Luise Rainer

German-born actress (1910–2014)

OverviewAI-generated

Luise Rainer was a German and American actress who worked in film, television, and stage. Her professional career began in 1928 and concluded in 1997. She studied under Max Reinhardt and Constance Collier. Rainer spoke English and German. She was married to Clifford Odets.

Rainer received the Academy Award for Best Actress and was nominated for the same honor. She also holds a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She resided in London, Düsseldorf, Hamburg, and Vienna. Born in Düsseldorf, Germany, on January 12, 1910, she died of pneumonia in London on December 30, 2014. Her death was due to natural causes.

Synthesized by Vinony from 25 facts across 3 sources: Wikidata, TMDb, Vinony collections. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.

Film & TV

Düsseldorf, Germany

Luise Rainer (/ˈraɪnər/; January 12, 1910 – December 30, 2014) was a German-American film actress. She was the first actor to win more than one Academy Award; at the time of her death she was the longest-lived Oscar recipient. Her training began in Germany from the age of 16 by leading stage director Max Reinhardt. After a few years, she became recognized as a "distinguished Berlin stage…

Known for

Yellowface: Asian Whitewashing and Racism in Hollywood — (archive footage)2019
Luise Rainer: Live from the TCM Classic Film Festival2011
Hollywood Chinese — Self2007
Ziegfeld on Film — Herself (interviewee, and in clips from The Great Ziegfeld)2004
Poem: I Set My Foot Upon the Air and It Carried Me — Actor - Gesang Der Geister Über Den Wassern2003
The Gambler — Grandmother1997
Frank Capra's American Dream — Self (archive footage)1997
That's Entertainment! III — (archive footage)1994
Brisant — Self1994
MGM: When the Lion Roars1992

via TMDB

Wikidata facts

Instance of: human
Gender: female
Citizenship: United States
Place of birth: Düsseldorf
Place of death: London
Occupation: stage actor
Languages spoken: English language
Award: Academy Award for Best Actress
Student of: Constance Collier
Image: Luise Rainer - 1941.jpg
Residence: Düsseldorf

Show 13 more facts

date of death: 2014-12-30
Commons category: Luise Rainer
date of birth: 1910-01-12
nominated for: Academy Award for Best Actress
cause of death: pneumonia
manner of death: natural causes
name in native language: Luise Rainer
Commons gallery: Luise Rainer
start of work period: 1928-00-00
end of work period: 1997-00-00
different from: Louise Rayner
subject has role: centenarian
P8168: Zou Kai

Sources (13)

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Encyclopedic overview

Luise Rainer (/ˈraɪnər/ RY-nər, German: [ˈʁaɪnɐ]; 12 January 1910 – 30 December 2014) was a German-born film actress. She was the first thespian to win multiple Academy Awards, and the first to win back-to-back; at the time of her death, thirteen days shy of her 105th birthday, she was the longest-lived Oscar recipient (and the longest-lived female star from Classic Hollywood), a superlative that has not been exceeded, as of 2026.

Rainer started her acting career in Germany at age 16, under the tutelage of Austria's leading stage director, Max Reinhardt. Within a few years, she had become a distinguished Berlin stage actress with Reinhardt's Vienna theater ensemble. Critics highly praised the quality of her acting. After years of acting on stage and in films in Austria and Germany, she was discovered by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer talent scouts, who signed her to a three-year contract in Hollywood in 1935. A number of filmmakers predicted she might become another Greta Garbo, MGM's leading female star at the time.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Luise Rainer” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.