CineScope
Luise Rainer picture

Luise Rainer

Acting
Known For

104 Years Old

Luise Rainer (/ˈraɪnər/; January 12, 1910 – December 30, 2014) was a German-American film actress. She was the first actor to win more than one Academy Award; at the time of her death she was the longest-lived Oscar recipient. Her training began in Germany from the age of 16 by leading stage director Max Reinhardt. After a few years, she became recognized as a "distinguished Berlin stage actress", acting with Reinhardt's Vienna theater ensemble. Critics "raved" about her stage and film acting quality, leading MGM to sign her to a three-year contract and bring her to Hollywood in 1935. A number of filmmakers anticipated she might become another Greta Garbo, MGM's leading female star. Her first American role was in the film Escapade (1935), which was soon followed with a relatively small part in the musical biopic The Great Ziegfeld (1936). Despite her limited appearances in the film, she "so impressed audiences" that she won the Oscar for Best Actress. For her dramatic telephone scene in the film, she was later dubbed "the Viennese teardrop". In her next role, producer Irving Thalberg was convinced, despite the studio's disagreement, that she could play the part of a poor uncomely Chinese farm wife in The Good Earth, based on Pearl Buck's novel about hardship in China. The subdued character she played was such a dramatic contrast to her previous, vivacious character, that she won another Academy Award, even with Greta Garbo as one of the nominees. However, she would later remark that by winning two consecutive Oscars, "nothing worse could have happened to me," as audience expectations from then on would be too high to fulfill. She was then given parts in a string of unimportant movies, leading MGM and Rainer to become disappointed, and she ended her brief three-year career in films, soon returning to Europe. Adding to her rapid decline, some feel, was the "poor career advice" given her by then husband, playwright Clifford Odets, along with the unexpected death, at age 37, of her producer, Irving Thalberg, whom she greatly admired. Some film historians consider her the "most extreme case of an Oscar victim in Hollywood mythology". She currently lives in London. Description above from the Wikipedia article Luise Rainer, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia

Born

Düsseldorf, Germany on 12th January 1910

Died

30th December 2014

All Credits

The Love Boat Image
The Love Boat
Dorothy Fielding
Combat! Image
Combat!
Countess De Roy
Boulevard Bio Image
Boulevard Bio
Self
Suspense Image
Suspense
No Image
Lux Video Theatre
Caroline
No Image
Lux Video Theatre
Mrs. Page
The Oscars Image
The Oscars
Self
The Ed Sullivan Show Image
The Ed Sullivan Show
Self
MGM: When the Lion Roars Image
MGM: When the Lion Roars
No Image
The Chevrolet Tele-Theatre
Brisant Image
Brisant
Self
Schlitz Playhouse of Stars Image
Schlitz Playhouse of Stars
Chambermaid
Film Emigration from Nazi Germany Image
Film Emigration from Nazi Germany
Self
The Good Earth Image
The Good Earth
O-Lan
That's Entertainment! III Image
That's Entertainment! III
(archive footage)
The Great Ziegfeld Image
The Great Ziegfeld
Anna Held
The Great Waltz Image
The Great Waltz
Poldi Vogelhuber
Yellowface: Asian Whitewashing and Racism in Hollywood Image
Yellowface: Asian Whitewashing and Racism in Hollywood
(archive footage)
Happy 100th Birthday, Hollywood Image
Happy 100th Birthday, Hollywood
SElf
Cavalcade of the Academy Awards Image
Cavalcade of the Academy Awards
Self (archive footage)
Big City Image
Big City
Anna Benton
Frank Capra's American Dream Image
Frank Capra's American Dream
Self (archive footage)
The Toy Wife Image
The Toy Wife
Gilberte 'Frou Frou' Brigard
The Romance of Celluloid Image
The Romance of Celluloid
Self (archive footage)
The Gambler Image
The Gambler
Grandmother
The Emperor's Candlesticks Image
The Emperor's Candlesticks
Countess Olga Mironova
Hollywood Chinese Image
Hollywood Chinese
Self
Ziegfeld on Film Image
Ziegfeld on Film
Herself (interviewee, and in clips from The Great Ziegfeld)
Dramatic School Image
Dramatic School
Louise Mauban
Another Romance of Celluloid Image
Another Romance of Celluloid
Self (uncredited)
Escapade Image
Escapade
Leopoldine Dur
Poem: I Set My Foot Upon the Air and It Carried Me Image
Poem: I Set My Foot Upon the Air and It Carried Me
Hostages Image
Hostages
Milada Pressinger
Sehnsucht 202 Image
Sehnsucht 202
Kitty
Heut' kommt's drauf an Image
Heut' kommt's drauf an
Marita Costa
No Image
A Dancer
Anna
No Image
Madame has a visitor
Luise Rainer: Live from the TCM Classic Film Festival Image
Luise Rainer: Live from the TCM Classic Film Festival