William Claude Raines was born on 10 November 1889 in London. The son of a theater actor, he began his stage career early, first appearing on stage at the age of eleven. In his youth, he changed many professions - from courier to assistant director. After his American stage debut, he returned to Britain in 1913, where he was soon assigned to the Scottish Infantry Regiment, in which he served during the First World War. After serving in the army, he continued to play in the theater, becoming one
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William Claude Raines was born on 10 November 1889 in London. The son of a theater actor, he began his stage career early, first appearing on stage at the age of eleven. In his youth, he changed many professions - from courier to assistant director. After his American stage debut, he returned to Britain in 1913, where he was soon assigned to the Scottish Infantry Regiment, in which he served during the First World War. After serving in the army, he continued to play in the theater, becoming one of the leading actors of the British stage, and in 1920 he first starred in the silent film Build Your Home. In his twenties, Raines taught at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Among his students in those years was young Lawrence Olivier, later the most famous actor of theater and cinema. In 1932, while working for the New York Theatre Guild, Raines auditioned for Universal Pictures and landed the lead role in James Whale’s Invisible Man (1933), which brought him his first film success. For many years, with a soft, insidious voice and courteous, courteous manners, Reigns was among the most sought-after character actors of the Warner Brothers film studio. In the forties, Reigns was nominated four times for the Oscar in the nomination "Best Supporting Actor". Being a talented, versatile actor, Reigns created many memorable images on the screen, whether it is the insidious Prince John in The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938, directed by Michael Curtitz and William Cagley) or the devoted husband in the drama Mr. Skeffington (1944, directed by Vincent Sherman). However, he was most successful in the roles of educated villains, such as the corrupt Senator Payne in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939, Frank Capra), the corrupt inspector in Casablanca (1942, Michael Curtitz) or the Nazi spy in Bad Glory (1946, Alfred Hitchcock). His acting career was equally successful in his homeland in the UK - in 1946 he played the role of Julius Caesar in the large-scale production of director Gabriel Pascal "Caesar and Cleopatra" (based on the play of the same name by Bernard Shaw), the fee for which amounted to a million dollars (an unprecedented case at the time), and three years later played a deceived husband in "Passionary Friends" by David Lean. In the following years, Reigns continued to perform on the stage, starring in films and appeared several times in television films, including in short series from the series Alfred Hitchcock Presents. Of Reigns' later acting work, the diplomat Dryden is best known in David Lean's famous adventure film epic Lawrence of Arabia (1962) and King Herod in the film adaptation of the gospel events The Greatest Stories Ever Told (1965, directed by George Stevens and David Lin).