Claude Rains

Claude Rains, born William Claude Rains on 10 November 1889 in Clapham, London, was a British and American actor whose career extended across nearly seven decades. The son of stage actor Frederick William Rains, he grew up in the slums of London as one of twelve children, most of whom died in infancy. Because his father worked in the theatre, Rains spent his early years surrounded by actors and stagehands, absorbing the workings of the stage from childhood. He made his first stage appearance at age ten in Sweet Nell of Old Drury at the Haymarket Theatre, and gradually advanced through roles as a call boy at His Majesty's Theatre, then prompter, stage manager, and understudy, before earning progressively larger parts.

Rains moved to the United States in 1912 to pursue opportunities in New York theatre, but returned to England at the outbreak of World War I in 1914. He was commissioned into the British Army's London Scottish regiment, serving alongside Basil Rathbone, Ronald Colman, Herbert Marshall, and Cedric Hardwicke. In November 1916, a gas attack at Vimy permanently cost him ninety percent of the vision in his right eye and caused damage to his vocal cords. He continued to serve with the Transport Workers Battalion of the Bedfordshire Regiment, was commissioned as a temporary lieutenant in May 1917, promoted to temporary captain in March 1918, and appointed adjutant in October 1918, a role he held until March 1919.

After the war, Rains worked to overcome the Cockney accent and speech impediment he had carried since childhood. Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree, founder of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, recognized his talent and funded the elocution lessons and materials Rains needed to reshape his voice. Through daily practice, Rains shed both the accent and the impediment, developing what his daughter Jessica described as a distinctive Mid-Atlantic voice that was half American, half English, with traces of Cockney. He became recognized as one of the leading stage actors in London and taught at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, where John Gielgud and Charles Laughton were among his students. On the London stage, he took the title role in John Drinkwater's Ulysses S. Grant and portrayed Faulkland in Richard Brinsley Sheridan's The Rivals at the Lyric Theatre in 1925. He made his film debut at age twenty-nine in the British silent film Build Thy House in 1920, playing the role of Clarkis.

Rains returned to New York City in 1927 and built a substantial Broadway career, appearing in nearly twenty roles over the following decades. His stage credits included The Constant Nymph, They Shall Not Die, George Bernard Shaw's The Apple Cart, a dramatization of Pearl S. Buck's The Good Earth in which he played a Chinese farmer, the melodrama The Man Who Reclaimed His Head, Night of the Auk, The Confidential Clerk, and Darkness at Noon. His performance in Darkness at Noon brought him the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play in 1951, making him one of the recognized stage performers of his era. His Broadway appearances spanned from 1926 to 1956, during which time he worked with the Theatre Guild, among other organizations.

While working with the Theatre Guild, Rains was offered a screen test with Universal Pictures in 1932. Although an earlier test for RKO on A Bill of Divorcement had failed, his voice and screen test for Universal were reportedly overheard from an adjacent room, contributing to his being cast as Dr. Jack Griffin in James Whale's The Invisible Man in 1933. His agent Harold Freedman had a prior acquaintance with Universal's Carl Laemmle, which also played a role in securing the casting. The Invisible Man marked his American film debut and launched a prominent Hollywood career. On 27 November 1935, he signed a long-term contract with Warner Bros., which carried a potential income of up to $750,000 over seven years and allowed the studio to loan him to other productions.

At Warner Bros. and on loan to other studios, Rains accumulated a body of film work that earned him four Academy Award nominations for Best Supporting Actor. He played the villainous Prince John in The Adventures of Robin Hood in 1938, a corrupt but principled U.S. senator in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington in 1939 for Columbia Pictures, and Dr. Alexander Tower in Kings Row in 1942. That same year he portrayed Captain Louis Renault in Casablanca. On loan to Universal, he played the title character in the 1943 remake of Phantom of the Opera. He appeared in Notorious in 1946 and became the first actor to receive a million-dollar salary when he portrayed Julius Caesar in Shaw's Caesar and Cleopatra in 1945. Bette Davis, who appeared opposite him in four films including Now, Voyager and Mr. Skeffington, named him her favorite co-star in her 1987 memoir This 'N That. Later film roles included Mr. Dryden in Lawrence of Arabia in 1962 and a part in the Biblical epic The Greatest Story Ever Told in 1965, which proved to be his final screen appearance. In 1960, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Rains died on 30 May 1967.