Sunday, November 29, 2015

Claude Rains was The Invisible Man

In that classic of western culture, Rocky Horror Picture Show, the opening stanza to the song Science Fiction Double Feature is:
Michael Rennie was ill
The Day the Earth Stood Still
But he told us where we stand
And Flash Gordon was there
In silver underwear
Claude Rains was The Invisible Man
Then something went wrong
For Fay Wray and King Kong
They got caught in a celluloid jam
Then at a deadly pace
It Came From Outer Space
And this is how the message ran...
I knew Claude Rains as Captain Renault in Casablanca (another favorite). But what was his life story? I looked him up in Wikipedia today. A couple of nuggets.
Rains served in the First World War in the London Scottish Regiment, alongside fellow actors Basil Rathbone, Ronald Colman and Herbert Marshall. At one time, he was involved in a gas attack that left him nearly blind in one eye for the rest of his life. By the end of the war, he had risen from the rank of Private to that of Captain.

[snip]

He married six times, and was divorced from the first five of his wives.
Definition of an optimist, not letting experience triumph over hope.

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