Into Each Life, Rainer Must Fall
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Or
Or
Luise Rainer, about whom it is often said, "Winning an Oscar isn't so difficult. After all, they gave Luise Rainer two" has died of pneumonia at the age of 104. Rainer was starting to emerge as a stage and film star in Austria and Germany when she skipped out during Hitler’s rise to power to find fame in Hollywood. There, she made 9 movies, winning back-to-back Oscars for Best Actress in 1936 (for The Great Ziegfeld) and 1937 (for The Good Earth). As the heartbroken Anna, Ziegfeld’s common-law wife, Rainer scored the Oscar for one telephone call, smiling through tears and struggling for composure as she congratulated Ziegfeld on his marriage to Billie Burke, then hung up and dissolved in sobs, the kind of over the top histrionics early voters loved. The German-born child of Jewish parents repeated by playing O-Lan, the stoic Chinese peasant wife of Wang Lung from the Pearl S. Buck novel. Having won in a biopic and for faking an accent, all Rainer needed was to have played a crip to complete the Hollywood hat trick of Oscar bait, but MGM president Louis Mayer decided that it made more sense to put his two-time Oscar winner in subpar melodramas rather than the more serious roles she craved. Rather than kowtow, Rainer gave up the business, opting instead to aid orphaned refugees of the Spanish Civil War, appearing at war bond rallies in the United States, entertaining Allied troops during World War II, and appearing in a few plays and TV appearances. A role was developed specifically for her in La Dolce Vita by Federico Fellini, but Rainer still had a bit of diva-ishness in her that led Fellini to cut the role and the aggravation.
Rainer in Pain Falls Mainly Where She’s Lain
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When it Rainers, it Pours
(Meritorious mention for Monty)Or
Returning to the Good Earth
(Additional accolades for Monty)Luise Rainer, about whom it is often said, "Winning an Oscar isn't so difficult. After all, they gave Luise Rainer two" has died of pneumonia at the age of 104. Rainer was starting to emerge as a stage and film star in Austria and Germany when she skipped out during Hitler’s rise to power to find fame in Hollywood. There, she made 9 movies, winning back-to-back Oscars for Best Actress in 1936 (for The Great Ziegfeld) and 1937 (for The Good Earth). As the heartbroken Anna, Ziegfeld’s common-law wife, Rainer scored the Oscar for one telephone call, smiling through tears and struggling for composure as she congratulated Ziegfeld on his marriage to Billie Burke, then hung up and dissolved in sobs, the kind of over the top histrionics early voters loved. The German-born child of Jewish parents repeated by playing O-Lan, the stoic Chinese peasant wife of Wang Lung from the Pearl S. Buck novel. Having won in a biopic and for faking an accent, all Rainer needed was to have played a crip to complete the Hollywood hat trick of Oscar bait, but MGM president Louis Mayer decided that it made more sense to put his two-time Oscar winner in subpar melodramas rather than the more serious roles she craved. Rather than kowtow, Rainer gave up the business, opting instead to aid orphaned refugees of the Spanish Civil War, appearing at war bond rallies in the United States, entertaining Allied troops during World War II, and appearing in a few plays and TV appearances. A role was developed specifically for her in La Dolce Vita by Federico Fellini, but Rainer still had a bit of diva-ishness in her that led Fellini to cut the role and the aggravation.
Labels: Oscar
posted by The Grim Reaper at 3:56 PM
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