Rainer, Luise (1910–)

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Rainer, Luise (1910–)

Austrian actress. Born Jan 12, 1910, in Vienna, Austria (some sources cite Dusseldorf, Germany), to Jewish parents; studied with Max Reinhardt; m. Clifford Odets (playwright), 1937 (div. 1940); m. Robert Knittel (English publisher), 1953 (died 1989); no children.

At 16, made stage debut in Austria; after establishing herself on stage and in films in Austria and Germany, arrived in Hollywood (1935) and immediately distinguished herself by winning back-to-back Academy Awards as Best Actress for her work in The Great Ziegfeld (1936) and The Good Earth (1937); by 1939, her US film career was pretty much over; other films include Escapade (1935), The Emperor's Candlesticks (1937), The Big City (1937) and The Toy Wife (1938); made a less-than-memorable Broadway debut in A Kiss for Cinderella (1940), followed by a tour in Joan of Lorraine by Maxwell Anderson; married an English publisher and settled in London (1951); later filmed The Best of Everything (1983) and The Gambler (1997).

See also Women in World History.