Claude Rains is among the greatest of all Hollywood character actors bringing his distinctly cultured voice to 55 films. He starred as the original "The Invisible Man" (1933) but is most famously remembered as Captain Louis Renault in "Casablanca" (1942) who uttered the immortal lines "Round up the usual suspects" and "I'm shocked, shocked!" and embarking on a "Beautiful relationship" with Humphrey Bogart's Rick. Rains' actress daughter Jessica and writer David J. Skal collaborated on "Claude Rains: An Actor's Voice" (2008, the University Press of Kentucky). Only 184 of 290 pages is actual text with the remainder primarily listing Rains' credits.
So what could possibly be interesting about the life of a character actor? Plenty and Skal packs the relatively short for a biography with the portrait of a fascinating and enigmatic man. That smooth and cultured persona the well spoken Rains projected was the end result of self improvement by a determined poor cockney boy. Rains seemed a proper British gentleman born with a silver spoon but the opposite was true. He was born into an impoverished family. His ne'er do well father was nearly abusive in dishing out corporal punishment and poorly treating his mentally fragile wife. So Rains never really felt love for his father.
Young Claude spoke with a thick cockney accent compounded by a speech impediment of announcing r's as w's. That humiliation fueled his hatred of school and he indeed quit school to begin his stage career as a promptor boy. He nearly ruined his opportunity when caught pilfering money from actor's clothes. He was constantly hungry as his meager salary supported the family. A second chance led to his being encouraged to read and take elocution lessons to improve his speech. A war injury to his vocal chords altered his voice into the familiar rich timber.
So what could possibly be interesting about the life of a character actor? Plenty and Skal packs the relatively short for a biography with the portrait of a fascinating and enigmatic man. That smooth and cultured persona the well spoken Rains projected was the end result of self improvement by a determined poor cockney boy. Rains seemed a proper British gentleman born with a silver spoon but the opposite was true. He was born into an impoverished family. His ne'er do well father was nearly abusive in dishing out corporal punishment and poorly treating his mentally fragile wife. So Rains never really felt love for his father.
Young Claude spoke with a thick cockney accent compounded by a speech impediment of announcing r's as w's. That humiliation fueled his hatred of school and he indeed quit school to begin his stage career as a promptor boy. He nearly ruined his opportunity when caught pilfering money from actor's clothes. He was constantly hungry as his meager salary supported the family. A second chance led to his being encouraged to read and take elocution lessons to improve his speech. A war injury to his vocal chords altered his voice into the familiar rich timber.
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