he was commissioned as a temporary lieutenant on 9 May 1917.<ref>''[[The London Gazette]]'',
Supplement 30074, 15 May 1917, [https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/30074/supplement/4783 p. 4783]</ref> In March 1918, he was promoted to temporary captain,<ref>''The London Gazette'', Supplement 30685, 14 May 1918, [https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/30685/supplement/5831 p. 5831]</ref> the rank he held at the end of the war.<ref name=BFI/> On 8 October 1918 he was appointed as [[adjutant]],<ref>''The London Gazette'', Supplement 31030, 22 November 1918, [https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/31030/supplement/13898 p. 13898]</ref> and continued to serve in that role until March 1919.<ref>''The London Gazette'', Supplement 31256, 28 March 1919, [https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/31256/supplement/4111 p. 4111]</ref>


After his return to civilian life, Rains remained in England and continued to develop his acting talents. These talents were recognised by Sir [[Herbert Beerbohm Tree]], the founder of the [[Royal Academy of Dramatic Art]]. Tree told Rains that in order to succeed as an actor, he would have to get rid of his Cockney accent and speech impediment. With this in mind, Tree paid for the [[elocution]] books and lessons that Rains needed to help him change his voice. Rains eventually shed his accent and speech impediment after practising every day. His daughter Jessica, when describing her father's voice, said, "The interesting thing to me was that he became a different person. He became a very elegant man, with a really extraordinary [[Mid-Atlantic accent]]. It was 'his' voice, nobody else spoke like that, half American, half English and a little Cockney thrown in."<ref name=extras>{{cite interview| first=Jessica| last=Rains| publisher=[[Universal Pictures]]| date=2000| title=Extras | edition=2004 DVD| work=[[Phantom of the Opera (1943 film)|Phantom of the Opera]]}}</ref> Soon after changing his accent, he became recognised as one of the leading stage actors in London. At age 29, he made his film debut, playing the role of Clarkis in his only silent film, the British film ''[[Build Thy House]]'' (1920).
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.


During his early years, Rains taught at the [[Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts]] (RADA). [[John Gielgud]] and [[Charles Laughton]] were among his students. In an interview for [[Turner Classic Movies]], Gielgud fondly remembered Rains:
Rains served in the [[First World War]] in the [[London Scottish Regiment]],<ref>[http://www.londonscottishregt.org londonscottishregt.org]</ref> with fellow actors [[Basil Rathbone]], [[Ronald Colman]] and [[Herbert Marshall]]. Rains was involved in a [[chemical warfare|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 (rank)|Private]] to [[Captain (OF-2)|Captain]].
{{blockquote|
I learnt a great deal about acting from this gentleman. Claude Rains was one of my teachers at RADA. In fact he was one of the best and most popular teachers there. He was extremely attractive and needless to say, all the girls in my class were hopelessly in love with him. He had piercing dark eyes and a beautifully throaty voice, although he had, like [[Marlene Dietrich]], some trouble with the letter 'R'. He lacked inches and wore lifts to his shoes to increase his height. Stocky but handsome, Rains had broad shoulders and a mop of thick brown hair which he brushed over one eye. But by the time I first met him in the 1920s he was already much in demand as a character actor in London. I found him enormously helpful and encouraging to work with. I was always trying to copy him in my first years as an actor, until I decided to imitate [[Noël Coward]] instead.}}


==Career==
==Career==
Rains began his career in the London theatre, having a success in the title role of [[John Drinkwater (playwright)|John Drinkwater]]'s play ''[[Ulysses S. Grant]]'', the follow-up to the playwright's major hit ''[[Abraham Lincoln]]'', and traveled to [[Broadway theatre|Broadway]] in the late 1920s to act in leading roles in such plays as [[George Bernard Shaw|Shaw]]'s ''[[The Apple Cart]]'' and in the dramatizations of ''[[The Constant Nymph]]'', as a Chinese farmer, and [[Pearl S. Buck]]'s novel ''[[The Good Earth]].''
In London theatre, he achieved success in the title role of [[John Drinkwater (playwright)|John Drinkwater's]] play ''Ulysses S. Grant'', the follow-up to the same playwright's ''[[Abraham Lincoln (play)|Abraham Lincoln]]''. Rains portrayed Faulkland in [[Richard Brinsley Sheridan]]'s ''[[The Rivals]]'', presented at London's [[Lyric Theatre, London|Lyric Theatre]] in 1925. He returned to New York City in 1927 and appeared in nearly 20 [[Broadway theatre|Broadway]] roles, in plays which included [[George Bernard Shaw]]'s ''[[The Apple Cart]]'' and dramatisations of ''[[The Constant Nymph (novel)|The Constant Nymph]]'' and [[Pearl S. Buck]]'s novel ''[[The Good Earth]]'' (as a Chinese farmer).


[[File:Claude Rains Broadway 1929.jpeg|thumb|right|Rains with Mary Kennedy in ''Camel Through the Needle's Eye'' on Broadway, New York City, 1929]]
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 (movie)|The Invisible Man]]'' ({{fy|1933}}) when someone accidentally overheard his screen test being played in the next room.<ref name="Harmetz p. 147"/> 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".<ref>Harmetz p. 190.</ref>


Although he had played the single supporting role in the silent, ''[[Build Thy House]]'' (1920),<ref name="McFarlane"/> Rains came relatively late to film acting. While working for the [[Theatre Guild]], he was offered a [[screen test]] with [[Universal Pictures]] in 1932. His screen test for ''[[A Bill of Divorcement (1932 film)|A Bill of Divorcement]]'' (1932) for a New York representative of [[RKO Pictures|RKO]] was a failure but, according to some accounts, led to his being cast in the title role of [[James Whale]]'s ''[[The Invisible Man (1933 film)|The Invisible Man]]'' (1933) after his screen test and unique voice were inadvertently overheard from the next room.<ref name="Harmetz p. 147"/><ref>{{cite book | first1=Tom | last1=Weaver |first2= Michael| last2= Brunas | first3= John | last3= Brunas | page= https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=Wut4jYBtUdsC&pg=PA102 102]| title=Universal Horrors: The Studio's Classic Films, 1931-1946| place=Jefferson, North Carolina| publisher=McFarland| year=2007}}</ref> His agent, Harold Freedman, was a family friend of [[Carl Laemmle]], who controlled Universal Pictures at the time, and had been acquainted with Rains in London and was keen to cast him in the role.<ref name= "Skal48">Skal and Rains [https://books.google.com/books?id=k54Y1HLqWDQC&pg=PT48 ''Claude Rains: An Actor's Voice''], pp. 48-9</ref>{{sfn|Weaver|Brunas|Brunas|2007|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=Wut4jYBtUdsC&pg=PA79 79]}} According to Rains' daughter, this was the only film of his he ever saw. He also did not go to see the [[Dailies|rushes]] of the day's filming "because he told me, every time he went he was horrified by his huge face on the huge screen, that he just never went back again."
[[Image:Claude Rains in Notorious trailer.jpg|thumb|left|250px|Claude Rains in ''[[Notorious (1946 film)|Notorious]]'' ({{fy|1946}})]]
Following ''The Invisible Man'', [[Universal Studios]] tried to typecast him in horror films, but he broke free, starting with the role of [[Prince John]] in ''[[The Adventures of Robin Hood (film)|The Adventures of Robin Hood]]'' (1938), then with his [[Academy Awards|Academy Award]]-nominated performance as the conflicted corrupt senator in ''[[Mr. Smith Goes to Washington]]'' (1939), and followed with probably his most famous role, the flexible [[French people|French]] police Captain Renault in ''[[Casablanca (film)|Casablanca]]'' (1942). In 1943, Rains played the title character in Universal's full-color remake of ''[[Phantom of the Opera (1943 film)|Phantom of the Opera]]''. Rains became the first actor to receive a million dollar salary, playing [[Julius Caesar]] in [[Gabriel Pascal]]'s lavish and unsuccessful version of Shaw's ''[[Caesar and Cleopatra (1945 film)|Caesar and Cleopatra]]'' (1945), made in Britain. In 1946, he played a refugee [[Nazi]] agent opposite [[Cary Grant]] and ''Casablanca'' co-star [[Ingrid Bergman]] in [[Alfred Hitchcock]]'s ''[[Notorious (1946 film)|Notorious]]''. In 1949, he appeared in [[David Lean]]'s ''[[The Passionate Friends]]''.


Rains signed a long-term contract with [[Warner Bros.]] on 27 November 1935, with Warner able to exercise the right to loan him to other studios and Rains having a potential income of up to $750,000 over seven years.<ref>David J. Skal, with Jessica Rains [https://books.google.com/books?id=k54Y1HLqWDQC&pg=PT62 ''Claude Rains: An Actor's Voice''], Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2008, pp. 61-62</ref> He played the villainous role of [[John, King of England|Prince John]] in ''[[The Adventures of Robin Hood]]'' (1938). [[Roddy McDowall]] once asked Rains if he had intentionally lampooned [[Bette Davis]] in his performance as Prince John, and Rains only smiled "an enigmatic smile." Rains later revealed to his daughter that he had enjoyed playing the prince as a [[homosexual]], by using subtle mannerisms. Rains later credited the film's co-director [[Michael Curtiz]] with teaching him the more understated requirements of film acting, or "what not to do in front of a camera."<ref>Harmetz, p. 190</ref> On loan to [[Columbia Pictures]], he portrayed a corrupt but honourable U.S. senator in ''[[Mr. Smith Goes to Washington]]'' (1939), for which he received his first [[Academy Awards|Academy Award]] nomination as Best Supporting Actor. For Warner Bros., he played Dr. Alexander Tower, who commits murder-suicide to spare his daughter a life of insanity in ''[[Kings Row]]'' (1942) and the cynical police chief Captain Louis Renault in ''[[Casablanca (film)|Casablanca]]'' (also 1942). On loan again, Rains played the [[Erik (The Phantom of the Opera)|title character]] in Universal's remake of ''[[Phantom of the Opera (1943 film)|Phantom of the Opera]]'' (1943).
His only singing and dancing role was in a television musical version of [[Robert Browning]]'s ''[[The Pied Piper of Hamelin]]'', with [[Van Johnson]] as the Piper. This 1957 [[NBC]] colour special, shown as a film rather than a live or videotaped program, was highly successful with the public. Sold into [[broadcast syndication|syndication]] after its first telecast, it was repeated annually by many local TV stations.


In her 1987 memoir, ''This 'N That'', Bette Davis stated that Rains (with whom she shared the screen four times in ''[[Juarez (1939 film)|Juarez]]''; ''[[Now, Voyager]]''; ''[[Mr. Skeffington]]''; and ''[[Deception (1946 film)|Deception]]'') was her favorite co-star.<ref>Davis and Herskowitz 1987, p. 26</ref> Rains became the first actor to receive a million-dollar salary when he portrayed [[Julius Caesar]] in a large-budget but unsuccessful version of Shaw's ''[[Caesar and Cleopatra (film)|Caesar and Cleopatra]]'' (1945), filmed in [[UK|Britain]]. Shaw apparently chose him for the part, although Rains intensely disliked [[Gabriel Pascal]], the film's director and producer.<ref>{{cite book |last=Shipman |first=David |date=1989 |title=The Great Movie Stars: 1, The Golden Years |location=London |publisher= Macdonald |page=487 |isbn=978-0600338178 |author-link=David Shipman (writer)}}</ref> Rains followed it with [[Alfred Hitchcock]]'s ''[[Notorious (1946 film)|Notorious]]'' (1946) as a refugee [[Nazi]] agent opposite [[Cary Grant]] and [[Ingrid Bergman]]. Back in Britain, he appeared in [[David Lean]]'s ''[[The Passionate Friends (1949 film)|The Passionate Friends]]'' (1949).
Rains remained a popular character actor in the 1950s and 1960s, appearing in many films. Two of his well-known later screen roles were as Dryden, a cynical British diplomat in ''[[Lawrence of Arabia (film)|Lawrence of Arabia]]'' (1962) and [[Herod the Great|King Herod]] in ''[[The Greatest Story Ever Told]]'' (1965). The latter was his final film role.


[[File:Claude Rains in Notorious trailer.jpg|thumb|Rains in ''[[Notorious (1946 film)|Notorious]]'' (1946)]]
==Recordings==
Rains made several audio recordings, narrating a few Bible stories for children on [[Capitol Records]], and reciting [[Richard Strauss]]'s setting for narrator and piano accompaniment of [[Alfred, Lord Tennyson]]'s poem ''[[Enoch Arden]]'', with the piano solos played by [[Glenn Gould]]. This recording was made by [[Columbia Masterworks Records]].


His only singing and dancing role was in a 1957 television musical version of [[Robert Browning]]'s ''[[The Pied Piper of Hamelin (1957 film)|The Pied Piper of Hamelin]]'', with [[Van Johnson]] as the Piper. The [[NBC]] colour special, broadcast as a film rather than a live or videotaped programme, was highly successful with the public. Sold into [[broadcast syndication|syndication]] after its first telecast, it was repeated annually by many local US TV stations.
==Personal life==
Rains became a [[naturalized citizen]] of the United States in 1939. He married six times, the first five of which ended in divorce: [[Isabel Jeans]] (1913-1915); Marie Hemingway (1920, for less than a year); Beatriz Thomas (1924 &ndash;April 8, 1935); Frances Propper (April 9, 1935&ndash;1956); and to [[classical piano|classic pianist]] [[Agi Jambor]] (November 4, 1959&ndash;1960). He married Rosemary Clark Schrode in 1960, and stayed with her until her death on December 31, 1964. His only child, Jessica Rains, was born to him and Propper on January 24, 1938.


Rains remained active as a character actor in the 1950s and 1960s, appearing in films and as a guest in television series. He played the ventriloquist Fabian on ''[[Alfred Hitchcock Presents]]'' Season 1 Episode 20 "And So Died Riabouchinska" which aired on February 10, 1956. He ventured into science fiction for [[Irwin Allen]]'s ''[[The Lost World (1960 film)|The Lost World]]'' (1960) and [[Antonio Margheriti]]'s ''[[Battle of the Worlds]]'' (1961). Two of his late screen roles were as [[Mr. Dryden|Dryden]], a cynical British diplomat in ''[[Lawrence of Arabia (film)|Lawrence of Arabia]]'' (1962) and [[Herod the Great|King Herod]] in ''[[The Greatest Story Ever Told]]'' (1965), his last film. In CBS's ''[[Rawhide (TV series)|Rawhide]]'', he portrayed Alexander Langford, an attorney in a ghost town, in the episode "Incident of Judgement Day" (1963).
He acquired the {{convert|380|acre|km2|sing=on}} Stock Grange Farm in [[West Bradford Township, Pennsylvania|West Bradford Township]], [[Pennsylvania]] just outside [[West Chester, Pennsylvania|West Chester]] in 1941, and spent much of his time between takes reading up on agricultural techniques. He eventually sold the farm when his marriage to Propper ended in 1956.


He additionally made several audio recordings, narrating some [[Bible]] stories for children on [[Capitol Records]], and reciting [[Richard Strauss]]'s [[Enoch Arden (Strauss)|setting for narrator and piano]] of [[Alfred, Lord Tennyson|Tennyson's]] poem ''[[Enoch Arden]]'', with the piano solos performed by [[Glenn Gould]]. He starred in ''The Jeffersonian Heritage'', a 1952 series of 13 half-hour radio programmes recorded by the [[National Association of Educational Broadcasters]] and syndicated for commercial broadcast on a sustaining (i.e., commercial-free) basis.<ref>"The Jeffersonian Heritage," Broadcasting-Telecasting, 8 September 1952, 36 (trade advertisement).</ref>
Rains died from an abdominal [[hemorrhage]] in [[Laconia, New Hampshire]] on May 30, 1967 at the age of 77. He is interred in the Red Hill Cemetery, [[Moultonborough, New Hampshire]].


== Reception ==
''Claude Rains: An Actor's Voice'', a biography by [[David J. Skal]] and Rains' daughter Jessica Rains, was published in 2008.
Jessica Rains remembered her father's work ethic:


{{blockquote|He was interested in the process (of film). He loved acting. When he came to California to do a film, I had to "hear him his lines" as he drove me to school every morning, {{convert|10|mi|km|0|disp=sqbr}}. He knew everybody's part. He knew the whole script before he came out (to film). I don't think many people did that.}}
==Awards and nominations==
In 1951, Rains won a [[Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play]] for ''[[Darkness at Noon]]''. He was also nominated four times for the [[Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor]], for ''[[Mr. Smith Goes to Washington]]'' ({{fy|1939}}), ''[[Casablanca]]'' ({{fy|1942}}), ''[[Mr. Skeffington]]'' ({{fy|1944}}), and ''[[Notorious (1946 film)|Notorious]]'' ({{fy|1946}}).


Bette Davis in an interview with [[Dick Cavett]] said about Rains:
He has a star on the [[Hollywood Walk of Fame]], at 6400 [[Hollywood Boulevard]].


{{blockquote|Well, of course he petrified me. The first time I played with him was in [[Carlota of Mexico|Carlotta]] (''[[Juarez (1939 film)|Juarez]]''), and I had to make an entrance [into] the King of France's domain for a rehearsal, and he's playing the King of France (N.B. The character is actually the Emperor of the French [[Napoleon III]]) in rehearsal. As all of us "other era people," we don't just run through lines and say "turn the camera", we rehearse beforehand...Anyway Claude and I couldn't, and he was the King of France who loathed Carlotta, and I was a kid and petrified of Mr. Rains, so I thought he hated ''me''. I didn't know he was playing the character. I thought, he thinks I just stink! What am I going to do? Eventually we worked together quite a lot and became really great friends, really great friends.}}
== Filmography ==

{| class=wikitable
Davis later went on to describe him: "Claude was witty, amusing and beautiful, really beautiful, thoroughly enchanting to be with and brilliant." She also praised his performances: "He was marvelous in ''[[Deception (1946 film)|Deception]]'' and was worth the whole thing as the picture wasn't terribly good, but he was so marvelous in the restaurant scene where he's talking about all the food...brilliant, and of course in ''[[Mr Skeffington|Mr. Skeffington]]'' he was absolutely brilliant as the husband, just brilliant."

[[Richard Chamberlain]] worked with Rains in what would be his second-to-last film, ''[[Twilight of Honor]]''. In 2009, Chamberlain recorded a tribute to the actor when Rains was featured as [[Turner Classic Movies]]' Star of the Month:<ref>{{Cite web |title=Richard Chamberlain on Claude Rains -- (TCM Original) September, 2009 |url=http://www.tcm.com/video/254747/richard-chamberlain-on-claude-rains-tcm-original-september-2009 |access-date=2022-06-22 |website=www.tcm.com |language=en}}</ref>

{{blockquote|Claude Rains has to be considered one of the finest actors of the 20th century. As soon as you hear that marvelous, unmistakable voice of honey mixed with gravel, he becomes instantly recognizable. And that scornful right eyebrow which could freeze an adversary faster than and more effectively than any physical threat. He stood at a mere 5′6″, yet his enormous talent and immense stage presence made him a giant among his colleagues. During a stage and film career that spanned six decades, Rains encompassed some of the most memorable and exciting characters ever created by an actor. Villains were a Rains specialty, particularly those of a suave and sarcastic nature; and yet when the role called for it, Rains could be remarkably moving and even add a touch of pathos without losing any of his effectiveness.}}

In ''[[Twilight of Honor]]'' Rains played a retired lawyer acting as a mentor to Chamberlain's character. Reminiscing about his work with Rains, Chamberlain said:

{{blockquote|He was in his seventies then and in failing health, yet he was charming and totally professional on the set. It was clear to us that he loved practicing his craft; he dazzled us all. Claude was an extremely private man—he never discussed his humble beginnings, his six marriages. But get him into a conversation about acting, and he opened up with delightful anecdotes and fascinating stories about his long life as a thespian.

One day on the set I mentioned to him that ''Notorious'' was one of my favorite films, and Claude related with amusement the filming of a particular scene with [[Ingrid Bergman]]. Rains was a very small man and Bergman was quite tall, so in order to shoot them in close-up together (in the key scene) the resourceful [[Alfred Hitchcock]] had a ramp installed, so as Rains approaches Bergman on camera he appears taller than his co-star. Claude found this ramp business a bit embarrassing and very funny.

I got another taste of Claude's witty nature shooting a scene in his [next-to-last] film, in which he had a long piece of dialogue. Generally he had no problem remembering his lines despite getting along in years. However, there was one particularly long scene shot late at night where he was having a lot of trouble with the dialogue, and kept making excuses. And finally he paused and said with a sheepish look "[[Alibi Ike]], good old Alibi Ike" ("Alibi Ike" being an expression based on a 1935 film of the same name, in which the lead character has a penchant for making up excuses). Of course in the finished film he played the scene flawlessly, as he always did. Claude Rains: truly a class act, on and off screen.}}

Many years after Rains had gone to [[Hollywood, Los Angeles|Hollywood]] and become a well-known film actor, [[John Gielgud]] commented, tongue-in-cheek:
{{blockquote|
There was somebody who taught me a very great deal at drama school, and I am certainly grateful to him for his kindness and consideration. His name was Claude Rains. I don't know whatever happened to him. I think he failed, and had to go to America.<ref>{{cite book |last=Morley| first=Sheridan| author-link=Sheridan Morley| title=John Gielgud: The Authorized Biography| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HUdOdkY7_x4C&q=rains| date=11 May 2010| publisher=Simon & Schuster| isbn=978-1-4391-1617-3| page=50}}</ref>
}}

Gielgud later went on to recollect a time when he was in New York and in the audience during an event that included a focus on [[Bette Davis]]: "A number of clips from many of her most successful films were shown and I was particularly delighted, when, as soon as Claude Rains appeared in the close-up of one of the clips, the whole audience burst into a great wave of applause."

Bette Davis often cited Rains as one of her favorite actors and colleagues. Gielgud said that he once wrote that "The London stage suffered a great loss when Claude Rains deserted it for motion pictures," and that he later added, "but when I see him now on the screen and remember him, I must admit that the London stage's loss was the cinema's gain. And the striking virtuosity that I witnessed as a young actor is now there for audiences everywhere to see for all time. I'm so glad of that."

==Personal life and death==

[[File:Debbie Reynolds Auction - Claude Rains "Captain Louis Renault" ivory military suit from "Casablanca" (5851596823) (2).jpg|thumb|The ivory military uniform Rains wore in ''Casablanca'' was sold at auction in 2011 for $55,000.<ref name="DR Auction"/>]]

Rains became a [[naturalized citizen of the United States]] in 1939.

He married six times and was divorced from the first five of his wives: [[Isabel Jeans]] (married 1913–1915); Marie Hemingway (to whom Rains was married for less than a year in 1920); [[Beatrix Thomson]] (1924–8 April 1935); Frances Propper (9 April 1935 – 1956); and the classical pianist [[Agi Jambor]] (4 November 1959 – 1960). In 1960, he married Rosemary Clark Schrode, to whom he was married until her death on 31 December 1964. His only child, Jennifer, was the daughter of Frances Propper. As an actress, she is known as Jessica Rains.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=k54Y1HLqWDQC&pg=PT104 Skal and Rains], p. 104</ref>

He acquired the {{Convert|380|acre|km2|adj=on}} Stock Grange Farm, built in 1747 in [[West Bradford Township, Pennsylvania|West Bradford Township]], [[Pennsylvania]] (just outside [[Coatesville, Pennsylvania|Coatesville]]), in 1941. The farm became one of the "great prides" of his life.<ref>{{cite web| url=https://entertainment.ha.com/itm/movie-tv-memorabilia/photos/claude-rains-scrapbook-devoted-to-his-farm-stock-grange-total-12-items-/a/7006-49362.s| title=Claude Rains' Scrapbook Devoted to His Farm, Stock - Lot #49362 - Heritage Auctions| website=Heritage Auctions}}</ref> Here, he became a "gentleman farmer" and could relax and enjoy farming life with his then wife (Frances) churning the butter, their daughter collecting the eggs, with Rains himself ploughing the fields and cultivating the vegetable garden. He spent much of his time between film takes reading up on agricultural techniques to try when he got home. He sold the farm when his marriage to Propper ended in 1956; the building now, as then, is still referred to by locals as "Rains' Place".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.dailylocal.com/article/DL/20101114/NEWS/311149969|title=Thinking about Claude Rains and the pastoral Stock Grange Farm|date=8 March 2020}}</ref> Rains spent his final years in [[Sandwich, New Hampshire|Sandwich]], [[New Hampshire]].<ref>{{cite news| last=Duckler| first=Ray| title=A Star's Last Act: The great Claude Rains spent his final years in New Hampshire| url=http://www.concordmonitor.com/news/4419930-95/a-stars-last-act| access-date=13 September 2013| newspaper=Concord Monitor| date=31 March 2012| url-status=dead| archive-url=https://archive.today/20130913193332/http://www.concordmonitor.com/news/4419930-95/a-stars-last-act| archive-date=13 September 2013}}</ref>

In his final years, he decided to write his memoirs and engaged the help of journalist Jonathan Root to assist him. Rains' declining health delayed their completion and with Root's death in March 1967 the project was never completed. A [[chronic alcoholic]], Rains died from [[cirrhosis of the liver]], having an [[abdominal hemorrhage]] in [[Laconia, New Hampshire|Laconia]] on 30{{nbsp}}May 1967, aged 77.<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2008-nov-20-et-book20-story.html| title=Rains was never a minor character| date=20 November 2008| newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]]}}</ref> His daughter said, "And, just like most actors, he died waiting for his agent to call."<ref>{{cite book| last=Soister| first=John T.| date=19 July 2017| title=Claude Rains: A Comprehensive Illustrated to His Work in Film, Stage, Radio, Television and Recordings| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EYuACgAAQBAJ&q=claude%20rains%20records&pg=PA244| publisher=McFarland| isbn=978-1-4766-1278-2}}</ref> He was buried at the Red Hill Cemetery in [[Moultonborough, New Hampshire|Moultonborough]], [[New Hampshire]]. He designed his own tombstone which reads "All things once, Are things forever, Soul, once living, lives forever".

In 2010, many of Rains' personal effects were put into an auction at [[Heritage Auctions]], including his 1951 Tony award, rare posters, letters and photographs. Also included in the auction were many volumes of his private leather-bound scrapbooks which contained many of his press cuttings and reviews from the beginning of his career. The majority of the items were used to help David J. Skal write his book on Rains, ''An Actor's Voice''. In 2011, the ivory military uniform (complete with medals) he wore as Captain Renault in ''Casablanca'' was put up for auction when noted actress and film historian [[Debbie Reynolds]] sold her collection of Hollywood costumes and memorabilia which she had amassed as a result of the [[Film memorabilia#1970 MGM auction|1970 MGM auction]].<ref name="DR Auction">{{cite web| url=http://www.icollector.com/Claude-Rains-Captain-Louis-Renault-ivory-military-suit-from-Casablanca_i10657974| title=Claude Rains "Captain Louis Renault" ivory military suit from Casablanca| website=iCollector.com Online Auctions| access-date=6 March 2017| archive-date=12 August 2018| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180812115904/http://www.icollector.com/Claude-Rains-Captain-Louis-Renault-ivory-military-suit-from-Casablanca_i10657974| url-status=dead}}</ref>
<!--
UNCITED SECTION==Awards and nominations==
In 1951, Rains won a [[Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play]] for ''[[Darkness at Noon]]'' as well as the [[Delia Austrian medal]] for the same production. He was nominated for the [[Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor]] on four occasions: for ''[[Mr. Smith Goes to Washington]]'' (1939), ''[[Casablanca (film)|Casablanca]]'' (1943), ''[[Mr. Skeffington]]'' (1944) and ''[[Notorious (1946 film)|Notorious]]'' (1946). He was awarded a Star on the [[Hollywood Walk of Fame]] at 6400 [[Hollywood Boulevard]] on 8 February 1960.

In the television series ''[[Heroes (TV Series)|Heroes]]'' the character portrayed by [[Christopher Eccleston]] does not reveal his real name and uses the alias [[Claude (Heroes)|'Claude Rains']] due to his ability to turn himself, any personal objects he touches, and other people [[Invisibility|invisible]]; his alias is an obvious homage to Rains who played ''[[The Invisible Man (1933 film)|The Invisible Man]]''.
-->

== Acting credits ==
===Filmography===
{| class="wikitable sortable" style="margin-right: 0;"
|-
! Year
! Year
! Title
! Title
! Role
! Role
! Director
! Director
! class="unsortable" | Notes
! Other cast members
|-
! Notes
|-
| 1920
| ''[[Build Thy House]]''
| {{fy|1920}}
| Clarkis
| ''[[Build Thy House]]''
| {{sortname|Fred|Goodwins}}
| Clarkis
| Film debut
| [[Fred Goodwins]]
|-
| [[Henry Ainley]]
|
| 1933
| ''[[The Invisible Man (1933 film)|The Invisible Man]]''
|-
| [[Griffin (The Invisible Man)|Dr. Jack Griffin/The Invisible Man]]
| {{fy|1933}}
| {{sortname|James|Whale}}
| ''[[The Invisible Man (film)|The Invisible Man]]''
|
| [[Griffin (The Invisible Man)|Dr. Jack Griffin]]
|-
| [[James Whale]]
| rowspan="2" | 1934
| [[Gloria Stuart]], [[Henry Travers]], [[Una O'Connor]]
| ''[[Crime Without Passion]]''
|
| Lee Gentry
|-
| {{sortname|Ben|Hecht}}, [[Charles MacArthur]]
|rowspan=3| {{fy|1934}}
|
| ''[[The Clairvoyant]]''
|-
| Maximus
| ''[[The Man Who Reclaimed His Head]]''
| [[Maurice Elvey]]
| [[Fay Wray]]
| Paul Verin
| {{sortname|Edward|Ludwig}}
|
|-
|
|-
| ''[[Crime Without Passion]]''
| rowspan="4" | 1935
| Lee Gentry
| ''[[The Mystery of Edwin Drood (1935 film)|The Mystery of Edwin Drood]]''
| [[Ben Hecht]], [[Charles MacArthur]]
| [[List of Dickensian characters#J|John Jasper]]
| [[Margo]], [[Whitney Bourne]]
| {{sortname|Stuart|Walker|Stuart Walker (filmmaker)}}
|
|-
|
|-
| ''[[The Man Who Reclaimed His Head]]''
| ''[[The Clairvoyant (1935 film)|The Clairvoyant]]''
| Paul Verin
| Maximus
| [[Edward Ludwig]]
| {{sortname|Maurice|Elvey}}
| [[Lionel Atwill]], [[Joan Bennett]]
|
|
|-
|-
| ''[[The Last Outpost (1935 film)|The Last Outpost]]''
|rowspan=2|{{fy|1935}}
| John Stevenson
| ''[[The Last Outpost (1935 film)|The Last Outpost]]''
| {{sortname|Louis|Gasnier}}, [[Charles Barton (director)|Charles Barton]]
| John Stevenson
|
| [[Louis Gasnier]], [[Charles Barton]]
|-
| [[Cary Grant]]
| ''[[Scrooge (1935 film)|Scrooge]]''
|
| [[Jacob Marley]]
|-
| [[Henry Edwards (actor)|Henry Edwards]]
| ''[[The Mystery of Edwin Drood (1935 film)|The Mystery of Edwin Drood]]''
| Uncredited
| John Jasper
|-
| [[Stuart Walker]]
| rowspan="2" | 1936
| [[Douglass Montgomery]], [[Heather Angel (actor)|Heather Angel]], [[David Manners]]
| ''[[Hearts Divided]]''
|
| [[Napoleon Bonaparte]]
|-
| {{sortname|Frank|Borzage}}
|rowspan=2|{{fy|1936}}
|
| ''[[Hearts Divided]]''
|-
| [[Napoleon Bonaparte]]
| [[Frank Borzage]]
| ''[[Anthony Adverse]]''
| Marquis Don Luis
| [[Marion Davies]], [[Dick Powell]], [[Charlie Ruggles]], [[Edward Everett Horton]]
| {{sortname|Mervyn|LeRoy}}
|
|-
|
|-
| ''[[Anthony Adverse]]''
| rowspan="3" | 1937
| Marquis Don Luis
| [[Mervyn LeRoy]]
| ''[[Stolen Holiday]]''
| [[Fredric March]], [[Olivia de Havilland]], [[Gale Sondergaard]]
|
|-
|rowspan=3|{{fy|1937}}
| ''[[Stolen Holiday]]''
| Stefan Orloff
| Stefan Orloff
| [[Michael Curtiz]]
| {{sortname|Michael|Curtiz}}
|
| [[Kay Francis]], [[Ian Hunter]]
|
|-
| ''[[The Prince and the Pauper (1937 film)|The Prince and the Pauper]]''
| Earl of Hertford
| [[William Keighley]]
| [[Errol Flynn]], [[Billy and Bobby Mauch]]
|
|-
| ''[[They Won't Forget]]''
| Dist. Atty. Andrew J. "Andy" Griffin
| Mervyn LeRoy
| [[Gloria Dickson]], [[Lana Turner]]
|
|-
|-
| ''[[The Prince and the Pauper (1937 film)|The Prince and the Pauper]]''
|rowspan=4|{{fy|1938}}
| [[Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset|Earl of Hertford]]
| ''[[White Banners]]''
| {{sortname|William|Keighley}}
|
|-
| ''[[They Won't Forget]]''
| District Attorney Andrew J. "Andy" Griffin
| {{sortname|Mervyn|LeRoy}}
|
|-
| rowspan="4" | 1938
| ''[[White Banners]]''
| Paul Ward
| Paul Ward
| [[Edmund Goulding]]
| {{sortname|Edmund|Goulding}}
|
| [[Fay Bainter]], [[Jackie Cooper]], [[Bonita Granville]], [[Henry O'Neill]], [[Kay Johnson]]
|
|-
|-
| ''[[Gold is Where You Find It]]''
| ''[[Gold is Where You Find It]]''
| Colonel Christopher "Chris" Ferris
| Colonel Christopher "Chris" Ferris
| Michael Curtiz
| {{sortname|Michael|Curtiz}}
| George Brent, Olivia de Havilland, [[Tim Holt]]
| [[Technicolor]]
| [[Technicolor]]
|-
|-
| ''[[The Adventures of Robin Hood (film)|The Adventures of Robin Hood]]''
| ''[[The Adventures of Robin Hood]]''
| [[Prince John]]
| [[John, King of England|Prince John]]
| Michael Curtiz, William Keighley
| {{sortname|Michael|Curtiz}}
| Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, [[Basil Rathbone]]
| Technicolor
| Technicolor
|-
|-
| ''[[Four Daughters]]''
| ''[[Four Daughters (1938 film)|Four Daughters]]''
| Adam Lemp
| Adam Lemp
| Michael Curtiz
| {{sortname|Michael|Curtiz}}
|
| [[Lane Sisters|Rosemary]], [[Lola Lane|Lola]], and [[Priscilla Lane]], [[Gale Page]], [[John Garfield]]
|
|-
|rowspan=6|{{fy|1939}}
| ''[[They Made Me a Criminal]]''
| Det. Monty Phelan
| [[Busby Berkeley]]
| John Garfield, [[Gloria Dickson]], [[May Robson]]
|
|-
|-
| rowspan="6" | 1939
| ''[[Juarez (1939 film)|Juarez]]''
| ''[[They Made Me a Criminal]]''
| Detective Monty Phelan
| {{sortname|Busby|Berkeley}}
|
|-
| ''[[Juarez (1939 film)|Juarez]]''
| [[Louis Napoleon III|Emperor Louis Napoleon III]]
| [[Louis Napoleon III|Emperor Louis Napoleon III]]
| [[William Dieterle]]
| {{sortname|William|Dieterle}}
|
| [[Paul Muni]], [[Bette Davis]], [[Brian Aherne]], John Garfield
|
|-
| ''[[Sons of Liberty (film)|Sons of Liberty]]''
|-
| ''[[Sons of Liberty (film)|Sons of Liberty]]''<br><small>(Two-reel short)</small>
| [[Haym Salomon]]
| [[Haym Salomon]]
| Michael Curtiz
| {{sortname|Michael|Curtiz}}
| Technicolor; two-reel short
| Gale Sondergaard
| Technicolor
|-
| ''[[Daughters Courageous]]''
| Jim Masters
| Michael Curtiz
| Rosemary, Lola, and Priscilla Lane, Gale Page, John Garfield
|
|-
|-
| ''[[Mr. Smith Goes to Washington]]''
| ''[[Daughters Courageous]]''
| Jim Masters
| Sen. Joseph Harrison Paine
| {{sortname|Michael|Curtiz}}
| [[Frank Capra]]
|
| [[Jean Arthur]], [[James Stewart (actor)|James Stewart]], [[Thomas Mitchell (actor)|Thomas Mitchell]]
| Nomination — [[Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor]]
|-
| ''[[Four Wives]]''
| Adam Lemp
| Michael Curtiz
| [[Eddie Albert]], Rosemary, Lola, and Priscilla Lane, Gale Page, John Garfield
|
|-
|-
| ''[[Mr. Smith Goes to Washington]]''
|rowspan=3|{{fy|1940}}
| Senator Joseph Harrison Paine
| ''[[Saturday's Children]]''
| {{sortname|Frank|Capra}}
| Mr. Henry Halevy
|
| [[Vincent Sherman]]
| John Garfield, [[Anne Shirley]]
|
|-
| ''[[The Sea Hawk (1940 film)|The Sea Hawk]]''
| Don José Alvarez de Cordoba
| Michael Curtiz
| Errol Flynn, [[Brenda Marshall]], [[Henry Daniell]], [[Flora Robson]], [[Alan Hale]]
| [[Sepia]]tone (sequence)
|-
|-
| ''[[Lady with Red Hair]]''
| ''[[Four Wives]]''
| Adam Lemp
| {{sortname|Michael|Curtiz}}
|
|-
| rowspan="3" | 1940
| ''[[Saturday's Children (1940 film)|Saturday's Children]]''
| Mr. Henry Halevy
| {{sortname|Vincent|Sherman}}
|
|-
| ''[[The Sea Hawk (1940 film)|The Sea Hawk]]''
| Don José Álvarez de Córdoba
| {{sortname|Michael|Curtiz}}
| [[Sepia tone]] (sequence)
|-
| ''[[Lady with Red Hair]]''
| [[David Belasco]]
| [[David Belasco]]
| [[Curtis Bernhardt]]
| {{sortname|Curtis|Bernhardt}}
|
| [[Miriam Hopkins]], [[Laura Hope Crews]]
|
|-
|-
|rowspan=3|{{fy|1941}}
| rowspan="3" | 1941
| ''[[Four Mothers]]''
| ''[[Four Mothers]]''
| Adam Lemp
| Adam Lemp
| William Keighley
| {{sortname|William|Keighley}}
|
| Rosemary, Lola, and Priscilla Lane, Gale Page
|
|-
|-
| ''[[Here Comes Mr. Jordan]]''
| ''[[Here Comes Mr. Jordan]]''
| Mr. Jordan
| [[God in Christianity|Mr. Jordan]]
| [[Alexander Hall]]
| {{sortname|Alexander|Hall}}
|
| [[Robert Montgomery (actor)|Robert Montgomery]], [[Evelyn Keyes]], [[Edward Everett Horton]]
|
|-
| ''[[The Wolf Man (1941 film)|The Wolf Man]]''
| [[Sir John Talbot]]
| [[George Waggner]]
| [[Lon Chaney, Jr.]], [[Evelyn Ankers]], [[Patric Knowles]], [[Ralph Bellamy]], [[Warren William]], [[Bela Lugosi]], [[Maria Ouspenskaya]]
|
|-
|rowspan=4|{{fy|1942}}
| ''[[Kings Row]]''
| Dr. Alexander Tower
| [[Sam Wood]]
| [[Ann Sheridan]], [[Robert Cummings]], [[Ronald Reagan]], [[Betty Field]], [[Charles Coburn]]
|
|-
|-
| ''[[Moontide]]''
| ''[[The Wolf Man (1941 film)|The Wolf Man]]''
| Sir John Talbot
| Nutsy
| {{sortname|George|Waggner}}
| [[Archie Mayo]]
|
| [[Jean Gabin]], [[Ida Lupino]], [[Thomas Mitchell (actor)|Thomas Mitchell]]
|
|-
|-
| rowspan="4" | 1942
| ''[[Now, Voyager]]''
| ''[[Kings Row]]''
| Dr. Jaquith
| Dr. Alexander Tower
| [[Irving Rapper]]
| {{sortname|Sam|Wood}}
| [[Bette Davis]], [[Paul Henreid]], [[Gladys Cooper]]
|
|
|-
|-
| ''[[Casablanca (film)|Casablanca]]''
| ''[[Moontide]]''
| Nutsy
| [[Louis Renault|Capt. Louis Renault]]
| {{sortname|Archie|Mayo}}
| Michael Curtiz
|
| [[Humphrey Bogart]], [[Ingrid Bergman]], Paul Henreid, [[Conrad Veidt]], [[S.Z. Sakall]], [[Sydney Greenstreet]], [[Peter Lorre]], [[Dooley Wilson]]
| Nomination — Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
|-
|-
| ''[[Now, Voyager]]''
|rowspan=2|{{fy|1943}}
| Dr. Jaquith
| ''[[Forever and a Day (film)|Forever and a Day]]''
| {{sortname|Irving|Rapper}}
| Ambrose Pomfret
|
| [[Herbert Wilcox]]<br><small>(sequence with Rains)</small>
|-
| [[Anna Neagle]], [[Ray Milland]], [[C. Aubrey Smith]]
| ''[[Casablanca (film)|Casablanca]]''
| Captain Louis Renault
| {{sortname|Michael|Curtiz}}
|
|
|-
|-
| rowspan="2" | 1943
| ''[[Phantom of the Opera (1943 film)|Phantom of the Opera]]''
| ''[[Forever and a Day (1943 film)|Forever and a Day]]''
| [[The Phantom of the Opera|Erique Claudin/The Phantom of the Opera]]
| Ambrose Pomfret
| [[Arthur Lubin]]
| {{sortname|Herbert|Wilcox}}<br />(sequence with Rains)
| [[Nelson Eddy]], [[Susanna Foster]]
|
|-
| ''[[Phantom of the Opera (1943 film)|Phantom of the Opera]]''
| [[Erik (The Phantom of the Opera)|Erique Claudin/The Phantom of the Opera]]
| {{sortname|Arthur|Lubin}}
| Technicolor
| Technicolor
|-
|-
|rowspan=2|{{fy|1944}}
| rowspan="2" | 1944
| ''[[Passage to Marseille]]''
| ''[[Passage to Marseille]]''
| Captain Freycinet
| Captain Freycinet
| Michael Curtiz
| {{sortname|Michael|Curtiz}}
|
| [[Humphrey Bogart]], [[Michèle Morgan]], [[Philip Dorn]], [[Sydney Greenstreet]], [[Peter Lorre]], [[Helmut Dantine]]
|
|-
| ''[[Mr. Skeffington]]''
|-
| ''[[Mr. Skeffington]]''
| Job Skeffington
| Job Skeffington
| Vincent Sherman
| {{sortname|Vincent|Sherman}}
| Bette Davis, [[Walter Abel]], [[George Coulouris]], [[Richard Waring]]
| Nomination — Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
|-
|rowspan=3|{{fy|1945}}
| ''[[Strange Holiday]]''
| John Stevenson
| [[Julien Duvivier]]
| Jean Gabin, [[Richard Whorf]], [[Allyn Joslyn]], [[Ellen Drew]]
|
|
|-
|-
| rowspan="3" | 1945
| ''[[This Love of Ours]]''
| ''[[Strange Holiday (1945 film)|Strange Holiday]]''
| John Stevenson
| [[Arch Oboler]]
|
|-
| ''[[This Love of Ours]]''
| Joseph Targel
| Joseph Targel
| William Dieterle
| {{sortname|William|Dieterle}}
|
| [[Merle Oberon]]
|
|-
|-
| ''[[Caesar and Cleopatra (film)|Caesar and Cleopatra]]''
| ''[[Caesar and Cleopatra (film)|Caesar and Cleopatra]]''
| [[Julius Caesar]]
| [[Julius Caesar]]
| [[Gabriel Pascal]]
| {{sortname|Gabriel|Pascal}}
| [[Vivien Leigh]], [[Stewart Granger]], Flora Robson
| Technicolor
| Technicolor
|-
|rowspan=3|{{fy|1946}}
| ''[[Notorious (1946 film)|Notorious]]''
| Alex Sebastian
| [[Alfred Hitchcock]]
| [[Cary Grant]], Ingrid Bergman, [[Louis Calhern]]
| Nomination — Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
|-
| ''[[Angel on My Shoulder (film)|Angel on My Shoulder]]''
| Nick
| [[Archie Mayo]]
| Paul Muni, [[Anne Baxter]]
|
|-
| ''[[Deception (film)|Deception]]''
| Alexander Hollenius
| Irving Rapper
| Bette Davis, Paul Henreid
|
|-
|-
| rowspan="3" | 1946
| {{fy|1947}}
| ''[[The Unsuspected]]''
| ''[[Notorious (1946 film)|Notorious]]''
| Alexander Sebastian
| {{sortname|Alfred|Hitchcock}}
|
|-
| ''[[Angel on My Shoulder (film)|Angel on My Shoulder]]''
| [[Satan|Nick]]
| {{sortname|Archie|Mayo}}
|
|-
| ''[[Deception (1946 film)|Deception]]''
| Alexander Hollenius
| {{sortname|Irving|Rapper}}
|
|-
| 1947
| ''[[The Unsuspected]]''
| Victor Grandison
| Victor Grandison
| Michael Curtiz
| {{sortname|Michael|Curtiz}}
|
| [[Joan Caulfield]], [[Audrey Totter]], [[Constance Bennett]], [[Hurd Hatfield]]
|
|-
|-
|rowspan=3|{{fy|1949}}
| rowspan="3" | 1949
| ''[[The Passionate Friends]]''
| ''[[The Passionate Friends (1949 film)|The Passionate Friends]]''
| Howard Justin
| Howard Justin
| [[David Lean]]
| {{sortname|David|Lean}}
|
| [[Ann Todd]], [[Trevor Howard]]
|
|-
|-
| ''[[Rope of Sand]]''
| ''[[Rope of Sand]]''
| Arthur "Fred" Martingale
| Arthur "Fred" Martingale
| William Dieterle
| {{sortname|William|Dieterle}}
|
| [[Burt Lancaster]], Paul Henreid, [[Peter Lorre]]
|
|-
|-
| ''[[Song of Surrender]]''
| ''[[Song of Surrender]]''
| Elisha Hunt
| Elisha Hunt
| [[Mitchell Leisen]]
| {{sortname|Mitchell|Leisen}}
|
| [[Wanda Hendrix]], [[Macdonald Carey]]
|
|-
| rowspan="2" | 1950
|-
| ''[[The White Tower (film)|The White Tower]]''
| rowspan=2|{{fy|1950}}
| Paul DeLambre
| ''[[The White Tower (film)|The White Tower]]''
| {{sortname|Ted|Tetzlaff}}
| Paul DeLambre
| [[Ted Tetzlaff]]
| [[Glenn Ford]], [[Alida Valli]], [[Oskar Homolka]], [[Cedric Hardwicke]], [[Lloyd Bridges]]
| Technicolor
| Technicolor
|-
|-
| ''[[Where Danger Lives]]''
| ''[[Where Danger Lives]]''
| Frederick Lannington
| Frederick Lannington
| [[John Farrow]]
| {{sortname|John|Farrow}}
|
| [[Robert Mitchum]], [[Faith Domergue]], [[Maureen O'Sullivan]]
|
|-
|-
| {{fy|1951}}
| 1951
| ''[[Sealed Cargo]]''
| ''[[Sealed Cargo]]''
| Captain Skalder
| Captain Skalder
| [[Alfred L. Werker]]
| {{sortname|Alfred L.|Werker}}
|
| [[Dana Andrews]], [[Lloyd Bridges]]
|
|-
| 1952
|-
| ''[[The Man Who Watched the Trains Go By]]''
| {{fy|1953}}
| Kees Popinga
| ''[[The Man Who Watched the Trains Go By]]''
| {{sortname|Harold|French}}
| Kees Popinga
| [[Harold French]]
| [[Marta Toren]], [[Marius Goring]]
| Technicolor
| Technicolor
|-
|-
| {{fy|1956}}
| rowspan="2" | 1956
| ''[[Lisbon (film)|Lisbon]]''
| ''[[Alfred Hitchcock Presents]]''
| John Fabian
| Aristides Mavros
| [[Robert Stevenson (director)|Robert Stevenson]]
| [[Ray Milland]]
| Season 1 Episode 20: "And So Died Riabouchinska"
| Ray Milland, [[Maureen O'Hara]]
| [[Trucolor]]<br>Naturama
|-
|-
| ''[[Lisbon (1956 film)|Lisbon]]''
| {{fy|1959}}
| Aristides Mavros
| ''[[This Earth Is Mine]]''
| {{sortname|Ray|Milland}}
| Philippe Rambeau
| [[Henry King]]
| [[Trucolor]]; [[Naturama]]
| [[Rock Hudson]], [[Jean Simmons]], [[Dorothy McGuire]]
| Technicolor<br>[[CinemaScope]]
|-
|-
| rowspan="2" | 1957
| {{fy|1960}}
| ''[[Alfred Hitchcock Presents]]''
| ''[[The Lost World (1960 film)|The Lost World]]''
| Charles Gresham
| [[Herschel Daugherty]]
| Season 2 Episode 24: "The Cream of the Jest"
|-
| ''[[The Pied Piper of Hamelin (1957 film)|The Pied Piper of Hamelin]]''
| The Mayor of Hamelin
| {{sortname|Bretaigne|Windust}}
| Technicolor
|-
| rowspan="3" | 1959
| ''[[Alfred Hitchcock Presents]]''
| Andrew Thurgood
| [[Herschel Daugherty]]
| Season 4 Episode 20: "The Diamond Necklace"
|-
| ''[[This Earth Is Mine (1959 film)|This Earth Is Mine]]''
| Philippe Rambeau
| {{sortname|Henry|King|Henry King (director)}}
| Technicolor; [[CinemaScope]]
|-
| ''[[Judgment at Nuremberg (Playhouse 90)|Judgment at Nuremberg]]''
| Judge Haywood
| [[George Roy Hill]]
| ''[[Playhouse 90]]''
|-
| 1960
| ''[[The Lost World (1960 film)|The Lost World]]''
| [[Professor Challenger|Professor George Edward Challenger]]
| [[Professor Challenger|Professor George Edward Challenger]]
| [[Irwin Allen]]
| {{sortname|Irwin|Allen}}
| Deluxe color; CinemaScope
| [[Michael Rennie]], [[Jill St. John]], [[David Hedison]], [[Fernando Lamas]], [[Richard Haydn]]
| Deluxe color<br>CinemaScope
|-
|-
| {{fy|1961}}
| rowspan="2" | 1961
| ''[[Battle of the Worlds]]''
| ''[[Alfred Hitchcock Presents]]''
| Father Amion
| [[Alfred Hitchcock]]
| Season 6 Episode 22: "The Horseplayer"
|-
| ''[[Battle of the Worlds]]''
| Professor Benson
| Professor Benson
| [[Antonio Margheriti]]
| {{sortname|Antonio|Margheriti}}
| Colour
| Bill Carter
|-
| Color
| rowspan="2" | 1962
|-
| ''[[Alfred Hitchcock Presents]]''
| {{fy|1962}}
| Sergeant Shaw
| ''[[Lawrence of Arabia (film)|Lawrence of Arabia]]''
| [[Herschel Daugherty]]
| Mr. Dryden
| Season 7 Episode 15: "The Door Without a Key"
| David Lean
|-
| [[Peter O'Toole]], [[Alec Guiness]], [[Jack Hawkins]], [[Omar Sharif]], [[Anthony Quinn]], [[Anthony Quayle]], [[Arthur Kennedy (actor)|Arthur Kennedy]], [[Jose Ferrer]]
| ''[[Lawrence of Arabia (film)|Lawrence of Arabia]]''
| Technicolor<br>[[Super Panavision 70]]
| [[Mr. Dryden]]
|-
| {{fy|1963}}
| {{sortname|David|Lean}}
| Technicolor; [[Super Panavision 70]]
| ''[[Twilight of Honor]]''
|-
| Art Harper
| 1963
| [[Boris Sagal]]
| ''[[Twilight of Honor]]''
| [[Richard Chamberlain (actor)|Richard Chamberlain]], [[Nick Adams (actor)|Nick Adams]], [[Joey Heatherton]], [[Linda Evans]]
| Art Harper
|
| {{sortname|Boris|Sagal}}
|-
|
| {{fy|1965}}
|-
| ''[[The Greatest Story Ever Told]]''
| 1965
| [[King Herod]]
| ''[[The Greatest Story Ever Told]]''
| [[George Stevens]]
| [[Max von Sydow]], plus many cameos
| [[Herod the Great]]
| {{sortname|George|Stevens}}
| Technicolor<br>[[Ultra Panavision 70]]
| Final film
|}
|}

=== Theatre ===

Rains starred in multiple plays and productions over the course of his career, playing a variety of leading and supporting parts. As his film career began to flourish, he found less time to perform in the theatre in both England and America.

{| class="wikitable sortable" style="margin-right: 0;"
|-
! Year
! Play title
! Role
! Theatre
! class="unsortable" | Notes
|-
|1900||''[[Sweet Nell of Old Drury]]''||Child||Haymarket Theatre||Stage debut, aged 10 as an "unbilled child extra "running around a fountain."
|-
|1901||''Herod''||Child|| rowspan="2" |[[Her Majesty's Theatre|His Majesty's Theatre]]||Unbilled
|-
|1904||''Last of the Dandies''||Winkles||Rains' debut speaking role in the theatre
|-
|1911||''The Gods of the Mountain''||Thahn||[[Haymarket Theatre]]||Shared role with [[Reginald Owen]]
|-
| rowspan="2" |1913||''The Green Cockatoo''||Grasset||[[Aldwych Theatre]]||Stage Manager as well
|-
|''Typhoon''||Omayi||[[Haymarket Theatre]]||First heavy character role
|-
| rowspan="2" |1919||''Reparation''||Ivan Petrovitch||[[St. James's Theatre]]||Stage Manager as well
|-
|''Uncle Ned''||Mears||[[Lyceum Theatre, London|Lyceum Theatre]]||Marked Rains' return to the stage after being wounded in WWI
|-
|1920||''[[Julius Caesar (play)|Julius Caesar]]''||Casca||[[St. James's Theatre]]||[[Ernest Milton (actor)|Ernest Milton]] played Brutus
|-
|1925||''[[The Rivals]]''||Faulkland||[[Lyric Theatre (Hammersmith)|Lyric Hammersmith]]||
|-
|1926||''[[The Government Inspector]]''||The Inspector||[[Gaiety Theatre, London|Gaiety Theatre]]||Professional debut of his RADA student, [[Charles Laughton]]
|-
|1926||''Made in Heaven''||Martin Walmer||[[Everyman Cinema, Hampstead|Everyman Theatre, London]]||This was Rains' last appearance on the London Stage.
|-
|1951||''[[Darkness at Noon]]''||Rubashov||[[Alvin Theatre]]/[[Royale Theatre]]||
|-
|1954||''[[The Confidential Clerk]]''||Sir Claude Mulhammer||[[Morosco Theatre]]||
|-
|1956||''[[Night of the Auk]]''||Doctor Bruner||[[Playhouse Theatre (New York City)|Playhouse Theatre]]||Featuring [[Christopher Plummer]]
|}

===Radio===

1949. Ford Theatre. The horn blows at midnight with Jack Benny.

https://www.google.com/search?q=Ford+Theatre+radio+show+the+Horn+blows+at+midnight&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-us&client=safari

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Year !! Programme !! Episode/source
|-
| 1952|| ''[[Cavalcade of America]]'' || ''Three Words''<ref>{{cite news|last1=Kirby|first1=Walter|title=Better Radio Programs for the Week|newspaper=The Decatur Daily Review |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/2533510/the_decatur_daily_review/|agency=The Decatur Daily Review|date=17 February 1952|page=40|via = [[Newspapers.com]]|access-date = 1 June 2015}} {{Open access}}</ref>
|-
|1959
|Playhouse 90
|Judgement At Nuremberg
|}

==Discography==
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Year !! Title !! Recording Company
|-
| 1946||''The Christmas Tree''||Mercury Childcraft Records
|-
| 1948||''Bible Stories for Children''||[[Capitol Records]]
|-
| 1950|| ''Builders of America''||Columbia Masterworks
|-
| 1952<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.45cat.com/record/casf3123|title=Claude Rains - David And Goliath|via=www.45cat.com}}</ref>||''David and Goliath''||Capitol Records
|-
| 1957<ref>{{discogs release|10506951|name=Claire Bloom & Claude Rains – The Song Of Songs And Heloise And Abelard}}</ref>||The Song of Songs and Heloise and Abelard||Caedmon Records
|-
| 1960||''Remember The Alamo''||Noble Records
|-
| 1962||''Enoch Arden''||Columbia Masterworks
|}

==Awards and nominations==
===[[Academy Awards]]===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Year
! Category
! Nominated work
! Result
! Ref.
|-
| [[12th Academy Awards|1939]]
| rowspan="4"| [[Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor|Best Supporting Actor]]
| ''[[Mr. Smith Goes to Washington]]''
| {{nom}}
| align="center"| <ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1940 |title=The 12th Academy Awards (1940) Nominees and Winners |access-date=August 10, 2011 |publisher=[[Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences]]}}</ref>
|-
| [[16th Academy Awards|1943]]
| ''[[Casablanca (film)|Casablanca]]''
| {{nom}}
| align="center"| <ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1944 |title=The 16th Academy Awards (1944) Nominees and Winners |access-date=October 13, 2013 |publisher=[[Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences]]}}</ref>
|-
| [[17th Academy Awards|1944]]
| ''[[Mr. Skeffington]]''
| {{nom}}
| align="center"| <ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1945 |title=The 17th Academy Awards (1945) Nominees and Winners |access-date=August 14, 2011 |publisher=[[Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences]]}}</ref>
|-
| [[19th Academy Awards|1946]]
| ''[[Notorious (1946 film)|Notorious]]''
| {{nom}}
| align="center"| <ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1947 |title=The 19th Academy Awards (1947) Nominees and Winners |access-date=August 19, 2011 |publisher=[[Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences]]}}</ref>
|}

===[[Drama League Award]]s===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Year
! Category
! Nominated work
! Result
! Ref.
|-
| 1951
| Distinguished Performance Award
| ''[[Darkness at Noon]]''
| {{won}}
| align="center"| <ref>{{cite web |url=https://dramaleague.org/awards-history/ |title=Awards History – The Drama League |date=25 March 2021 |publisher=[[Drama League Award]]s |access-date=July 29, 2023}}</ref>
|}

===[[Grammy Awards]]===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Year
! Category
! Nominated work
! Result
! Ref.
|-
| [[5th Annual Grammy Awards|1962]]
| [[Grammy Award for Best Audio Book, Narration & Storytelling Recording|Best Documentary or Spoken Word Recording (Other Than Comedy)]]
| ''[[Enoch Arden]]''
| {{nom}}
| align="center"| <ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.grammy.com/artists/claude-rains/17270 |title=Claude Rains |publisher=[[Grammy Awards]] |access-date=July 29, 2023}}</ref>
|}

===Online Film & Television Association Awards===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Year
! Honor
! Result
! Ref.
|-
| 2023
| Film Hall of Fame: Actors
| {{won|Inducted}}
| align="center"| <ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.oftaawards.com/film-hall-of-fame/film-hall-of-fame-actors/ |title=Film Hall of Fame: Actors |publisher=Online Film & Television Association |access-date=July 29, 2023}}</ref>
|}

===[[Tony Awards]]===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Year
! Category
! Nominated work
! Result
! Ref.
|-
| [[5th Tony Awards|1951]]
| [[Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play|Best Actor in a Play]]
| ''[[Darkness at Noon]]''
| {{won}}
| align="center"| <ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.tonyawards.com/nominees/year/1951/category/actor-leading-role-play/show/any/ |title=The Tony Award Nominations – 1951 Actor (Play) |publisher=[[Tony Awards]] |access-date=July 28, 2023}}</ref>
|}

==See also==
{{Portal|Biography}}
* [[List of actors with Academy Award nominations]]


==References==
==References==
{{reflist}}
{{Reflist}}


== General sources ==
==Bibliography==
*[[Aljean Harmetz]], ''Round Up the Usual Suspects: The Making of "Casablanca"'' (New York: [[Hyperion (publisher)|Hyperion]], 1992)
* {{cite book |last= Harmetz |first= Aljean |title= Round Up the Usual Suspects: The Making of "Casablanca" |url= https://archive.org/details/roundupusualsusp00harm |url-access= registration |date= 1992 |edition= First |type= hardcover |publisher= Hyperion |location= Westport, CT |isbn = 978-1-56282-941-4}}
* {{cite book |last1= Soister |first1= John T. |last2= Wioskowski |first2= JoAnna |title= Claude Rains: A Comprehensive Illustrated Reference to His Work in Film, Stage, Radio, Television and Recordings |date= 2006 |edition= Reprint |type= softcover |publisher= McFarland |location= Jefferson, NC |isbn = 978-0-7864-2855-7 |oclc= 41580407 }}
*[[David J. Skal]] and Jessica Rains, ''Claude Rains: An Actor's Voice'' ([[University Press of Kentucky]], 2008)
* {{cite book |last= Skal |first= David J. |title= Claude Rains: An Actor's Voice |date= 2008 |edition= First |type= hardcover |publisher= The University Press of Kentucky |location= Lexington, KY |jstor= j.ctt2jcg4f |isbn = 978-1-7200-3837-5 }}

==Further reading==
* {{cite book |last= Alistair |first= Rupert |title= The Name Below the Title : 65 Classic Movie Character Actors from Hollywood's Golden Age |chapter= Claude Rains |pages= 215–217 |date= 2018 |edition= First |type= softcover |publisher= Independently published |location= Great Britain |isbn = 978-1-7200-3837-5}}
* {{cite book |last= Felice |first= Carmella |title= The Life and Times of Claude Rains |date= 2006 |edition= First |type= softcover |publisher= AuthorHouse |location= Bloomington, IN |isbn = 978-1-4259-5301-0 |url= https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2141761.The_Life_and_Times_of_Claude_Rains}}


==External links==
==External links==
{{Wikiquote}}
{{Commons}}
{{Commons}}
{{Wikiquote}}
* {{ibdb name|56984}}
* {{IMDb name}}
* [http://www.bris.ac.uk/theatrecollection/search/people_sub_plays?forename=Claude&surname=RAINS&job=Actor&pid=7947&image_view=Yes&x=19&y=17 Performances listed in Theatre Archive University of Bristol]
* {{imdb name|1647}}
* {{AllMovie name}}
* {{Amg name|58546}}
* {{ TCMDb name | 157263%7C32760 }}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20160818133729/http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b9f57ed22 Claude Rains] at the [[British Film Institute]]{{better source needed|reason=Help request: a live link can be searched for at https://collections-search.bfi.org.uk/web/search/expert - if available, replace the archive URL with the live link. Or if none found, remove this 'better source needed' template. | date=October 2023}}
* {{tcmdb name|157263}}
* {{Screenonline name|id=546482}}
* [http://www.westbradford.org/htmls/Newsletters/2001/sum01_newsletter.htm Stock Grange Farm]
* {{findagrave|850}}
* {{IBDB name}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20110607213155/http://www.bris.ac.uk/theatrecollection/search/people_sub_plays?forename=Claude&surname=RAINS&job=Actor&pid=7947&image_view=Yes&x=19&y=17 Performances listed in Theatre Archive of the University of Bristol]

<!--spacing, please do not remove-->


{{Navboxes
|title = Awards for Claude Rains
|list =
{{Distinguished Performance Award}}
{{TonyAward PlayLeadActor 1947-1975}}
{{TonyAward PlayLeadActor 1947-1975}}

{{Persondata
|NAME = Rains, Claude
|ALTERNATIVE NAMES = Rains, William Claude
|SHORT DESCRIPTION = English actor
|DATE OF BIRTH = November 10, 1889
|PLACE OF BIRTH = [[London]], [[England]]
|DATE OF DEATH = May 30, 1967
|PLACE OF DEATH = [[Laconia, New Hampshire]]
}}
}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rains, Claude}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rains, Claude}}
[[Category:1889 births]]
[[Category:1889 births]]
[[Category:1967 deaths]]
[[Category:1967 deaths]]
[[Category:Military personnel from the London Borough of Lambeth]]
[[Category:Academics of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art]]
[[Category:American male film actors]]
[[Category:American male radio actors]]
[[Category:American male stage actors]]
[[Category:American male television actors]]
[[Category:Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Regiment officers]]
[[Category:British acting coaches]]
[[Category:British Army personnel of World War I]]
[[Category:British Army personnel of World War I]]
[[Category:English film actors]]
[[Category:British emigrants to the United States]]
[[Category:English stage actors]]
[[Category:Deaths from gastrointestinal hemorrhage]]
[[Category:Donaldson Award winners]]
[[Category:English acting coaches]]
[[Category:English male film actors]]
[[Category:English male radio actors]]
[[Category:English male stage actors]]
[[Category:English male television actors]]
[[Category:London Scottish soldiers]]
[[Category:Male actors from London]]
[[Category:Naturalized citizens of the United States]]
[[Category:Naturalized citizens of the United States]]
[[Category:People from London]]
[[Category:Actors from the London Borough of Lambeth]]
[[Category:Tony Award winners]]
[[Category:Tony Award winners]]
[[Category:Warner Bros. contract players]]

[[Category:20th-century American male actors]]
[[ca:Claude Rains]]
[[Category:20th-century English male actors]]
[[de:Claude Rains]]
[[Category:Territorial Force soldiers]]
[[et:Claude Rains]]
[[Category:People from Clapham]]
[[es:Claude Rains]]
[[fr:Claude Rains]]
[[it:Claude Rains]]
[[he:קלוד ריינס]]
[[ja:クロード・レインズ]]
[[no:Claude Rains]]
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[[pt:Claude Rains]]
[[ro:Claude Rains]]
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[[sv:Claude Rains]]

Latest revision as of 22:33, 9 November 2024

Claude Rains
Rains in Now, Voyager (1942)
Born
William Claude Rains

(1889-11-10)10 November 1889
Clapham, London, England
Died30 May 1967(1967-05-30) (aged 77)
Citizenship
  • United Kingdom
  • United States
Alma materRoyal Academy of Dramatic Art
OccupationActor
Years active1900–1965
Spouses
(m. 1913; div. 1915)
Marie Hemingway
(m. 1920; div. 1920)
(m. 1924; div. 1935)
Frances Propper
(m. 1935; div. 1956)
(m. 1959; div. 1960)
Rosemary Clark Schrode
(m. 1960; died 1964)
Children1
FatherFred Rains

William Claude Rains (10 November 1889 – 30 May 1967) was a British-American actor whose career spanned almost seven decades. After his American film debut as Dr. Jack Griffin in The Invisible Man (1933), he appeared in The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), The Wolf Man (1941), Casablanca (1942), Kings Row (1942), Notorious (1946), Lawrence of Arabia (1962), and The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965).

He was a Tony Award–winning actor and a four-time nominee for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Rains was one of the screen's great character stars who played cultured villains.[1][2]

Early life

[edit]

William Claude Rains was born on 10 November 1889 at 26 Tregothnan Road in Clapham, London.[3] His parents were Emily Eliza (née Cox) and stage actor Frederick William Rains.[4] He lived in the slums of London.[5] Rains was one of twelve children, of whom all but four died while still infants. His mother took in boarders in order to support the family. Rains grew up with a Cockney accent and a speech impediment.[6]

Rains in his captain's uniform during the First World War

Because his father was an actor, the young Rains would spend time in theatres and was surrounded by actors and stagehands. There he observed actors as well as the day-to-day running of a theatre. Rains made his stage debut at age 10 in the play Sweet Nell of Old Drury at the Haymarket Theatre, so that he could run around onstage as part of the production. He slowly worked his way up in the theatre, becoming a call boy (telling actors when they were due on stage) at His Majesty's Theatre and later a prompter, stage manager, understudy, and then moving on from smaller parts with good reviews to larger, better parts.

A 23-year-old Rains in one of his early theatre roles, 1912

Early career and military service

[edit]

Rains moved to the United States in 1912 owing to the opportunities that were being offered in the New York theatres. However, at the outbreak of World War I in 1914, he returned to England to serve in the London Scottish Regiment,[7] alongside fellow actors Basil Rathbone, Ronald Colman, Herbert Marshall and Cedric Hardwicke.[8] In November 1916, Rains was involved in a gas attack at Vimy, which resulted in his permanently losing 90 percent of the vision in his right eye as well as suffering vocal cord damage.[9] He never returned to combat but continued to serve with the Transport Workers Battalion of the Bedfordshire Regiment, in which he was commissioned as a temporary lieutenant on 9 May 1917.[10] In March 1918, he was promoted to temporary captain,[11] the rank he held at the end of the war.[9] On 8 October 1918 he was appointed as adjutant,[12] and continued to serve in that role until March 1919.[13]

After his return to civilian life, Rains remained in England and continued to develop his acting talents. These talents were recognised by Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree, the founder of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Tree told Rains that in order to succeed as an actor, he would have to get rid of his Cockney accent and speech impediment. With this in mind, Tree paid for the elocution books and lessons that Rains needed to help him change his voice. Rains eventually shed his accent and speech impediment after practising every day. His daughter Jessica, when describing her father's voice, said, "The interesting thing to me was that he became a different person. He became a very elegant man, with a really extraordinary Mid-Atlantic accent. It was 'his' voice, nobody else spoke like that, half American, half English and a little Cockney thrown in."[14] Soon after changing his accent, he became recognised as one of the leading stage actors in London. At age 29, he made his film debut, playing the role of Clarkis in his only silent film, the British film Build Thy House (1920).

During his early years, Rains taught at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts (RADA). John Gielgud and Charles Laughton were among his students. In an interview for Turner Classic Movies, Gielgud fondly remembered Rains:

I learnt a great deal about acting from this gentleman. Claude Rains was one of my teachers at RADA. In fact he was one of the best and most popular teachers there. He was extremely attractive and needless to say, all the girls in my class were hopelessly in love with him. He had piercing dark eyes and a beautifully throaty voice, although he had, like Marlene Dietrich, some trouble with the letter 'R'. He lacked inches and wore lifts to his shoes to increase his height. Stocky but handsome, Rains had broad shoulders and a mop of thick brown hair which he brushed over one eye. But by the time I first met him in the 1920s he was already much in demand as a character actor in London. I found him enormously helpful and encouraging to work with. I was always trying to copy him in my first years as an actor, until I decided to imitate Noël Coward instead.

Career

[edit]

In London theatre, he achieved success in the title role of John Drinkwater's play Ulysses S. Grant, the follow-up to the same playwright's Abraham Lincoln. Rains portrayed Faulkland in Richard Brinsley Sheridan's The Rivals, presented at London's Lyric Theatre in 1925. He returned to New York City in 1927 and appeared in nearly 20 Broadway roles, in plays which included George Bernard Shaw's The Apple Cart and dramatisations of The Constant Nymph and Pearl S. Buck's novel The Good Earth (as a Chinese farmer).

Rains with Mary Kennedy in Camel Through the Needle's Eye on Broadway, New York City, 1929

Although he had played the single supporting role in the silent, Build Thy House (1920),[2] Rains came relatively late to film acting. While working for the Theatre Guild, he was offered a screen test with Universal Pictures in 1932. His screen test for A Bill of Divorcement (1932) for a New York representative of RKO was a failure but, according to some accounts, led to his being cast in the title role of James Whale's The Invisible Man (1933) after his screen test and unique voice were inadvertently overheard from the next room.[6][15] His agent, Harold Freedman, was a family friend of Carl Laemmle, who controlled Universal Pictures at the time, and had been acquainted with Rains in London and was keen to cast him in the role.[16][17] According to Rains' daughter, this was the only film of his he ever saw. He also did not go to see the rushes of the day's filming "because he told me, every time he went he was horrified by his huge face on the huge screen, that he just never went back again."

Rains signed a long-term contract with Warner Bros. on 27 November 1935, with Warner able to exercise the right to loan him to other studios and Rains having a potential income of up to $750,000 over seven years.[18] He played the villainous role of Prince John in The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938). Roddy McDowall once asked Rains if he had intentionally lampooned Bette Davis in his performance as Prince John, and Rains only smiled "an enigmatic smile." Rains later revealed to his daughter that he had enjoyed playing the prince as a homosexual, by using subtle mannerisms. Rains later credited the film's co-director Michael Curtiz with teaching him the more understated requirements of film acting, or "what not to do in front of a camera."[19] On loan to Columbia Pictures, he portrayed a corrupt but honourable U.S. senator in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), for which he received his first Academy Award nomination as Best Supporting Actor. For Warner Bros., he played Dr. Alexander Tower, who commits murder-suicide to spare his daughter a life of insanity in Kings Row (1942) and the cynical police chief Captain Louis Renault in Casablanca (also 1942). On loan again, Rains played the title character in Universal's remake of Phantom of the Opera (1943).

In her 1987 memoir, This 'N That, Bette Davis stated that Rains (with whom she shared the screen four times in Juarez; Now, Voyager; Mr. Skeffington; and Deception) was her favorite co-star.[20] Rains became the first actor to receive a million-dollar salary when he portrayed Julius Caesar in a large-budget but unsuccessful version of Shaw's Caesar and Cleopatra (1945), filmed in Britain. Shaw apparently chose him for the part, although Rains intensely disliked Gabriel Pascal, the film's director and producer.[21] Rains followed it with Alfred Hitchcock's Notorious (1946) as a refugee Nazi agent opposite Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman. Back in Britain, he appeared in David Lean's The Passionate Friends (1949).

Rains in Notorious (1946)

His only singing and dancing role was in a 1957 television musical version of Robert Browning's The Pied Piper of Hamelin, with Van Johnson as the Piper. The NBC colour special, broadcast as a film rather than a live or videotaped programme, was highly successful with the public. Sold into syndication after its first telecast, it was repeated annually by many local US TV stations.

Rains remained active as a character actor in the 1950s and 1960s, appearing in films and as a guest in television series. He played the ventriloquist Fabian on Alfred Hitchcock Presents Season 1 Episode 20 "And So Died Riabouchinska" which aired on February 10, 1956. He ventured into science fiction for Irwin Allen's The Lost World (1960) and Antonio Margheriti's Battle of the Worlds (1961). Two of his late screen roles were as Dryden, a cynical British diplomat in Lawrence of Arabia (1962) and King Herod in The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965), his last film. In CBS's Rawhide, he portrayed Alexander Langford, an attorney in a ghost town, in the episode "Incident of Judgement Day" (1963).

He additionally made several audio recordings, narrating some Bible stories for children on Capitol Records, and reciting Richard Strauss's setting for narrator and piano of Tennyson's poem Enoch Arden, with the piano solos performed by Glenn Gould. He starred in The Jeffersonian Heritage, a 1952 series of 13 half-hour radio programmes recorded by the National Association of Educational Broadcasters and syndicated for commercial broadcast on a sustaining (i.e., commercial-free) basis.[22]

Reception

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Jessica Rains remembered her father's work ethic:

He was interested in the process (of film). He loved acting. When he came to California to do a film, I had to "hear him his lines" as he drove me to school every morning, 10 miles [16 km]. He knew everybody's part. He knew the whole script before he came out (to film). I don't think many people did that.

Bette Davis in an interview with Dick Cavett said about Rains:

Well, of course he petrified me. The first time I played with him was in Carlotta (Juarez), and I had to make an entrance [into] the King of France's domain for a rehearsal, and he's playing the King of France (N.B. The character is actually the Emperor of the French Napoleon III) in rehearsal. As all of us "other era people," we don't just run through lines and say "turn the camera", we rehearse beforehand...Anyway Claude and I couldn't, and he was the King of France who loathed Carlotta, and I was a kid and petrified of Mr. Rains, so I thought he hated me. I didn't know he was playing the character. I thought, he thinks I just stink! What am I going to do? Eventually we worked together quite a lot and became really great friends, really great friends.

Davis later went on to describe him: "Claude was witty, amusing and beautiful, really beautiful, thoroughly enchanting to be with and brilliant." She also praised his performances: "He was marvelous in Deception and was worth the whole thing as the picture wasn't terribly good, but he was so marvelous in the restaurant scene where he's talking about all the food...brilliant, and of course in Mr. Skeffington he was absolutely brilliant as the husband, just brilliant."

Richard Chamberlain worked with Rains in what would be his second-to-last film, Twilight of Honor. In 2009, Chamberlain recorded a tribute to the actor when Rains was featured as Turner Classic Movies' Star of the Month:[23]

Claude Rains has to be considered one of the finest actors of the 20th century. As soon as you hear that marvelous, unmistakable voice of honey mixed with gravel, he becomes instantly recognizable. And that scornful right eyebrow which could freeze an adversary faster than and more effectively than any physical threat. He stood at a mere 5′6″, yet his enormous talent and immense stage presence made him a giant among his colleagues. During a stage and film career that spanned six decades, Rains encompassed some of the most memorable and exciting characters ever created by an actor. Villains were a Rains specialty, particularly those of a suave and sarcastic nature; and yet when the role called for it, Rains could be remarkably moving and even add a touch of pathos without losing any of his effectiveness.

In Twilight of Honor Rains played a retired lawyer acting as a mentor to Chamberlain's character. Reminiscing about his work with Rains, Chamberlain said:

He was in his seventies then and in failing health, yet he was charming and totally professional on the set. It was clear to us that he loved practicing his craft; he dazzled us all. Claude was an extremely private man—he never discussed his humble beginnings, his six marriages. But get him into a conversation about acting, and he opened up with delightful anecdotes and fascinating stories about his long life as a thespian.

One day on the set I mentioned to him that Notorious was one of my favorite films, and Claude related with amusement the filming of a particular scene with Ingrid Bergman. Rains was a very small man and Bergman was quite tall, so in order to shoot them in close-up together (in the key scene) the resourceful Alfred Hitchcock had a ramp installed, so as Rains approaches Bergman on camera he appears taller than his co-star. Claude found this ramp business a bit embarrassing and very funny.

I got another taste of Claude's witty nature shooting a scene in his [next-to-last] film, in which he had a long piece of dialogue. Generally he had no problem remembering his lines despite getting along in years. However, there was one particularly long scene shot late at night where he was having a lot of trouble with the dialogue, and kept making excuses. And finally he paused and said with a sheepish look "Alibi Ike, good old Alibi Ike" ("Alibi Ike" being an expression based on a 1935 film of the same name, in which the lead character has a penchant for making up excuses). Of course in the finished film he played the scene flawlessly, as he always did. Claude Rains: truly a class act, on and off screen.

Many years after Rains had gone to Hollywood and become a well-known film actor, John Gielgud commented, tongue-in-cheek:

There was somebody who taught me a very great deal at drama school, and I am certainly grateful to him for his kindness and consideration. His name was Claude Rains. I don't know whatever happened to him. I think he failed, and had to go to America.[24]

Gielgud later went on to recollect a time when he was in New York and in the audience during an event that included a focus on Bette Davis: "A number of clips from many of her most successful films were shown and I was particularly delighted, when, as soon as Claude Rains appeared in the close-up of one of the clips, the whole audience burst into a great wave of applause."

Bette Davis often cited Rains as one of her favorite actors and colleagues. Gielgud said that he once wrote that "The London stage suffered a great loss when Claude Rains deserted it for motion pictures," and that he later added, "but when I see him now on the screen and remember him, I must admit that the London stage's loss was the cinema's gain. And the striking virtuosity that I witnessed as a young actor is now there for audiences everywhere to see for all time. I'm so glad of that."

Personal life and death

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The ivory military uniform Rains wore in Casablanca was sold at auction in 2011 for $55,000.[25]

Rains became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1939.

He married six times and was divorced from the first five of his wives: Isabel Jeans (married 1913–1915); Marie Hemingway (to whom Rains was married for less than a year in 1920); Beatrix Thomson (1924–8 April 1935); Frances Propper (9 April 1935 – 1956); and the classical pianist Agi Jambor (4 November 1959 – 1960). In 1960, he married Rosemary Clark Schrode, to whom he was married until her death on 31 December 1964. His only child, Jennifer, was the daughter of Frances Propper. As an actress, she is known as Jessica Rains.[26]

He acquired the 380-acre (1.5 km2) Stock Grange Farm, built in 1747 in West Bradford Township, Pennsylvania (just outside Coatesville), in 1941. The farm became one of the "great prides" of his life.[27] Here, he became a "gentleman farmer" and could relax and enjoy farming life with his then wife (Frances) churning the butter, their daughter collecting the eggs, with Rains himself ploughing the fields and cultivating the vegetable garden. He spent much of his time between film takes reading up on agricultural techniques to try when he got home. He sold the farm when his marriage to Propper ended in 1956; the building now, as then, is still referred to by locals as "Rains' Place".[28] Rains spent his final years in Sandwich, New Hampshire.[29]

In his final years, he decided to write his memoirs and engaged the help of journalist Jonathan Root to assist him. Rains' declining health delayed their completion and with Root's death in March 1967 the project was never completed. A chronic alcoholic, Rains died from cirrhosis of the liver, having an abdominal hemorrhage in Laconia on 30 May 1967, aged 77.[30] His daughter said, "And, just like most actors, he died waiting for his agent to call."[31] He was buried at the Red Hill Cemetery in Moultonborough, New Hampshire. He designed his own tombstone which reads "All things once, Are things forever, Soul, once living, lives forever".

In 2010, many of Rains' personal effects were put into an auction at Heritage Auctions, including his 1951 Tony award, rare posters, letters and photographs. Also included in the auction were many volumes of his private leather-bound scrapbooks which contained many of his press cuttings and reviews from the beginning of his career. The majority of the items were used to help David J. Skal write his book on Rains, An Actor's Voice. In 2011, the ivory military uniform (complete with medals) he wore as Captain Renault in Casablanca was put up for auction when noted actress and film historian Debbie Reynolds sold her collection of Hollywood costumes and memorabilia which she had amassed as a result of the 1970 MGM auction.[25]

Acting credits

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Filmography

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Year Title Role Director Notes
1920 Build Thy House Clarkis Fred Goodwins Film debut
1933 The Invisible Man Dr. Jack Griffin/The Invisible Man James Whale
1934 Crime Without Passion Lee Gentry Ben Hecht, Charles MacArthur
The Man Who Reclaimed His Head Paul Verin Edward Ludwig
1935 The Mystery of Edwin Drood John Jasper Stuart Walker
The Clairvoyant Maximus Maurice Elvey
The Last Outpost John Stevenson Louis Gasnier, Charles Barton
Scrooge Jacob Marley Henry Edwards Uncredited
1936 Hearts Divided Napoleon Bonaparte Frank Borzage
Anthony Adverse Marquis Don Luis Mervyn LeRoy
1937 Stolen Holiday Stefan Orloff Michael Curtiz
The Prince and the Pauper Earl of Hertford William Keighley
They Won't Forget District Attorney Andrew J. "Andy" Griffin Mervyn LeRoy
1938 White Banners Paul Ward Edmund Goulding
Gold is Where You Find It Colonel Christopher "Chris" Ferris Michael Curtiz Technicolor
The Adventures of Robin Hood Prince John Michael Curtiz Technicolor
Four Daughters Adam Lemp Michael Curtiz
1939 They Made Me a Criminal Detective Monty Phelan Busby Berkeley
Juarez Emperor Louis Napoleon III William Dieterle
Sons of Liberty Haym Salomon Michael Curtiz Technicolor; two-reel short
Daughters Courageous Jim Masters Michael Curtiz
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington Senator Joseph Harrison Paine Frank Capra
Four Wives Adam Lemp Michael Curtiz
1940 Saturday's Children Mr. Henry Halevy Vincent Sherman
The Sea Hawk Don José Álvarez de Córdoba Michael Curtiz Sepia tone (sequence)
Lady with Red Hair David Belasco Curtis Bernhardt
1941 Four Mothers Adam Lemp William Keighley
Here Comes Mr. Jordan Mr. Jordan Alexander Hall
The Wolf Man Sir John Talbot George Waggner
1942 Kings Row Dr. Alexander Tower Sam Wood
Moontide Nutsy Archie Mayo
Now, Voyager Dr. Jaquith Irving Rapper
Casablanca Captain Louis Renault Michael Curtiz
1943 Forever and a Day Ambrose Pomfret Herbert Wilcox
(sequence with Rains)
Phantom of the Opera Erique Claudin/The Phantom of the Opera Arthur Lubin Technicolor
1944 Passage to Marseille Captain Freycinet Michael Curtiz
Mr. Skeffington Job Skeffington Vincent Sherman
1945 Strange Holiday John Stevenson Arch Oboler
This Love of Ours Joseph Targel William Dieterle
Caesar and Cleopatra Julius Caesar Gabriel Pascal Technicolor
1946 Notorious Alexander Sebastian Alfred Hitchcock
Angel on My Shoulder Nick Archie Mayo
Deception Alexander Hollenius Irving Rapper
1947 The Unsuspected Victor Grandison Michael Curtiz
1949 The Passionate Friends Howard Justin David Lean
Rope of Sand Arthur "Fred" Martingale William Dieterle
Song of Surrender Elisha Hunt Mitchell Leisen
1950 The White Tower Paul DeLambre Ted Tetzlaff Technicolor
Where Danger Lives Frederick Lannington John Farrow
1951 Sealed Cargo Captain Skalder Alfred L. Werker
1952 The Man Who Watched the Trains Go By Kees Popinga Harold French Technicolor
1956 Alfred Hitchcock Presents John Fabian Robert Stevenson Season 1 Episode 20: "And So Died Riabouchinska"
Lisbon Aristides Mavros Ray Milland Trucolor; Naturama
1957 Alfred Hitchcock Presents Charles Gresham Herschel Daugherty Season 2 Episode 24: "The Cream of the Jest"
The Pied Piper of Hamelin The Mayor of Hamelin Bretaigne Windust Technicolor
1959 Alfred Hitchcock Presents Andrew Thurgood Herschel Daugherty Season 4 Episode 20: "The Diamond Necklace"
This Earth Is Mine Philippe Rambeau Henry King Technicolor; CinemaScope
Judgment at Nuremberg Judge Haywood George Roy Hill Playhouse 90
1960 The Lost World Professor George Edward Challenger Irwin Allen Deluxe color; CinemaScope
1961 Alfred Hitchcock Presents Father Amion Alfred Hitchcock Season 6 Episode 22: "The Horseplayer"
Battle of the Worlds Professor Benson Antonio Margheriti Colour
1962 Alfred Hitchcock Presents Sergeant Shaw Herschel Daugherty Season 7 Episode 15: "The Door Without a Key"
Lawrence of Arabia Mr. Dryden David Lean Technicolor; Super Panavision 70
1963 Twilight of Honor Art Harper Boris Sagal
1965 The Greatest Story Ever Told Herod the Great George Stevens Final film

Theatre

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Rains starred in multiple plays and productions over the course of his career, playing a variety of leading and supporting parts. As his film career began to flourish, he found less time to perform in the theatre in both England and America.

Year Play title Role Theatre Notes
1900 Sweet Nell of Old Drury Child Haymarket Theatre Stage debut, aged 10 as an "unbilled child extra "running around a fountain."
1901 Herod Child His Majesty's Theatre Unbilled
1904 Last of the Dandies Winkles Rains' debut speaking role in the theatre
1911 The Gods of the Mountain Thahn Haymarket Theatre Shared role with Reginald Owen
1913 The Green Cockatoo Grasset Aldwych Theatre Stage Manager as well
Typhoon Omayi Haymarket Theatre First heavy character role
1919 Reparation Ivan Petrovitch St. James's Theatre Stage Manager as well
Uncle Ned Mears Lyceum Theatre Marked Rains' return to the stage after being wounded in WWI
1920 Julius Caesar Casca St. James's Theatre Ernest Milton played Brutus
1925 The Rivals Faulkland Lyric Hammersmith
1926 The Government Inspector The Inspector Gaiety Theatre Professional debut of his RADA student, Charles Laughton
1926 Made in Heaven Martin Walmer Everyman Theatre, London This was Rains' last appearance on the London Stage.
1951 Darkness at Noon Rubashov Alvin Theatre/Royale Theatre
1954 The Confidential Clerk Sir Claude Mulhammer Morosco Theatre
1956 Night of the Auk Doctor Bruner Playhouse Theatre Featuring Christopher Plummer

Radio

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1949. Ford Theatre. The horn blows at midnight with Jack Benny.

https://www.google.com/search?q=Ford+Theatre+radio+show+the+Horn+blows+at+midnight&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-us&client=safari

Year Programme Episode/source
1952 Cavalcade of America Three Words[32]
1959 Playhouse 90 Judgement At Nuremberg

Discography

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Year Title Recording Company
1946 The Christmas Tree Mercury Childcraft Records
1948 Bible Stories for Children Capitol Records
1950 Builders of America Columbia Masterworks
1952[33] David and Goliath Capitol Records
1957[34] The Song of Songs and Heloise and Abelard Caedmon Records
1960 Remember The Alamo Noble Records
1962 Enoch Arden Columbia Masterworks

Awards and nominations

[edit]
Year Category Nominated work Result Ref.
1939 Best Supporting Actor Mr. Smith Goes to Washington Nominated [35]
1943 Casablanca Nominated [36]
1944 Mr. Skeffington Nominated [37]
1946 Notorious Nominated [38]
Year Category Nominated work Result Ref.
1951 Distinguished Performance Award Darkness at Noon Won [39]
Year Category Nominated work Result Ref.
1962 Best Documentary or Spoken Word Recording (Other Than Comedy) Enoch Arden Nominated [40]

Online Film & Television Association Awards

[edit]
Year Honor Result Ref.
2023 Film Hall of Fame: Actors Inducted [41]
Year Category Nominated work Result Ref.
1951 Best Actor in a Play Darkness at Noon Won [42]

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Erickson, Hal (5 March 2016). "Claude Rains". Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times. Archived from the original on 5 March 2016. Retrieved 30 December 2015.
  2. ^ a b McFarlane, Brian. "Rains, Claude (1889-1967)". British Film Institute. Retrieved 30 December 2015. From McFarlane's Encyclopedia of British Film. London: Methuen/BFI, 2003, p. 545
  3. ^ "Rains, (William) Claude (1889–1967)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/55624. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  4. ^ Wise, James E.; Baron, Scott (2002). International Stars at War. Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-1-5575-0965-9.
  5. ^ Soister, p. 1
  6. ^ a b Harmetz, p. 147
  7. ^ "Welcome to The London Scottish Regiment Website". London Scottish Regt. Archived from the original on 12 April 2007.
  8. ^ Hastings, Max (2013). Catastrophe: Europe Goes to War 1914. William Collins. p. 486. ISBN 978-0-007-51974-3.
  9. ^ a b Parkinson, David (7 November 2018). "Roll of honour: 15 movie legends who served in the First World War". British Film Institute. Retrieved 26 February 2020.
  10. ^ The London Gazette, Supplement 30074, 15 May 1917, p. 4783
  11. ^ The London Gazette, Supplement 30685, 14 May 1918, p. 5831
  12. ^ The London Gazette, Supplement 31030, 22 November 1918, p. 13898
  13. ^ The London Gazette, Supplement 31256, 28 March 1919, p. 4111
  14. ^ Rains, Jessica (2000). "Extras". Phantom of the Opera (Interview) (2004 DVD ed.). Universal Pictures.
  15. ^ Weaver, Tom; Brunas, Michael; Brunas, John (2007). Universal Horrors: The Studio's Classic Films, 1931-1946. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland. p. https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=Wut4jYBtUdsC&pg=PA102 102].
  16. ^ Skal and Rains Claude Rains: An Actor's Voice, pp. 48-9
  17. ^ Weaver, Brunas & Brunas 2007, p. 79.
  18. ^ David J. Skal, with Jessica Rains Claude Rains: An Actor's Voice, Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2008, pp. 61-62
  19. ^ Harmetz, p. 190
  20. ^ Davis and Herskowitz 1987, p. 26
  21. ^ Shipman, David (1989). The Great Movie Stars: 1, The Golden Years. London: Macdonald. p. 487. ISBN 978-0600338178.
  22. ^ "The Jeffersonian Heritage," Broadcasting-Telecasting, 8 September 1952, 36 (trade advertisement).
  23. ^ "Richard Chamberlain on Claude Rains -- (TCM Original) September, 2009". www.tcm.com. Retrieved 22 June 2022.
  24. ^ Morley, Sheridan (11 May 2010). John Gielgud: The Authorized Biography. Simon & Schuster. p. 50. ISBN 978-1-4391-1617-3.
  25. ^ a b "Claude Rains "Captain Louis Renault" ivory military suit from Casablanca". iCollector.com Online Auctions. Archived from the original on 12 August 2018. Retrieved 6 March 2017.
  26. ^ Skal and Rains, p. 104
  27. ^ "Claude Rains' Scrapbook Devoted to His Farm, Stock - Lot #49362 - Heritage Auctions". Heritage Auctions.
  28. ^ "Thinking about Claude Rains and the pastoral Stock Grange Farm". 8 March 2020.
  29. ^ Duckler, Ray (31 March 2012). "A Star's Last Act: The great Claude Rains spent his final years in New Hampshire". Concord Monitor. Archived from the original on 13 September 2013. Retrieved 13 September 2013.
  30. ^ "Rains was never a minor character". Los Angeles Times. 20 November 2008.
  31. ^ Soister, John T. (19 July 2017). Claude Rains: A Comprehensive Illustrated to His Work in Film, Stage, Radio, Television and Recordings. McFarland. ISBN 978-1-4766-1278-2.
  32. ^ Kirby, Walter (17 February 1952). "Better Radio Programs for the Week". The Decatur Daily Review. The Decatur Daily Review. p. 40. Retrieved 1 June 2015 – via Newspapers.com. Open access icon
  33. ^ "Claude Rains - David And Goliath" – via www.45cat.com.
  34. ^ Claire Bloom & Claude Rains – The Song Of Songs And Heloise And Abelard at Discogs
  35. ^ "The 12th Academy Awards (1940) Nominees and Winners". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 10 August 2011.
  36. ^ "The 16th Academy Awards (1944) Nominees and Winners". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 13 October 2013.
  37. ^ "The 17th Academy Awards (1945) Nominees and Winners". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 14 August 2011.
  38. ^ "The 19th Academy Awards (1947) Nominees and Winners". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 19 August 2011.
  39. ^ "Awards History – The Drama League". Drama League Awards. 25 March 2021. Retrieved 29 July 2023.
  40. ^ "Claude Rains". Grammy Awards. Retrieved 29 July 2023.
  41. ^ "Film Hall of Fame: Actors". Online Film & Television Association. Retrieved 29 July 2023.
  42. ^ "The Tony Award Nominations – 1951 Actor (Play)". Tony Awards. Retrieved 28 July 2023.

General sources

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Further reading

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