Luise Rainer celebrates 100 years

Today, legendary actress Luise Rainer celebrates a milestone birthday, 100 years young. Though she hasn't been seen on the big screen in a few years, Ms. Rainer has without a doubt made her mark in film history, having won two back-to-back Best Actress Academy Awards in the 1930s, the first actress to have ever done so.

Born in Austria on January 12, 1910, she started acting in theater productions in her teens, ultimately becoming a well-known stage actress. MGM talent scouts saw her perform on the stage in Vienna; she only appeared in a couple of Austrian films in the early 1930s before she was brought in to Hollywood, signing a 3-year contract with MGM at the age of 25.

Her role in The Great Ziegfeld (1936), as Ziegfeld's ex-wife Anna Held, so impressed the Academy that she was given the Oscar for the best performance by an actress. In the film, her emotional telephone call with her ex-husband is one of the most famous scenes of any actress who have won an Oscar.

The next year, she was cast as O-Lan, portraying a Chinese peasant opposite Paul Muni in the epic The Good Earth, based on the Pulitzer Prize novel by Pearl S. Buck. Rainer's performance as O-Lan is one of the most beloved of all time, and she won a well-deserved 2nd Oscar.

With two Acadamey Awards before the age of 30, she really accomplished it all, more than a film actress could ask for. There was no need to be treated unfairly by any of the studio people, which she reportedly experienced. So she only made a few more films for MGM before returning to Europe a few years later. She lived with her husband (until his passing) in London for many decades, and still lives there today. Throughout the years she continued to work on the stage in Europe. Read a good article published recently in the Telegraph (UK)

In recent years, she's come back to visit the US a few times, making appearances at the 70th (in 1998) and 75th (in 2003) Academy Award ceremonies, where she was introduced to a whole new generation, including me! I wrote a letter to her in 2001 expressing how much I admired her, as well as also requesting an autograph, and she sent me a beautiful autographed photo which I treasure. She even addressed and stamped the letter herself (no secretary!)

Happy Birthday!

More Birthday Salutes:

Read KC's tribute.

Read Meredith's tribute.

Read The Big Parade's tribute.

Read Filmphile's tribute.

Read Cinema Styles' tribute.

Read Allure's tribute.

Turner Classic Movies is showing 7 of her film this week. (See the Luise Rainer page on TCM)

VIDEOS:

Luise Rainer in "The Great Ziegfeld" (1935)



Luise Rainer in "Dramatic School" (1938, her last Hollywood movie)

Page has a nice write-up about Luise at her blog - check it out!