Claude Rains was a brilliant actor with a great voice. He had a classic demeanor. As a fan I cherished his legacy. That was a lovely tribute. Thank you!
There never was a time I didn't like Claude Rains. Even as a pre-teen, my favorite Casablanca character was Captain Renault. Just recently, I discovered his performance in the Bette Davis film, "Deception." Now my admiration is turning into an obsession with watching more and more of his acting performances!
Brilliant... one of my favorite memories as a teen was walking to his grave and reading the tribute to his wife, Rosemary. He is still one of the best that has ever been.
This man may have led a very complex life but he masterfully drew a line between that and his work to the point that the former remains very much speculative at best and we remember him primarily for the latter. Those were the days long before TMZ or E! where actors could let the work speak for itself and not have to worry about their private lives being front page news...
Happy birthday to my late father, born many, many years ago today. He was a fan of Claude Rains, a fan of TCM, and a fan of old and new movies and movie stars.
I absolutely love Claude Rains as The Phantom of the Opera, in Universal's 1943 version of the film of the same name! Watch it, and, you'll instantly know what role Claude Rains plays!
We're forgetting that in 1960 Claude appeared in and upstaged everyone in the sci-fi classic "The Lost World." It was almost an all-star cast for the time -- but few actors in the cast came close to the drama that Professor Challenger was. Ironically, it was a character actor -- the peasant sidekick of Fernando Lamas -- Jay Novello (47-year acting career) who played Costa who came closest to an actor in Claude's league. His pathetic angst-ridden selfish and desperate man was quite convincing. When Claude and Novello were on screen it was the best of the acting. As a child, I had not yet made the connection that this elderly professor in one of my favorite dinosaur films was the same man I saw in "The Invisible Man," and later "Casablanca." Claude Rains should be studied if you go to acting school.
......saw Fernando Lamas on Tonight Show, with Johnny Carson hosting of course, in the 1960's, and Lamas said he'd been offered billing above Claude Rains, and refused outright........saying he couldn't allow his name above this great actor. David Heddison didn't mind it, though.....
Rains was one of many famous actors from this era who all by chance served together in the London Scottish Regiment in the trenches of WW1, alongside Rains were actors such as Ronald Colman who due to shrapnel walked with a limp, Herbert Marshall who lost a leg and Basil Rathbone who was very highly decorated veteran who lost his younger brother in the last few months of the war and ironically for all the roles he played losing sword duels was in reality a highly trained fencer who was twice British Army Fencing Champion.
Rathbone's fencing match with Tyrone Power in Zorro was the best fencing I ever saw. Rathbone said the most skillful Hollywood fencer was Tyrone Power, who started training when young as part of the tools needed for an actor.( His family had acted on the stage for 100 years)
Ah-ha! Then Rathbone was perfect to play Sherlock Holmes, who was a very good fencer himself! Rathbone was always my favorite Sherlock Holmes, but I always felt Nigel Bruce, who played Dr. Watson, was miscast. The role should have gone to a younger actor.
This special video speaks volumes. I can’t add anything other than thank you so much. There has always been something so moving and sad. about this man. Mr Skeffington is brilliant as all his roles. Mr Chamberlain said it well: he was a class act indeed.
Brilliant and great artist. I love to hate him in his roles as villains and love him for his brilliant performances in his dramatic roles as well. I became his instant fan after watching "the invisible man". After that i watched "Ceaser and Cleopetra", "Notorious", "the Adventures of Robin hood" and countless more movies. Heart-felt tribute. Thanks.
They really should have named one of our solar system's planet's moons after Claude Rains. When as a teen I saw the great Laurence Olivier in Richard III with my father, he remarked, "Why would an actor as great as him want to play a villain?" I replied "Because that's where the fun is!"
@@colleencupido5125 : most actor feared to play negative as they think they can't pull out the role and in the fear of disapproval from fans. He never feared that. I really loved him in any role. He was just majestic in them, be it negative or positive.
All-time Top Five character actor. Renault in Casablanca is IMO the greatest supporting performance ever filmed. You know Bogey will turn in the end, bc that's the Code. But Rains keeps you guessing to the fadeout. He is really the moral center of the story- Rick's abandonment of neutrality means little unless he can convert the man with the power. So when Renault says 'I think perhaps you're right' and kicks the Vichy water bottle away, Rick triumphs more substantially than by giving his gf up to Laszlo.
Claude Rains was also a Patriot and heroic soldier who fought in WWI. "Serving in the London Scottish Regiment, alongside fellow actors Basil Rathbone, Ronald Colman, Herbert Marshall and Cedric Hardwicke. In November 1916, Rains was involved in a gas attack at Vimy, which resulted in his permanently losing 90 percent of the vision in his right eye as well as suffering vocal cord damage. He never returned to combat but continued to serve with the Bedfordshire Regiment. By the end of the war, he had risen to the rank of captain." -Wik
Did y'all know where that sexy rasp in his voice came from? He was gassed in WW1. He held the rank of captain. Mustard gas nearly killed him. Bette Davis said it best, "that beautiful,beautiful man."
He served in the same regiment as fellow film stars Ronald Colman, Basil Rathbone and Herbert Marshall, the London Scottish. The History Guy has a video on RU-vid about the four of them.
Claude rains got his iconic voice from being gassed in World War I which, damaged his vocal cords. Luckily, he was able to use those damaged vocal cords to bring us such a magnificent voice
I didn't recognise Richard Chamberlain's voice at first. Rains was a class act and he was obviously thought of as such in Hollywood, because he got to appear in an unusually large number of standout films from that period. I'm shocked to learn that he didn't win an Oscar though.
I could praise Claude Rains here in this comment, but it's better just to watch him, because anything I could say just wouldn't do him justice. Like any actor, he was nervous about appearing in front of the movie cameras, but you just wouldn't know that watching the printed footage.
Numinous20111"Like any actor, he was nervous about appearing in front of the movie cameras." Today I watched a short documentary "The Magnificent Bird" about The Maltese Falcon. In it was a real shocker. Sydney Greenstreet, the famous Fat Man, worked on the stage and The Maltese Falcon was his first movie. Apparently, from witnesses, he was really scared filming his first scene and asked to hold Mary Astor's hand to keep from shaking. WOW! If it's true. His performance is so self-assured, confident. Also on the genius level, especially the way he uses his eyes, but also of course that flexible voice. I think I remember his being nominated for an Oscar for best supporting actor for that film, his first. PS: Long ago I read of his being shipped to India in the military (this was turn of the century England, after all). Well, the young Sydney Greenstreet got Very bored and turned his attention to the only book his mom had packed in his suitcase: The Complete Works of William Shakespeare. His life was never the same.
@@colleencupido5125 Alec Guinness once gave Richard Burton advice about theatre acting. Guinness said to move all anxiety and nervousness to the toes, which was the one place the audience wouldn't be watching closely.
knight44441 For me, Claude Rains was an extraordinary performer; but...excuse me, my English is not that much good, to understand nowaday popular expressions..¿what do you mean, with these words?
Richard Chamberlain telling us that poor Claude Rains had trouble with his lines in the last feeble times on camera. Richard Chamberlain wasn't an actor. He couldn't begin to contend with the remarkable Mr. Rains.
The scene from "Anthony Adverse" when Mr Rains is about to consummate his marriage with his wife (after a long illness that began immediately after the marriage) suddenly discovers his bride is already pregnant.....is unforgettable.
Non smetterei mai di ascoltarlo,oh mio Dio sembra che i cromosomi della sensualità sono andati a finire tutti nella sua voce! Ahahahah I love him so much
Their video is beautiful and I have included it in the "Album of the movie Stars, thank you to share it, it can look for it in Internet writing "Album de las Estrellas de Cine" or "Tribute Actress Famous" or "Banco de Cine" and look for in the alphabet of the ALBUM for the initial letter of the star of this videotape C CL nº 31 here its videotape is. Up in it paginates it where their video is there is a connection to "Listado de Honor" make click and once inside of it pulses in the LISTING of HONOR of the center, the name of its CHANNEL is already logged, congratulation and thank you.
This is barely a 5-minute piece; there isn't enough time to show scenes of everyone's favourite performances. His role in that film wasn't a large one and it wasn't an incredible performance. It's also possible the makers of this short presentation weren't able to get permission from Columbia for use of a clip. 🤔
This certainly is no "class act" - It's stupidly 99% narrator and thus leaves out the most important aspect of a "class act" - Rains' voice and lines....we hardly hear a word from him. Surreal how stupid this "tribute" is.
This isn't an hour-long, in-depth biography. It's a five-minute piece about who Rains was, not a showcase of his greatest scenes. No offense intended. 😐
