Claude Rains

Career / Biography

Claude Rains was a British actor who spent most of his life in America. He is best known for his role in Casablanca, but also gave a good performance in Notorious. His career spanned from the 1930's through to the 1960's and was a great character actor with a distinctive voice. He came from a poor theatrical family and served in World War 1. He studied and then taught at RADA and performed on stage. He appeared in one silent film and after moving to America he was cast in the title role of The Invisible Man at Universal Pictures and then signed a deal with Warner Brothers, although he was loaned out to other companies. In The Clairvoyant it is expressions with his eyes that are most notable. By the late 1930's he had become an estabilshed actor and in the Adventures Of Robin Hood he learnt it can less is more. He makes impacts in films even when he has relatively small parts. He worked in a variety of films from historical, to political, to horror in The Wolf Man. Now Voyager was the first of 5 films with Bette Davis where he plays a clam but powerful psychiatrist. He followed this by probably his most well known performance in Casablanca for which he got his second Oscar nomination. In Phantom Of The Opera he plays it as the hero rather than the scary villian. His third Oscar nomination came for Mr Skeffington again opposite Bette Davis. She was going through a hard time and this made it a difficult film to shoot. Caesar And Cleopatra was a big budget film but not a good version of the story as there is no chemistry between him and Vivien Leigh. In 1946 he stared in Alfred Hitchcock's Notorious and he got his fourth Oscar nomination. He returned to England for David Lean's drama The Passionate Friends. He was also in David Lean's Lawrence Of Arabia and then in his final film The Greatest Story Ever Told. He died 2 years later at the age of 77.

Career / Biography

Films

Oscars