Claude Rains

Character player whose impeccable charm and finely modulated voice graced some of the finest Hollywood films of the 1930s and 40s. Rains began appearing on the London stage at age 11, was one of the leading members of New York's Theatre Guild by the mid-20s and made a sensational screen debut as "The Invisible Man" in 1933. Primarily at Warner Bros. from 1936, he turned in a string of memorable performances opposite Bette Davis ("Now, Voyager" 1942, "Mr. Skeffington" 1944, "Deception" 1946) and is perhaps best remembered as the dapper, opportunistic police chief in "Casablanca" (1942). He was also outstanding in Alfred Hitchcock's "Notorious" (1946), as Ingrid Bergman's child-like, Nazi-conspiring husband--one of four roles to earn him an Oscar nomination for best supporting actor. The first of Rains' six marriages was to British actress Isabel Jeans.