Claude Rains 10 November 1889 30 May 1967 was an English stage and film actor whose career spanned 47 years he later held American citizenship He was known for many roles in Hollywood films among them the title role in The Invisible Man 1933 a corrupt senator in Mr Smith Goes to Washington 1939 and perhaps his most famous performance Captain Renault in Casablanca 1942 Rains was born William Claude Rains in Camberwell London on November 10 1889 He grew up according to his daughter with a very serious cockney accent and a speech impediment His father was British stage actor Frederick Rains and the young Rains made his stage debut at 11 in Nell of Old Drury His acting talents were recognised by Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree founder of The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art Tree paid for the elocution lessons Rains needed in order to succeed as an actor Later Rains taught at the institution teaching John Gielgud and Laurence Olivier among others Rains served in the First World War in the London Scottish Regiment with fellow actors Basil Rathbone Ronald Colman and Herbert Marshall Rains was involved in a gas attack that left him nearly blind in one eye for the rest of his life However the war did aid his social advancement and by its end he had risen from the rank of Private to Captain Rains began his career in the London theatre having a success in the title role of John Drinkwaters play Ulysses S Grant the followup to the playwrights major hit Abraham Lincoln and traveled to Broadway in the late 1920s to act in leading roles in such plays as Shaws The Apple Cart and in the dramatizations of The Constant Nymph and Pearl S Bucks novel The Good Earth as a Chinese farmer Rains came relatively late to film acting and his first screen test was a failure but his distinctive voice won him the title role in James Whales The Invisible Man 1933 when someone accidentally overheard his screen test being played in the next room Rains later credited director Michael Curtiz with teaching him the more understated requirements of film acting or what not to do in front of a camera
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