Luise Rainer
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.
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Known For | Acting |
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Most Rating | 2.737 |
Birthday | 1910-01-12 |
Place of Birth | Düsseldorf, Germany |
Also Known As |
1937
The Good Earth
6.2/67
China, during the rule of the Qing Dynasty. The arranged marriage between Wang Lung, a humble farmer, and O-Lan, a domestic slave, will endure the man...
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The Good Earth
1936
The Great Ziegfeld
6.2/130
Lavish biography of Flo Ziegfeld, the producer who became Broadway's biggest starmaker.
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The Great Ziegfeld
1938
The Great Waltz
5.6/14
Composer Johann Strauss risks his marriage over his infatuation with a beautiful singer.
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The Great Waltz
1937
Big City
7.4/5
Anna and Joe are newly married, playful and deeply in love. Joe is scraping by as cab driver in New York City during a period of corruption, mob contr...
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Big City
1937
The Emperor's Candlesticks
5.2/7
Spies on opposite sides fall in love in pre-revolutionary Russia.
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The Emperor's Candlesticks
1938
The Toy Wife
4.8/6
A Southern belle finds herself torn between two suitors.
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The Toy Wife
1935
Escapade
0/0
A romantic comedy-drama-musical of mistaken identity, infidelity and farce, set in Vienna at the turn of the 20th century.
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Escapade
2019
Yellowface: Asian Whitewashing and Racism in Hollywood
5.5/6
A history of anti-Asian racism and yellowface in Hollywood after the 1941 Pearl Harbor attack.
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Yellowface: Asian Whitewashing and Racism in Hollywood
1997
The Gambler
4.8/6
Under pressure from his publisher, Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoyevsky gets work on his latest piece, 'Rouletenberg'. In the 27 days it takes for him...
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The Gambler
1938
Dramatic School
6.2/4
Aspiring actress Louise Muban attends the prestigious Paris School of Drama during the day and works at a dreary factory assembling gas meters at nigh...
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Dramatic School
1932
Madame has a visitor
0/0
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Madame has a visitor
1933
Heut' kommt's drauf an
0/0
A musical comedy centering around the competitors in the Golden Saxophone competition.
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Heut' kommt's drauf an
1943
Hostages
6/2
After the mysterious disappearance of a German soldier from a Prague cafe, the staff and customers are held captive by the Nazis accused of murder and...
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Hostages
1932
Sehnsucht 202
0/0
After a mix-up with a newspaper advertisement, a shop-girl and a millionairess are mistaken for one another by two businessmen. A musical romantic com...
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Sehnsucht 202
1991
A Dancer
0/0
Part of the By Herself series of individual dramas created for Channel 4, A dancer explores the emotional moment when two former lovers, separated by...
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A Dancer
2004
Ziegfeld on Film
5.7/3
This short documentary includes interviews with Florenz Ziegfeld's daughter Patricia and actress Luise Rainer. Ziegfeld's life and the making of the f...
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Ziegfeld on Film
2003
Poem: I Set My Foot Upon the Air and It Carried Me
9/1
A series of poems.
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Poem: I Set My Foot Upon the Air and It Carried Me
2007
Hollywood Chinese
0/0
Hollywood Chinese is a captivating look at cinema history through the lens of the Chinese American experience. Directed by triple Sundance award-winni...
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Hollywood Chinese
1940
Cavalcade of the Academy Awards
6.5/3
This 1940 presentation features highlights of earlier (1928 onward) Oscar ceremonies including Shirley Temple and Walt Disney, plus acceptance speeche...
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Cavalcade of the Academy Awards
1994
That's Entertainment! III
6.943/35
Some of MGM'S musical stars review the studios history of musicals. From The Hollywood Revue of 1929 to Brigadoon, from the first musical talkies to G...
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That's Entertainment! III
1937
The Romance of Celluloid
7/2
Several behind the scenes aspects of the movie-making business, which results in the enjoyment the movie going public has in going to the theater, are...
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The Romance of Celluloid
1938
Another Romance of Celluloid
5/2
This second entry in MGM's "Romance of Film" series documents how celluloid movie film is processed and features behind-the-scenes glimpses of current...
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Another Romance of Celluloid
1997
Frank Capra's American Dream
6.2/6
A documentary looking at the life and career of film director Frank Capra. Hosted by Ron Howard.
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Frank Capra's American Dream
2011
Luise Rainer: Live from the TCM Classic Film Festival
0/0
100-year-old Oscar-winning actress Luise Rainer sits down with Robert Osborne at the 2010 TCM Classic Film Festival.
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