Austrian-born Luise Rainer was a distinguished Berlin stage actress who had worked with Max Reinhardt's company and made a few films in Germany before moving to Hollywood in 1935. Under contract to MGM, she replaced Myrna Loy in "Escapade" (1935) and then achieved overnight fame as the first back-to-back Oscar recipient, winning the Best Actress Award for her roles in "The Great Ziegfeld" (1936) and "The Good Earth" (1937). In the former, as Anna Held, the first, long-suffering wife of Flo Ziegfeld, Rainer was human champagne, and the abiding memory of that lavish, often tedious musical biopic is her classic four-hanky telephone scene, congratulating her former husband on his new marriage. In the latter, as O-Lan, the stoic Chinese peasant in Thalberg's last production, she again endured a husband's mistress to win a second statuette.For a brief time Rainer's star promised to shine brightly alongside fellow MGM stars Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford and Norma Shearer, but she could not survive the backlash of her sudden success. As her marriage to Clifford Odets disintegrated, so did her career, and she left MGM after only eight pictures in three and a half years, interrupting her hiatus only once to film "Hostages" (1943) for Paramount. Happily married to English publisher Robert Knittel until his death in 1989, Rainer made sporadic stage and TV appearances through the years and developed her talents as a painter before returning for her "second act" with 11 riveting screen minutes in Karoly Makk's "The Gambler" (1997). As the wealthy grandmother of a family already close to ruin, she is radiant one moment, bereft the next, so feverishly animated that you cannot take your eyes off her.
Profession(s):
Actor, writer, artist
Sometimes Credited As:
Family
daughter:Francesca Knittel Bowyer (born c. 1947)
father:Henry Rainer (ran an import-export firm; American citizen)
husband:Robert Knittel (second husband; married in 1945 until his death in 1989)
husband:Clifford Odets (married January 8, 1937; separated in 1939; divorced May 14, 1940)
National Board of Review Award Best Acting "The Good Earth" 1937
Oscar Best Actress "The Good Earth" 1937
New York Film Critics Circle Award Best Actress "The Great Ziegfeld" 1936
Oscar Best Actress "The Great Ziegfeld" 1936
1997 Returned to features in extended cameo in Karoly Makk's "The Gambler"
1992 Turned up as perhaps the best witness in TNT's "MGM: When the Lion Roars"--beautiful, intelligent and mesmerizing
1943 Made last film for 54 years, "Hostages" (Paramount)
1942 Starred on Broadway in revival of "A Kiss for Cinderella"
1938 Left MGM after a series of boxoffice and critical flops
1937 Won second Oscar as O-Lan in "The Good Earth"
1936 Won first Oscar playing Anna Held in "The Great Ziegfeld"
1935 Made US film debut in "Escapade", the first of three films made with William Powell; took over part abandoned by Myrna Loy
1930 Film debut in "Ja der Himmel uber Wien"
1928 Joined Max Reinhardt's acting company
1926 Left home to pursue acting career at age 16
Raised in Germany, Switzerland and Austria
Appeared as a performer in episodes of live TV on "Faith Baldwin's Theater of Romance" and "Suspense"
Made occasional stage appearances during her "retirement" from film acting; last seen in a solo performance of Alfred Lord Tennyson's poem "Enoch Arden" at UCLA's Schoenberg Hall, Los Angeles, CA in 1