Born in London, England. A suave character actor of superbly controlled sardonic manner, he was charming even when playing villains, which he was called upon to do frequently on the screen. On the London stage from age 11 and a protégé of Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree, he first toured the US in 1914 and became a leading player of the Theatre Guild in 1926. Almost blind in one eye due to injury from a gas attack in WW I, he was a middle-aged man by the time he got into films in 1933. A slight, 5' 5", unhandsome man, he was sought out by Hollywood thanks to his stage reputation as an actor with an expressive face, but ironically that face was kept in bandages or entirely unseen in his motion picture debut, the title role in THE INVISIBLE MAN (1933). Universal tried to make Rains another Karloff by starring him in two melodramas, THE MAN WHO RECLAIMED HIS HEAD (1934) and THE MYSTERY OF EDWIN DROOD (1935). But Rains drifted into character roles instead, which afforded him more interesting opportunities. His all-time worst performance came in 1939's THEY MADE ME A CRIMINAL which miscast him as a Dick Tracy-like detective; interestingly enough, a memo printed in the 1980s revealed that Rains begged Warner Bros. not to make him play the part! By the 1940s he had joined the rarefied league of secondary actors who were virtually stars themselves. He earned four Academy Award nominations for Best Supporting Actor: as the corrupt Senator in MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON (1939), the delightfully dapper, amoral police captain in CASABLANCA (1942), the faithful stockbroker husband of Bette Davis in MR. SKEFFINGTON (1944, actually a costarring part), and Ingrid Bergman's self-centered husband and Nazi spy in NOTORIOUS (1946, directed by Alfred Hitchcock). But, he never won an Academy Award. The Rains gallery includes many other finely limned character portraits as well, such as Napoleon in HEARTS DIVIDED (1936), a self-serving Southern lawyer in THEY WON'T FORGET (1937), the treacherous Prince John in THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD (1938), Napoleon III in JUAREZ (1939), a peripatetic pater in FOUR DAUGHTERS (1938) and its sequels DAUGHTERS COURAGEOUS (1939) and FOUR MOTHERS (1941), a Heavenly administrator in HERE COMES MR. JORDAN (1941, in the title role), a small-town doctor in KINGS ROW (1942), Bette Davis' understanding psychiatrist in NOW, VOYAGER (1942), a murderous musician in PHANTOM OF THE OPERA (1943, the title role), Julius Caesar in CAESAR AND CLEOPATRA (1946), the intrepid Professor Challenger in THE LOST WORLD (1960), and King Herod the Great in THE GREATEST STORY EVER TOLD (1965). In his best screen roles, Rains fairly bristled with sardonic malevolence. He was as distinctive in his final films as he was in his first. See his delicious performance as a diplomat, with eyebrows perpetually raised, in LAWRENCE OF ARABIA (1962). Some of his other notable film include 1935: THE LAST OUTPOST 1936: ANTHONY ADVERSE (the first of his many Warner Bros. films); 1937: THE PRINCE AND THE PAUPER 1938: GOLD IS WHERE YOU FIND IT 1940: SATURDAY'S CHILDREN, THE LADY WITH RED HAIR (as famed stage actorimpresario David Belasco), THE SEA HAWK 1941: THE WOLF MAN 1942: MOONTIDE 1944: PASSAGE TO MARSEILLE 1945: THIS LOVE OF OURS 1946: ANGEL ON MY SHOULDER, DECEPTION 1947: THE UNSUSPECTED 1949: ONE WOMAN'S STORY 1950: THE WHITE TOWER 1951: SEALED CARGO 1953: PARIS EXPRESS 1956: LISBON 1959: THIS EARTH IS MINE 1961: BATTLE OF THE WORLDS 1963: TWILIGHT OF HONOR. The first of his six marriages was to actress Isabel Jeans. His daughter from his fourth marriage, Jessica Raines (b. 1938), is an actress.    Nominated for Supporting Actor 1939: MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON    Nominated for Supporting Actor 1943: CASABLANCA    Nominated for Supporting Actor 1944: MR. SKEFFINGTON    Nominated for Supporting Actor 1946: NOTORIOUS 4 nominations