History Creator / ClaudeRains

In 1957 Rains [[WTHCastingAgency sang and danced]] to the [[PublicDomainSoundtrack music of Edvard Grieg (!)]] in a SoBadItsGood TV musical adaptation of Robert Browning’s poem, ''The Pied Piper of Hamelin''. He made several appearances on television anthology series in that and the following decade, notably on ''Series/AlfredHitchcockPresents''. Rains’s last film appearance was as King Herod in Creator/GeorgeStevens’ 1965 [[Literature/TheBible Biblical]] epic, ''Film/TheGreatestStoryEverTold''.

In 1945, Rains was featured in the most expensive British film that had been made up to that time, playing opposite Vivien Leigh in Creator/GeorgeBernardShaw’s ''Caesar and Cleopatra'' under the supervision of Shaw himself; the film was, alas! a notorious bomb. The next year, a better form of ''Film/{{Notorious}}'' under the direction of Creator/AlfredHitchcock brought Rains his fourth and last [[UsefulNotes/AcademyAward Oscar]] nomination for the difficult part of a [[IneffectualSympatheticVillain sympathetic]] post-war [[ThoseWackyNazis Nazi]] conspirator. In 1951, he made a successful return to the stage, starring on Broadway in writer-director Sidney Kingsley's adaptation of Arthur Koestler's novel ''Literature/DarknessAtNoon.'' The role of Rubashov, an Old Bolshevik imprisoned by the dictatorship he helped to create, won Rains the Tony Award for Best Leading Actor in a Play.

* ''Film/{{Notorious}}'' (1945) as Alexander Sebastian

William Claude Rains (10 November 1889 – 30 May 1967) was a British actor of stage and screen, and one of the most significant actors in the UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfHollywood.

!!Some notable films Claude Rains appeared in include:

* ''Film/{{The Invisible Man|1933}}'', as Jack Griffin, the title character (1933)
* ''Charles Dickens’ Mystery of Edwin Drood'', as John Jasper (1935)
* ''Film/AnthonyAdverse'', as Don Luis (1936)
* ''Literature/ThePrinceAndThePauper'', as Edward Seymour, Earl of Hertford (1937)
* ''Film/TheAdventuresOfRobinHood'', as Prince John (1938)
* ''Film/FourDaughters'', as Adam Lemp (a role he would play three more times) (1938)

* ''Film/{{Juarez}}'', as Emperor Napoleon III (1939)
* ''Film/MrSmithGoesToWashington'', as Senator Joseph Harrison Paine (1939)
* ''Film/SonsOfLiberty'' (1939), as Haym Salomon

* ''Film/TheSeaHawk'', as Don José Alvarez de Cordoba, the Spanish ambassador (1940)
* ''Film/HereComesMrJordan'', as the eponymous [[OurAngelsAreDifferent Angel]] (1941)
* ''Film/{{The Wolf Man|1941}}'', as Sir John Talbot, the WolfMan’s father (1941)
* ''Film/{{Casablanca}}'', as Captain Louis Renault, the Prefect of Police (1942)
* ''Film/KingsRow'', as Dr. Alexander Tower (1942)
* ''Film/NowVoyager'', as [[TheShrink psychiatrist]] Dr. Jaquith (1942)
* ''Film/PhantomOfTheOpera1943'', as Erique Claudin, the Phantom (1943)
* ''Film/PassageToMarseille'', as Captain Freycinet (1944)
* ''Film/MrSkeffington'', as [[MeaningfulName Job]] Skeffington (1944)
* ''Film/CaesarAndCleopatra'', as UsefulNotes/JuliusCaesar (1945)
* Creator/AlfredHitchcock's ''Film/{{Notorious}}'', as Alexander Sebastian, a South American Nazi (1945)
* ''Film/AngelOnMyShoulder'', as Nick, TheDevil (1946)
* ''Film/{{Deception|1946}}'' as Alexander Hollenius (1946)
* ''Film/TheUnsuspected'' (1947), as Victor, a murderer
* ''Film/ThePassionateFriends'', as Howard Justin, a long-suffering husband. (1949)
* ''The Pied Piper of Hamelin'', as the Mayor (1957) (TV)
* ''The Lost World'', as Sir Creator/ArthurConanDoyle's Professor Challenger (1960)
* ''Film/LawrenceOfArabia'', as Mr. Dryden (1962)
* ''Film/TheGreatestStoryEverTold'', as Herod the Great (1965)

A series of more or less macabre parts followed, such as the murderer John Jasper in the first sound film adaptation of Creator/CharlesDickens' ''Literature/TheMysteryOfEdwinDrood''. Rains's cool, [[DeadpanSnarker sardonic]] delivery made him a natural for [[HollywoodHistory costume]] [[WickedCultured villainy]], and he appeared as the treacherous [[HistoricalVillainUpgrade Earl of Hereford]] in the Warner Brothers’ adaptation of Creator/MarkTwain’s ''The Prince and the Pauper'', in which rising Warners star Creator/ErrolFlynn also appeared as Sir Miles Hendon. Rains and Flynn would appear together again to even better effect in ''Film/TheAdventuresOfRobinHood''; Rains would credit ''Hood'' director Michael Curtiz with teaching him to moderate his [[LargeHam theatrical acting style]] for films.

Rains was married six times and had one child (his daughter Jennifer, who worked as an actress under the name "Jessica Rains" in the '70s and '80s). In the 1940s and '50s he owned a 380-acre farm in eastern Pennsylvania, which he [[CallToAgriculture lived on and farmed when he wasn't busy acting]]. A [[TheAlcoholic chronic drinker]], Rains developed cirrhosis of the liver and died of abdominal bleeding at the age of 77.

Rains was married six times and had one child (his daughter Jennifer, who worked as an actress under the name "Jessica Rains" in the '70s and '80s). In the 1940s and '50s he owned a 380-acre farm in eastern Pennsylvania, which he [[CallToAgriculture lived on and farmed when he wasn't busy acting]]. A [[TheAlcoholic chronic drinker]], Rains suffered from cirrhosis of the liver late in life and died of abdominal bleeding at the age of 77.

Rains was married six times and had one child (his daughter Jennifer, who worked as an actress under the name "Jessica Rains" in the '70s and '80s). In the 1940s and '50s he owned a 380-acre farm in eastern Pennsylvania, which he [[[[CallToAgriculture lived on and farmed when he wasn't busy acting]]. An {{alcoholic}}, he suffered from cirrhosis of the liver and died of abdominal bleeding at the age of 77.

[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ClaudeRains.JPG]]

William Claude Rains (10 November 1889 – 30 May 1967) was a British character actor and one of the most significant actors working in films in the middle of the twentieth century. Born in the Camberwell section of London, he overcame the handicaps of a [[UsefulNotes/BritishAccents Cockney accent]] ''and'' a [[SpeechImpediment lisp]] to become a notable stage actor under the tutelage of the famous actor-manager, Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree, who helped him to pay for elocution lessons. That beautiful voice and flawless diction he had acquired landed him his [[StarMakingRole breakout role]] as the title character of the 1933 film of ''[[Film/TheInvisibleMan1933 The Invisible Man]]'' -- a film in which [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin his face does not appear]] until the closing scene. This part is referenced in a line from the opening number of ''Film/TheRockyHorrorPictureShow'', and in ''Series/{{Heroes}}'', where another [[{{Invisibility}} invisible man]] is named for him.

* ''Juarez'', as Emperor Napoleon III (1939)

In 1945, Rains was featured in the most expensive British film that had been made up to that time, playing opposite Vivien Leigh in Creator/GeorgeBernardShaw’s ''Caesar and Cleopatra'' under the supervision of Shaw himself; the film was, alas! a notorious bomb. The next year, a better form of ''Film/{{Notorious}}'' under the direction of Creator/AlfredHitchcock brought Rains his fourth and last [[UsefulNotes/AcademyAward Oscar]] nomination for the difficult part of a [[IneffectualSympatheticVillain sympathetic]] post-war [[ThoseWackyNazis Nazi]] conspirator. In 1951, he made a successful return to the stage, starring on Broadway in writer-director Sidney Kingsley's adaptation of Arthur Koestler's novel ''Literature/Darkness At Noon.'' The role of Rubashov, an Old Bolshevik imprisoned by the dictatorship he helped to create, won Rains the Tony Award for Best Leading Actor in a Play.