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ImmigrationProf Blog
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Immigrant of the Day: Claude Rains (England)

By immigrationprof

195px-Claude_Rains_in_Mr_Skeffington_trailer_headcrop Claude Rains (1889–1967) was an award-winning actor and film star whose career spanned 47 years. He later held U.S. citizenship and was best known for his many roles in Hollywood films. In October 2008, a new biography, Claude Rains: An Actor’s Voice by David J. Skal and Rains’ daughter Jessica Rains, was published.

Raines’ most famous role was as  the suave French police Captain Renault in the great refugee film Casablanca.  One of Renault’s famous lines is “round up the usual suspects.”

Born in England, Rains immigrated to the United States to puruse a career in Hollywood and became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1939. In 1951, Rains won a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play for Darkness at Noon. He was also nominated four times for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), Casablanca (1942), Mr. Skeffington (1944), and Notorious (1946). He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, at 6400 Hollywood Boulevard.