Claude Rains: An Actor's Voice

Photographs

Rains’s parents: left, Emily Eliza Cox Rains; right, Frederick Rains. Rains’s theatrical mentor Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree, in and out of his signature stage role, Svengali. Rains in his Scottish Regiment kilt, circa 1917. The earliest known portrait of Rains, as an army captain, shortly before he was wounded at Vimy Ridge. Actress Isabel Jeans, Rains’s first wife. Julius Caesar (1920): Rains as Casca (far right), with Clifton Boyne (seated) as Caesar and Henry Ainley as Marcus Antonius. With Nancy Price in Pirandello’s And That’s the Truth (If You Think It Is) (1925). As Christopher Marlowe in Clemence Dane’s Will Shakespeare (1921), with Mary Clare. Newspaper cartoon of Rains in The Man from Hong Kong (1925). A 1920s portrait of Beatrix Thomson. As Faulkland in The Rivals (1925). Rains around the time of his appointment as acting instructor at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Rains, with a stoic royal guard, contemplates his inability to “eat his notices” in London. As the Prime Minister in Shaw’s The Apple Cart (1930), with Tom Powers and Eva Leonard-Boyne. With Alla Nazimova in the Theatre Guild’s New York production of The Good Earth (1932). As the asthmatic, deformed Paul Verin in Jean Bart’s The Man Who Reclaimed His Head (1932). As a would-be Napoleon in Alfred Savoir’s comedy He (1931). An actor on the move, script in hand, in the early 1930s. With Gloria Stuart in The Invisible Man (1933) (David J. Skal collection). Poster and billboard art for The Invisible Man (David J. Skal collection). Rains’s invisibility required a creative approach to publicity photos. With William Harrigan (David J. Skal collection). With Whitney Bourne in Crime without Passion (1934) (courtesy of Donna Tattle). Rains takes his revenge on Lionel Atwill in the film version of The Man Who Reclaimed His Head (1935). As the drug-addicted murderer John Jasper in Mystery of Edwin Drood (1935) (courtesy of Donna Tattle). With Fay Wray in The Clairvoyant (1935) (courtesy of Donna Tattle). With Anita Louise in Anthony Adverse (1936) (David J. Skal collection). As Napoleon, with Marion Davies in Hearts Divided (1936) (courtesy of Donna Tattle). With James Stewart in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) (David J. Skal collection). As Sir John in The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), with Melville Cooper (left) and Basil Rathbone (courtesy of Donna Tattle). With Lon Chaney in The Wolf Man (1941) (David J. Skal collection). As theatrical impresario David Belasco in Lady with Red Hair (1940) (David J. Skal collection). Psychiatrist Rains shares a luncheon of Freudian frankfurters with Bette Davis in Now, Voyager (1942) (courtesy of Donna Tattle). Rains’s performance as the long-suffering title character in Mr. Skeffington (1944), another tour de force with Bette Davis, earned the actor his third Academy Award nomination (courtesy of Donna Tattle). As Captain Louis Renault, with Conrad Veidt, in Casablanca (1943) (David J. Skal collection). Rains’s burn makeup, created by Jack Pierce (courtesy of Ronald V. Borst/Hollywood Movie Posters). Poster art for Phantom of the Opera (1943) (David J. Skal collection). Rains as Erique Claudin, a.k.a. the Phantom (courtesy of Donna Tattle). Sharing a script with his only child, Jessica, later an actress in her own right. Rains’s fourth marriage, to Frances Propper, proved his most enduring union. With Vivien Leigh in Caesar and Cleopatra (1946) (David J. Skal collection). George Bernard Shaw, Rains, and director Gabriel Pascal. With Paul Muni in Angel on My Shoulder (1946) (courtesy of Donna Tattle). Murdered by Bette Davis in Deception (1946) (David J. Skal collection). As a Nazi mama’s boy: Rains with Leopoldine Konstantin in Alfred Hitchcock’s Notorious (1946) (courtesy of Donna Tattle). In Song of Surrender (1949) (courtesy of Donna Tattle). Rains with David Lean and Ann Todd on the set of The Passionate Friends (1949) (courtesy of Donna Tattle). The main house at Stock Grange, Rains’s Pennsylvania homestead. Rains with one of his favorite steers. Rains’s triumphant return to Broadway in Darkness at Noon (1951). Broadway, 1954: T. S. Eliot’s The Confidential Clerk. Left...