Home> Facts and Trivia > Stars > Claude Rains
Claude Rains Facts
| Sign | Scorpio |
| Born |
Nov 10, 1889 Camberwell, London |
| Died |
May 30, 1967 Laconia, NH |
| Age | Died at 77 |
| Total Facts | 46 |
Joan Crawford invited his daughter Jennifer to her daughter Christina's birthday party. She told Jennifer's mother, Claude's wife, that Jennifer could wear jeans. Jennifer showed up to the party the only little girl not dressed up. When Christina introduced Jennifer to her mother, Crawford said to Jennifer, "It was very nice to meet you. And now you may leave." Jennifer was also shown Christina's extensive doll collection, which Christina explained to her that no one was ever allowed to touch or play with. Jennifer never returned to the Crawford home.
Herbert Beerbohm Tree recognized Rains' acting talent and paid for the elocution books and lessons he needed due to his poor diction.
After he divorced his third wife and married his fourth, his third wife charged him with bigamy, challenging the legality of their divorce.
Along with Vanessa Redgrave (for Julia (1977)), Kate Winslet (for Iris (2000)) and Mare Winningham (for Georgia (1995)), he is the only performer to be nominated for an Supporting Oscar (for Mr. Skeffington (1944)) for playing the title role in a movie. As of 2010, Redgrave is the only one to win.
Although they lived in Pennsylvania, Rains did not want his daughter to have a Pennsylvanian accent. He taught her to pronounce words the way he did, and he was successful. Also, as a young child, she stuttered and Rains' cure for this was for everyone in the house to sing everything they wanted to say, which worked.
Claude Rains was offered numerous parts which would have undoubtedly changed his career path, but one way or another he did not play the parts. These parts include Dr Gogol in Mad Love (1935), Dr Pretorius in Bride of Frankenstein (1935), Frollo or Qasimodo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939), Wolf Frankenstein in Son of Frankenstein (1941), Pr Higgins in Pygmalion (1938), Mr Doolittle in My Fair Lady (1964), Klaatu in The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), De Lorca in the Adventures of Don Juan (1948) and Henry Potter in It's A Wonderful Life (1946).
Father of Jessica Rains.
He and wife Beatrix Thomson separated in 1928. It took almost seven years to finalize.
He designed his own tombstone. It reads: "All things once/Are things forever,/Soul, once living,/lives forever.".
He didn't just memorize his own lines, but the entire script.
He never attended a premiere.
He separated from wife Isabel Jeans three times, reuniting two of those times. He finally filed for divorce on grounds of adultery when she miscarried Gilbert Wakefield's baby. She admitted the adultery during the divorce and later married "Gilly" Wakefield.
He starred in Richard B. Sheridan's "The Rivals" on stage in 1925. His then wife, Beatrix Thomson as well as his two former wives were also in the cast.
He would recite bedtime stories to his daughter Jessica in Cockney, an English dialect that was essentially his mother tongue.
His daughter Jennifer was born on January 24, 1938. Her screen name is Jessica Rains', as there was already a Jennifer Rains registered in the Actors' Equity.
His fifth wife, Agi Jambor, was born in 1908. She was a pianist-composer and Bach expert who taught music at Bryn Mawr.
His fifth wife, Agi, was a Hungarian Jew who had escaped the holocaust. She later composed the piano solo "Sonata for the Victims of Auschwitz.".
His fifth wife, Agi, was a widow who had lost her husband in 1949.
His first wife, Isabel Jeans, always wore a wig because her natural hair was so thin.
His fourth wife, Frances, was born around 1909.
His fourth wife, Frances, was named as corespondent in his divorce from third wife Beatrix.
His marriage to Marie Hemingway only lasted months. Rains and Hemingway did not know each other well before marrying, and it was not until after they were married that he found out she was an alcoholic.
His memorable role as The Invisible Man (1933) was referenced in the opening song to the cult film The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975).
His wife Rosemary died from pancreatic cancer. Rains and his doctor kept the diagnosis from Rosemary until one day she said, "Please don't do that to me any longer. I know what I've got.".
His wife Rosemary had been a Catholic but was not in good standing with the church as she had divorced and remarried. Claude Rains pushed the church to reinstate her, which they did at her funeral.
Interred at Red Hill Cemetery, Moultonborough, New Hampshire, USA
It bothered him that his fifth wife, Agi, would practice piano on a silent keyboard. He couldn't stand to see her hands flying around with no music to listen to.
Left $25,000 to the Actors Fund of America.
On the day his divorce from Frances Propper was final, he drank and drove his Bentley into a ditch, totaling it. When they found him he was passed out drunk on the ground and the car was upside down and on fire.
On the way to their wedding, Rains' soon-to-be-fifth wife Agi made him turn around and go back. She had forgotten to put on the underwear she had worn at her first wedding, which she insisted she wear for luck at her second.
Originally cast as the Duke de Lorca in Adventures of Don Juan (1948).
Played the devil who brought a criminal back to life in Angel on My Shoulder (1946) and played an angel who brought a Boxer back to life in Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941).
Rains and fourth wife Frances divorced after Francis began a relationship with a woman's dress shop owner whom she later married.
Rains was almost blind in one eye due to injury received in a gas attack during WWI.
Rains was so stingy with money that constantly complained he was broke, although this was never truly the case.
Rains would throw things when he was angry.
Rains, his wife Frances, and daughter Jennifer lived on a farm in Pennsylvania. When people asked Jennifer what her father did for a living, she would tell them he was a farmer.
Son of Fred Rains.
The first time his daughter ever saw Rains in a film was in 1950 when he took her to see The Invisible Man (1933) in a small theater in Pennsylvania. They sat in the back, and Rains told her all about the making of the film as it played. The other people in the theater were not watching the movie, but rather watching Claude Rains explain to his daughter how he made the film.
Was a teacher at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art before coming to Hollywood, whose students included John Gielgud.
When he had had enough of his fifth marriage to wife Agi, he had the locks changed on their house while she was out shopping.
When his daughter informed him she was divorcing her husband, Edward Brash, Rains said, "Tell me, was it sex?".
When his daughter Jennifer was 17, her mother, Frances Proppper, woke her up in the middle of the night, said she was leaving her father, and wanted to know if Jennifer wanted to come with her. Jennifer declined.
While filming Notorious (1946) with Alfred Hitchcock and Ingrid Bergman, Hitchcock suggested Rains wear platforms in his shoes as Bergman was very tall. Although embarrassed, Rains agreed to this. One day while Rains was talking to Bergman, Hitchcock came by, lifting Rains' pant leg and revealing his platforms, commenting "The shame of Rains".
While living with, but before their marriage, his fourth wife, Frances, their house burned down. The official cause of fire was a lightning strike. Rains later found out from a neighbor that it was arson -- his groundskeeper had burned it down.
Won Broadway's 1951 Tony Award as Best Actor (Dramatic) for "Darkness at Noon."