Claude Rains

Claude Rains

Claude Rains (10 November 1889 – 30 May 1967) was an English stage and film actor whose career spanned 47 years; he later held American citizenship. He was known for many roles in Hollywood films, among them the title role in The Invisible Man (1933), a corrupt senator in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), and, perhaps his most famous performance, Captain Renault in Casablanca (1942). Rains was born William Claude Rains in Camberwell, London on November 10, 1889. He grew up, according to his daughter, with "a very serious cockney accent and a speech impediment". His father was British stage actor Frederick Rains, and the young Rains made his stage debut at 11 in Nell of Old Drury. His acting talents were recognised by Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree, founder of The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Tree paid for the elocution lessons Rains needed in order to succeed as an actor. Later, Rains taught at the institution, teaching John Gielgud and Laurence Olivier, among others. Rains served in the First World War in the London Scottish Regiment, with fellow actors Basil Rathbone, Ronald Colman and Herbert Marshall. Rains was involved in a gas attack that left him nearly blind in one eye for the rest of his life. However, the war did aid his social advancement and, by its end, he had risen from the rank of Private to Captain. Rains began his career in the London theatre, having a success in the title role of John Drinkwater's play Ulysses S. Grant, the follow-up to the playwright's major hit Abraham Lincoln, and traveled to Broadway in the late 1920s to act in leading roles in such plays as Shaw's The Apple Cart and in the dramatizations of The Constant Nymph, and Pearl S. Buck's novel The Good Earth, as a Chinese farmer. Rains came relatively late to film acting and his first screen test was a failure, but his distinctive voice won him the title role in James Whale's The Invisible Man (1933) when someone accidentally overheard his screen test being played in the next room. Rains later credited director Michael Curtiz with teaching him the more understated requirements of film acting, or "what not to do in front of a camera".
Known For: Acting
Birthday: 1889-11-09
Place of Birth: Clapham, London, England, UK
Also Known As: William Claude Rains

Movies List of Claude Rains

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Battle of the Worlds

1961 Movie
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Caesar and Cleopatra

1945 Movie
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Crime Without Passion

1934 Movie
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The Clairvoyant

1935 Movie
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Four Daughters

1938 Movie
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They Won't Forget

1937 Movie
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White Banners

1938 Movie
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Strange Holiday

1945 Movie
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Sons of Liberty

1939 Movie
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The Invisible Man

1933 Movie
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Breakdowns of 1937

1937 Movie
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The Wolf Man

1941 Movie
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The Unsuspected

1947 Movie
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Mr. Skeffington

1944 Movie
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Passage to Marseille

1944 Movie
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Lady with Red Hair

1940 Movie
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Daughters Courageous

1939 Movie
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Stolen Holiday

1937 Movie
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This Love of Ours

1945 Movie
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Song of Surrender

1949 Movie
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The Wolf Man

1966 Movie
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Notorious

1946 Movie
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Where Danger Lives

1950 Movie
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Angel on My Shoulder

1946 Movie
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Deception

1946 Movie
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Now, Voyager

1942 Movie
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The Sea Hawk

1940 Movie
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Rope of Sand

1949 Movie
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Phantom of the Opera

1943 Movie
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Here Comes Mr. Jordan

1941 Movie
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The White Tower

1950 Movie
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The Last Outpost

1935 Movie
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Saturday's Children

1940 Movie
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Twilight of Honor

1963 Movie
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Hearts Divided

1936 Movie
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Sealed Cargo

1951 Movie
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Lisbon

1956 Movie
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The Lost World

1960 Movie
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Moontide

1942 Movie
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Juarez

1939 Movie
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This Earth Is Mine

1959 Movie
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Casablanca

1943 Movie
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Four Wives

1939 Movie
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Four Mothers

1941 Movie
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Anthony Adverse

1936 Movie
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Kings Row

1942 Movie
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Lawrence of Arabia

1962 Movie
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Build Thy House

1920 Movie
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On Borrowed Time

1957 Movie
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Forever and a Day

1943 Movie
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Blow-Ups of 1946

1946 Movie
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Scrooge

1935 Movie
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Breakdowns of 1941

1941 Movie
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Breakdowns of 1936

1936 Movie
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The Horror Show

1979 Movie
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Breakdowns of 1942

1942 Movie
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Breakdowns of 1938

1938 Movie