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Naked Photos of Claude Rains are available at MaleStars.com. They currently feature over 65,000 Nude Pics, Biographies, Video Clips, Articles, and Movie Reviews of famous stars.

 

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Actresses who appeared with Claude Rains on screen:

Vivian Leigh
Vivien Leigh
Ingrid Bergman
Betty Davis
Bette Davis
Angela Lansbury
Olivia de Havilland
Shelley Winters
Lana Turner
Jean Simmons
Gloria Stuart
Linda Evans
Jill St. John
Fay Wray
Anne Baxter
Margaret Hamilton


Claude Rains
Birthday: December 31, 1969

Birth Place: London, England, UK
Height: 5' 6"

Below is a complete filmography (list of movies he's appeared in) for Claude Rains. If you have any corrections or additions, please email us at corrections@actorsofhollywood.com. We'd also be interested in any trivia or other information you have.

 

Biography

William Claude Rains, born in the Camberwell area of London, was the son of the British stage actor Frederick Rains. The younger Rains followed, making his stage debut at the age of eleven in "Nell of Old Drury". Growing up in the world of theater, he saw not only acting up close but the down-to-earth business end as well, progressing from a page boy to a stage manager during his well-rounded learning experience. Rains decided to come to America in 1913 and the New York theater, but with the outbreak of World War I the next year, he returned and served with a Scottish regiment in Europe. He remained in England, honing his acting talents, bolstered with instruction patronized by the founder of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree. It was not long before his talent garnered him acknowledgment as one of the leading stage actors on the London scene. His one and only silent film venture was British with a small part for him, the forgettable - Build Thy House (1920).In the meantime, Rains was in demand as acting teacher as well, and he taught at the Royal Academy. Young and eager Laurence Olivier and John Gielgud were perhaps his best known students. Rains did return to New York in 1927 to begin what would be nearly 20 Broadway roles. While working for the Theater Guild he was offered a screen test with Universal Pictures in 1932. Rains had a unique and solid British voice-deep, slightly rasping - but richly dynamic. And as a man of small stature, the combination was immediately intriguing. Universal was embarking on its new found role as horror film factory, and they were looking for someone unique for their next outing, The Invisible Man (1933). Rains was the very man. He took the role by the ears, churning up a rasping malice and volume in his voice to achieve a bone chilling persona of the disembodied mad doctor. He could also throw out a high-pitched maniac laugh that would make you leave the lights on before going to bed. True to Universal's formula mentality, it cast him in similar roles through 1934 with some respite in more diverse film roles-and further relieved by Broadway roles (1933, 1934) for the remainder of his contract. By 1936 he was at Warner Bros. with its ambitious laundry list of literary epics in full swing. His acting was superb and his eyes could say as much as his voice. And his mouth could take on both a forbidding scowl and the warmest of smiles in an instant. His malicious, gouty Don Luis in Anthony Adverse (1936) was inspired. After a shear lucky opportunity to dispatch his young wife's lover, Louis Hayward, in a duel, he triumphs over her in a scene with derisive, bulging eyes and that high pitched laugh - with appropriate shadow and light backdrop - that is unforgettable. He was kept very busy through the remainder of the 1930s with a mix of benign and devious historical, literary, and contemporary characters always adapting a different nuance - from murmur to growl - of that voice to become the person. He culminated the decade with his complex, ethics-tortured Senator 'Joe' Paine in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939). That year he became an American citizen. Into the 1940s, Rains had risen to perhaps unique stature: a supporting actor who had achieved A-list stardom-almost in a category by himself. His some 40 films during that period ranged from subtle comedy to psychological drama with a bit of horror revisited; many would be golden era classics. He was the firm but thoroughly sympathetic Dr. Jaquith in Now Voyager (1942) and the smoothly sardonic but engaging Capt. Louis Renault - perhaps his best known role - in Casablanca (1942). He was the surreptitiously nervous and malignant Alexander Sebastian in Notorious (1946) and the egotistical and domineering conductor Alexander Hollenius in Deception (1946). He was the disfigured Phantom of the Opera (1943) as well. He played opposite the challenging Bette Davis in three movies through the decade and came out her equal in acting virtuosity. He was nominated four times for the Best Supporting Actor Oscar - but incredibly never won. With the 1950s the few movies left to an older Rains were countered by venturing into new acting territory - television. His haunted, suicidal writer Paul DeLambre in the mountaineering adventure The White Tower (1950), though a modest part, was perhaps the most vigorously memorable film role of his last years. He made a triumphant Broadway return in 1951's "Darkness at Noon." Rains embraced the innovative TV playhouse circuit with nearly 20 roles. As a favored 'Alfred Hitchcock' alumnus, he starred in five "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" suspense dramas into the 1960s. And he did not shy away from episodic TV either with some memorable roles that still reflected the power of Claude Rains as consummate actor - for many, first among peers with that hallowed title.

Movie Credits
The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965)
[ John Wayne ][ Charlton Heston ][ Sidney Poitier ][ Max von Sydow ][ Martin Landau ]
Something About Lee Wiley (1963)
Twilight of Honor (1963)
[ Richard Chamberlain ]
The Outpost (1962)
Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
[ Peter O'Toole ][ Alec Guinness ][ Anthony Quinn ][ Omar Sharif ]
The Horse Player (1961)
[ Alfred Hitchcock ]
Pianeta degli uomini spenti, Il (1961)
The Lost World (1960)
Shangri-La (1960)
The Diamond Necklace (1959)
This Earth Is Mine (1959)
[ Rock Hudson ]
The Cream of the Jest (1957)
On Borrowed Time (1957)
The Pied Piper of Hamelin (1957)
[ Van Johnson ]
Lisbon (1956)
[ Maureen O'Hara ][ Ray Milland ]
A Night to Remember (1956)
And So Died Riabouchinska (1956)
[ Charles Bronson ]
The Man Who Liked Dickens (1953)
The Man Who Watched the Trains Go By (1952)
[ Herbert Lom ]
Sealed Cargo (1951)
[ Dana Andrews ]
Where Danger Lives (1950)
[ Robert Mitchum ]
The White Tower (1950)
[ Glenn Ford ]
Song of Surrender (1949)
Rope of Sand (1949)
[ Burt Lancaster ][ Peter Lorre ]
The Passionate Friends (1949)
The Unsuspected (1947)
Deception (1946)
Angel on My Shoulder (1946)
Notorious (1946)
[ Alfred Hitchcock ][ Cary Grant ]
Strange Holiday (1945)
Caesar and Cleopatra (1945)
[ Roger Moore ]
This Love of Ours (1945)
Mr. Skeffington (1944)
Passage to Marseille (1944)
[ Humphrey Bogart ][ Peter Lorre ]
Phantom of the Opera (1943)
[ Hume Cronyn ]
Forever and a Day (1943)
[ Buster Keaton ][ Charles Laughton ][ Ray Bolger ][ Ray Milland ][ Christopher Isherwood ]
Casablanca (1942)
[ Humphrey Bogart ][ Peter Lorre ]
Now, Voyager (1942)
Moontide (1942)
[ Fritz Lang ]
Kings Row (1942)
[ Ronald Reagan ]
The Wolf Man (1941)
[ Bela Lugosi ][ Ralph Bellamy ][ Lon Chaney Jr. ]
Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941)
Four Mothers (1941)
[ Edward Albert ][ Eddie Albert ]
Lady with Red Hair (1940)
The Sea Hawk (1940)
[ Errol Flynn ]
Saturday's Children (1940)
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
[ James Stewart ]
Daughters Courageous (1939)
Sons of Liberty (1939)
Juarez (1939)
They Made Me a Criminal (1939)
[ Ward Bond ]
Four Wives (1939)
[ Edward Albert ][ Eddie Albert ][ George Reeves ]
Four Daughters (1938)
The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)
[ Errol Flynn ]
Gold Is Where You Find It (1938)
White Banners (1938)
[ Jackie Cooper ]
They Won't Forget (1937)
The Prince and the Pauper (1937)
[ Errol Flynn ]
Stolen Holiday (1937)
Anthony Adverse (1936)
Hearts Divided (1936)
The Last Outpost (1935)
[ Cary Grant ]
Mystery of Edwin Drood (1935)
[ Walter Brennan ]
The Man Who Reclaimed His Head (1934)
Crime Without Passion (1934)
The Clairvoyant (1934)
The Invisible Man (1933)
[ Walter Brennan ]
Build Thy House (1920)

Trivia

  • Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree recognized Rains' acting talent and paid for the elocution books and lessons he needed due to his poor diction.
  • Rains was almost blind in one eye due to injury from a gas attack during WW1.
  • Father of Jessica Rains.
  • Interred at Red Hill Cemetery, Moultonborough, New Hampshire, USA
  • Originally cast as the Duke de Lorca in Adventures of Don Juan (1948).
  • Won Broadway's 1951 Tony Award as Best Actor (Dramatic) for "Darkness at Noon."
  • Son of Fred Rains.

Naked Photos of Claude Rains are available at MaleStars.com. They currently feature over 65,000 Nude Pics, Biographies, Video Clips, Articles, and Movie Reviews of famous stars.

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