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{{quote|''I am shocked -- ''shocked'' -- to find that gambling is going on in here!''
|'''Louis Renault''' (Claude Rains), '''''[[Casablanca]]''''' <ref> A [[TV Tropes/Memes|much-loved]] piece of [[Hypocritical Humour]].</ref>}}
'''William Claude Rains''' was a British character actor (1889-1967) and one of the most significant actors working in films in the middle of the twentieth century. Born in the Camberwell section of London, he overcame the handicaps of a [[British Accents|Cockney accent]] ''and'' a [[Speech Impediment|lisp]] to become a notable stage actor under the tutelage of the famous actor-manager, Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree, who helped him to pay for elocution lessons. Ironically, his beautiful voice and the flawless diction he had acquired landed him his [[Star
A series of more or less macabre parts followed, such as the murderer John Jasper in the first sound film adaptation of [[
▲'''William Claude Rains''' was a British character actor (1889-1967) and one of the most significant actors working in films in the middle of the twentieth century. Born in the Camberwell section of London, he overcame the handicaps of a [[British Accents|Cockney accent]] ''and'' a [[Speech Impediment|lisp]] to become a notable stage actor under the tutelage of the famous actor-manager, Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree, who helped him to pay for elocution lessons. Ironically, his beautiful voice and the flawless diction he had acquired landed him his [[Star Making Role|breakout role]] as the title character of the 1933 film of ''[[The Invisible Man (Film)|The Invisible Man]]'' -- a film in which [[Exactly What It Says On the Tin|his face does not appear]] until the closing scene. This part is referenced in a line from the opening number of ''[[The Rocky Horror Picture Show]]'', and in ''[[Heroes (TV)|Heroes]]'', where another [[Invisibility|invisible man]] is named for him.
▲A series of more or less macabre parts followed, such as the murderer John Jasper in the first sound film adaptation of [[Charles Dickens (Creator)|Charles Dickens]]' ''[[The Mystery of Edwin Drood (Literature)|The Mystery of Edwin Drood]]''. Rains's cool, [[Deadpan Snarker|sardonic]] delivery made him a natural for [[Hollywood History|costume]] [[Wicked Cultured|villainy]], and he appeared as the treacherous [[Historical Villain Upgrade|Earl of Hereford]] in the Warner Brothers’ adaptation of [[Mark Twain]]’s ''The Prince and the Pauper'', in which rising Warners star [[Errol Flynn]] also appeared as Sir Miles Hendon. Rains and Flynn would appear together again to even better effect in ''[[The Adventures of Robin Hood (Film)|The Adventures of Robin Hood]]''; Rains would credit ''Hood'' director Michael Curtiz with teaching him to moderate his [[Large Ham|theatrical acting style]] for films.
Later the same year Rains would play the musician Adam Lemp, father of the eponymous ''[[Chick Flick|Four Daughters]]'' ― ironically, this now largely forgotten film was one of his most popular, and spawned two sequels and an almost exact copy-cat variant. As Senator Paine, the corrupt “[[Ironic Nickname|Silver Knight]]” in [[Frank Capra]]’s ''[[Mr. Smith Goes to Washington]]'', Rains was nominated for his first Best Supporting Actor [[Academy Award|Oscar]]. Three years later he would earn a second nomination for the part of raffish ''[[Les Collaborateurs|collaborateur]]'' Louis Renault in Curtiz’s ''[[Casablanca]]''; his delivery of the Epstein brothers’ sparkling dialogue immortalized such lines as “Round up the usual suspects.” He also gets a shocking -- shocking! -- scene of [[Hypocritical Humour]], and the film famously ends with his and [[Humphrey Bogart]]'s [[Heterosexual Life Partners|beautiful friendship]]. 1944 brought him his third [[Academy Award|Oscar]] nomination, as the [[Henpecked Husband|long-suffering husband]] of [[Bette Davis]]’s [[Rich Bitch|shrewish society matron]] in ''Mr. Skeffington.''
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In 1945, Rains was featured in the most expensive British film that had been made up to that time, playing opposite Vivien Leigh in [[George Bernard Shaw]]’s ''Caesar and Cleopatra'' under the supervision of Shaw himself; the film was, alas! a notorious bomb. The next year, a better form of ''[[Notorious]]'' under the direction of [[Alfred Hitchcock]] brought Rains his fourth and last [[Academy Award|Oscar]] nomination for the difficult part of a [[Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain|sympathetic]] post-war [[Those Wacky Nazis|Nazi]] conspirator.
In 1957 Rains [[
{{actorroles}}
* ''[[The Invisible Man (
* ''Charles Dickens’ Mystery of Edwin Drood'', as John Jasper (1935)
* ''The Prince and the Pauper'', as Edward Seymour, Earl of Hertford (1937)
* ''[[The Adventures of Robin Hood (
* ''Four Daughters'', as Adam Lemp (a role he would play three more times) (1938)
* ''Juarez'', as Emperor Napoleon III (1939)
* ''[[Mr. Smith Goes to Washington]]'', as Senator Joseph Harrison Paine (1939)
* ''[[
* ''Here Comes Mr. Jordan'', as the eponymous [[Our Angels Are Different|Angel]] (1941)
* ''[[The
* ''[[Casablanca]]'', as Captain Louis Renault, the Prefect of Police (1942)
* ''[[Now, Voyager]]'', as [[The Shrink|psychiatrist]] Dr. Jaquith (1942)
* ''[[Phantom of the Opera|The Phantom of the Opera]]'', as Erique Claudin, the Phantom (1943)
* ''[[Mr. Skeffington]]'', as [[Meaningful Name|Job]] Skeffington (1944)
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* ''[[The Passionate Friends]]'', as Howard Justin, a long-suffering husband. (1949)
* ''The Pied Piper of Hamelin'', as the Mayor (1957) (TV)
* ''The Lost World'', as Sir [[
* ''[[Lawrence of Arabia]]'', as Mr. Dryden (1962)
* ''[[The Greatest Story Ever Told]]'', as Herod the Great (1965)
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:Actors]]
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