Claude Rains: An Actor's Voice (Screen Classics) - Softcover

Skal, David; Rains, Jessica

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0813192617 ISBN 13: 9780813192611

Verlag: The University Press of Kentucky, 2010

Inhaltsangabe

Book by Skal David J Rains Jessica

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Críticas:

"Claude Rains was a consummate actor whose remarkable life and career has been covered in fascinating detail in this book." - Kevin Brownlow, filmmaker "Most movie stars eventually are forgotten, and almost all character actors are, but the reputation of Claude Rains has survived for more than forty years since his death. David Skal's biography, written with Rains's daughter, probably will provoke even more welcome - and justified - reassessments of his gifts." - Scott Eyman, Cox News Service"

Reseña del editor:

Late in Claude Rains's distinguished career, a reverent film journalist wrote that Rains "was as much a cinematic institution as the medium itself." Given his childhood speech impediments and his origins in a destitute London neighborhood, the ascent of Claude Rains (1889-1967) to the stage and screen is remarkable. Rains's difficulties in his formative years provided reserves of gravitas and sensitivity, from which he drew inspiration for acclaimed performances in The Invisible Man (1933), Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), Casablanca (1942), Notorious (1946), Lawrence of Arabia (1962), and other classic films. In Claude Rains: An Actor's Voice, noted Hollywood historian David J. Skal draws on more than thirty hours of newly released Rains interviews to create the first full-length biography of the actor who was nominated multiple times for an Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actor. Skal's portrait of the gifted actor also benefits from the insights of Jessica Rains, who provides firsthand accounts of the enigmatic man behind her father's refined screen presence and genteel public persona. As Skal shows, numerous contradictions informed the life and career of Claude Rains. He possessed an air of nobility and became an emblem of sophistication, but he never shed the insecurities that traced back to his upbringing in an abusive and poverty-stricken family. Though deeply self-conscious about his short stature, Rains drew notorious ardor from female fans and was married six times. His public displays of dry wit and good humor masked inner demons that drove Rains to alcoholism and its devastating consequences. Skal's layered depiction of Claude Rains reveals a complex, almost inscrutable man whose nuanced characterizations were, in no small way, based on the more shadowy parts of his psyche. With unprecedented access to episodes from Rains's private life, Skal tells the full story of the consummate character actor of his generation. Claude Rains: An Actor's Voice, gives voice to the struggles and innermost concerns that influenced Rains's performances and helped him become a universally respected Hollywood legend.

Über diese Auflage

• Verlag: The University Press of Kentucky
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0813192617
• ISBN 13: 9780813192611
• Einband: Tapa blanda
• Anzahl der Seiten: 334