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 loved farming and maintained a 350 acre farm in Bucks County, Pennsylvania before moving to Sandwich, New Hampshire in his final years. Richard Chamberlain worked with Rains in what would be his second-to-last film, Twilight of Honor. Rains, so I thought he hated me. He married six times; his only child, Jessica Rains, was the product of his marriage to fourth wife Frances Propper. Claude Rains, famous for his roles in The Invisible Man, The Adventures of Robin Hood, and Casa blanca, was a West Chester resident at Chuch & Dean Streets in the 1940s and 1950s and owned a farm in West Bradford township. Derives from the 1933 classic sci fi film, The Invisible Man, in which actor Claude Rains played the title character. 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.". Wiki User Answered 2011-08-12 20:45:12. Let's check, How Rich is Claude Rains in 2020-2021? He first appears in the episode "Godsend" during one of Peter Petrelli's dreams, in which he is laughing before Peter explodes. His parents were Emily Eliza (née Cox) and the stage actor Frederick William Rains. Rains moved to America in 1913 due to the opportunities that were being offered in the New York theatres. 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. Claude Rains was a brilliant character actor, known for his versatility and suave aristocratic charm. Home is Chester County.” (Claude Rains), Copyright © 2021 / The Celebrity Deaths.com / All Rights Reserved. Shaw apparently chose him for the part, although Rains intensely disliked Gabriel Pascal, the film's director and producer. I didn't know he was playing the character. Review by loureviews ★★★½ 2 #56 in Bette Davis - 90 films. 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. Claude Rains Biography, Life, Interesting Facts. clauderains @ 1 year ago. Tree told Rains that in order to succeed as an actor, he would have to get rid of his Cockney accent and speech impediment. But by the time I first met him in the 1920s he was already much in demand as a character actor in London. After his American film debut as Dr. Jack Griffin in The Invisible Man (1933), he appeared in such highly regarded films as The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), The Wolf Man (1941), Casablanca and Kings Row (both 1942), Notorious (1946), Lawrence of Arabia (1962), and The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965). In his final years, Rains decided to write his memoirs and engaged the help of journalist Jonathan Root to assist him. And his mouth could take on both a forbidding scowl and the warmest of smiles in an instant. Nobody plays people descending into the throes of madness like Claude. 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. And for about an hour and a half she told stories about him. Thus, an entry in this encyclopedia can pay no attention to the fondly remembered roles he played, at the peak of his career, in major films like Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), Casablanca (1943), and Notorious (1946). This is the Claude Rains house in Sandwich, N.H. To suddenly disappear. After failing to find evidence, the authorities tracked Clarke Raines' car. This page was last edited on 13 April 2021, at 23:44. Stocky but handsome, Rains had broad shoulders and a mop of thick brown hair which he brushed over one eye. [4] Rains was one of twelve children, all but three dying of malnutrition when still infants. 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). He sang in the Palm Street Church choir, which also brought him a few pence to take home. As Jessica Rains remembers, one of the "great prides" of Claude Rains' life was Stock Grange, a 600-acre farm built in 1747 in the Brandywine countryside outside of West Chester, Pennsylvania. Casablanca - Claude Rains' Medals Captaine Renault's medals: Chevalier Légion d'Honneur: 1914 - 18 Inter Allied Victory Medal: 1914 - 18 Commemorative War Medal : One advantage of seeing a film on the big screen, it is easier to spot detail. Although he played a diverse range of roles, Rains was best known for his villainous portrayals. Article continues below advertisement. In 1960, he married Rosemary Clark Schrode, to whom he was married until her death on 31 December 1964. William Claude Rains was born on 10 November 1889 in Clapham, London. The stage actor Claude Rains died at the age of 77. Many years after Rains had gone to Hollywood and become a well-known film actor, John Gielgud is reputed to have commented, "He was a great influence on me. In 2010, many of his personal items, including his Tony Award, letters, photographs, etc. Rains became a United States citizen in … 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. He was extremely attractive and needless to say, all the girls in my class were hopelessly in love with him. Like many actors, Claude Rains encountered science fiction films on his way up, and on his way down. He knew the whole script before he came out (to film). He enrolled in the Academie Suisse. It was bitterly cold and his face was completely covered by a hat and scarf. In May 1993, Akins underwent a surgery that saw doctors remove half of his stomach in the fight against cancer. I don't think many people did that. Claude Rains and Fay Bainter in Vier Töchter räumen auf (1939) Won Broadway's 1951 Tony Award as Best Actor (Dramatic) for "Darkness at Noon". William Claude Rains was born in Camberwell, London in 1889.; 2. 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. A few years after their success with "Now, Voyager," director Irving Rapper and actors Bette Davis, Paul Henreid, and Claude Rains teamed back up to make another picture: "Deception." He designed his own tombstone which reads "All things once, Are things forever, Soul, once living, lives forever". The stage actor Claude Rains died at the age of 77. Back in Britain, he appeared in David Lean's The Passionate Friends (1949). were put into an auction at the Heritage Auctions. Rains embraced the innovative TV playhouse circuit with nearly 20 roles. It was 'his' voice, nobody else spoke like that, half American, half English and a little Cockney thrown in. In my case, that was the war in Vietnam.' Four-time Oscar nominee who starred as Captain Louis Renault in Casablanca and as the title character in the 1933 film The Invisible Man. As a favored 'Alfred Hitchcock' alumnus, he starred in five Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955) suspense dramas into the 1960s. Claude Rains plays an aging violinist in the orchestra who falls in love with Christine to the point that he bankrupts himself to pay for her singing lessons. She was a writer and they met when she was his ghostwriter for his autobiography. Generally he had no problem remembering his lines despite getting along in years. William Claude Rains, born in the Clapham area of London, was the son of the British stage actor Frederick Rains. 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. Reviewed in the United States on 5 December 2016. It was clear to us that he loved practicing his craft; he dazzled us all. Rains' first wife, Isabel Jeans played the role of Lady Elizabeth Mulhammer in the 1953 Edinburgh premiere. 109. 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 and 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.". 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.[19]. He was known for many roles in Hollywood films, including the title role in The Invisible Man (1933), scientists, corrupt kings,and senators in The Wolf Man (1941), The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), Mr. Dryden in Lawrence of Arabia (1962), and Captain Renault in Casablanca(1942). As Jessica Rains remembers, one of the "great prides" of Claude Rains' life was Stock Grange, a 600-acre farm built in 1747 in the Brandywine countryside outside of West Chester, Pennsylvania. His only chil… It did not sit well with Catherine. 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. Claude Rains' Scrapbook Devoted to His Farm, Stock Grange. Claude Rains gives a fine performance. 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 ([actually the Emperor of the French] Napoleon III) in rehearsal. Jessica Rains remembered her father's work ethic: He was interested in the process (of film). / Died: 30 May 1967: How many years did Claude Rains live? [5][12] 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. 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