Claude Rains William Claude Rains ( 10 November 188930 May 1967 ) was an English - born American stage and film actor whose career spanned 46 years . He was known for many roles in Hollywood films , including the title role in " The Invisible Man " ( 1933 ) , scientists , corrupt kings , and senators in " The Wolf Man " ( 1941 ) , " The Adventures of Robin Hood " ( 1938 ) and " Mr . Smith Goes to Washington " ( 1939 ) , Mr . Dryden in " Lawrence of Arabia " ( 1962 ) , and Captain Renault in " Casablanca " ( 1942 ) . Early life . Rains was born in Camberwell , London . He grew up , according to his daughter , with " a very serious Cockney accent and a speech impediment " . His parents were Emily Eliza ( née Cox ) and the stage and film actor Frederick William Rains . Rains made his stage debut at the age of 11 in the play " Nell of Old Drury " . His acting talents were recognised by Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree , the founder of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art . Tree paid for the elocution lessons that Rains needed to succeed as an actor . Later , Rains taught at RADA , where his students included John Gielgud and Laurence Olivier , among others . Many years later , after Rains had gone to Hollywood and become a well - known film actor , Gielgud commented : " He was a great influence on me . I don ' t know what happened to him . I think he failed and went to America . " Rains served in the First World War in the London Scottish Regiment , alongside fellow actors Basil Rathbone , Ronald Colman and Herbert Marshall . At one time , he was involved in a gas attack that left him nearly blind in one eye for the rest of his life . By the end of the war , he had risen from the rank of Private to that of Captain . Career . Rains began his career in London theatre , achieving success in the title role of John Drinkwater ' s play " Ulysses S . Grant " , the follow - up to the same playwright ' s " Abraham Lincoln " . He moved to to Broadway in the late 1920s to act in leading roles in such plays as George Bernard Shaw ' s " The Apple Cart " , and the dramatisations of " The Constant Nymph " and Pearl S . Buck ' s novel " The Good Earth " ( as a Chinese farmer ) . Rains came relatively late to film acting . His first screen test was a failure , but his distinctive voice earned him the title role in James Whale ' s " The Invisible Man " ( 1933 ) after his screen test was inadvertently overheard from the next room . Rains later credited director Michael Curtiz with teaching him the more understated requirements of film acting , or " what not to do in front of a camera " . Following " The Invisible Man " , Universal Studios attempted to typecast him in horror films ; however , Rains went on to play the villainous role of Prince John in " The Adventures of Robin Hood " ( 1938 ) , gave an Academy Award - nominated performance as the corrupt US senator in " Mr . Smith Goes to Washington " ( 1939 ) , and portrayed the flexible police officer Captain Renault in " Casablanca " ( 1942 ) . In 1943 , Rains played the title character in Universal ' s remake of " Phantom of the Opera " . Bette Davis named him her favourite co - star , and they made four films together , including " Now , Voyager " ( 1942 ) and " Mr . Skeffington " ( 1944 ) . Rains became the first actor to receive a million - dollar salary , whe he portrayed Julius Caesar in Gabriel Pascal ' s high - budget but unsuccessful version of Shaw ' s " Caesar and Cleopatra " ( 1945 ) , filmed in Britain . In 1946 , he played a refugee Nazi agent opposite Cary Grant and " Casablanca " co - star Ingrid Bergman in Alfred Hitchcock ' s " Notorious " . In 1949 , he appeared in David Lean ' s " The Passionate Friends " . His only singing and dancing role was in a 1957 television musical version of Robert Browning ' s " The Pied Piper of Hamelin " , with Van Johnson as the Piper . The NBC colour special , broadcast as a film rather than a live or videotaped programme , was highly successful with the public . Sold into syndication after its first telecast , it was repeated annually by many local US TV stations . Rains remained a popular character actor in the 1950s and 1960s , appearing in many films . Two of his well - known later screen roles were as Dryden , a cynical British diplomat in " Lawrence of Arabia " ( 1962 ) and King Herod in " The Greatest Story Ever Told " ( 1965 ) . The latter was his final film role . He additionally made several audio recordings , narrating some Bible stories for children on Capitol Records , and reciting Richard Strauss ' s setting for narrator and piano of Tennyson ' s poem " Enoch Arden " , with the piano solos performed by Glenn Gould . He starred in " The Jeffersonian Heritage " , a 1952 series of 13 half - hour radio programmes recorded by the National Association of Educational Broadcasters and syndicated for commercial broadcast on a sustaining ( i . e . , commercial - free ) basis . Personal life . Rains became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1939 . He married six times , and was divorced from the first five of his wives : Isabel Jeans ( married 1913 – 1915 ) ; Marie Hemingway ( to whom Rains was married for less than a year in 1920 ) ; Beatrix Thomson ( 1924 – 8 April 1935 ) ; Frances Propper ( 9 April 1935 – 1956 ) ; and classical pianist Agi Jambor ( 4 November 1959 – 1960 ) . In 1960 , he married Rosemary Clark Schrode , to whom he was married until her death on 31 December 1964 . His only child , Jessica Rains , was born to him and Propper on 24 January 1938 . He acquired the Stock Grange Farm in West Bradford Township , Pennsylvania ( just outside Coatesville ) in 1941 , and spent much of his time between film takes reading up on agricultural techniques . He sold the farm when his marriage to Propper ended in 1956 . Rains spent his final years in Sandwich , New Hampshire . He died from an abdominal haemorrhage in Laconia on 30 May 1967 , aged 77 . He was buried at the Red Hill Cemetery in Moultonborough . " Claude Rains : An Actor ' s Voice " , a biography by David J . Skal and Rains ' daughter Jessica , was published in 2008 . Awards and nominations . In 1951 , Rains won a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play for " Darkness at Noon " . He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor on four occasions : for " Mr . Smith Goes to Washington " ( 1939 ) , " Casablanca " ( 1942 ) , " Mr . Skeffington " ( 1944 ) and " Notorious " ( 1946 ) . Rains has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame , at 6400 Hollywood Boulevard .