Claude Rains - An Invisible Man (hardback)

This title is printed to order. This book may have been self-published. If so, we cannot guarantee the quality of the content. In the main most books will have gone through the editing process however some may not. We therefore suggest that you be aware of this before ordering this book. If in doubt check either the author or publisher’s details as we are unable to accept any returns unless they are faulty. Please contact us if you have any questions.

Claude Rains was the greatest character actor of his age - possibly of all ages, according to film historian Richard Schickel. Classic credits include The Invisible Man, The Adventures of Robin Hood, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Now, Voyager, Casablanca, Notorious and Lawrence of Arabia. A stage star in his native England, Rains didn’t make his screen debut until age 43. Throughout his career, he hid behind a movie persona that was suave and sophisticated, but off camera he was insecure and had trouble expressing feelings. Good-natured, still he had few friends and was married six times. A proud naturalized American, Victorian values led him to repudiate Tinsel Town - he was happiest puttering around the 18th-century Pennsylvania farm that was his heart and soul.

As a teenager, Toby Cohen was thrilled to meet her screen idol backstage after his Broadway triumph. Based on her decades of research and exclusive interviews - with Rains’ fifth wife, his sixth wife’s children and nephews, his farm neighbors, the doctor who treated him in his final illness - Ms. Cohen has produced not just a biography, but an in-depth, compassionate analysis of a complicated man whose true self was invisible to all.

With never-before-published candid photographs.