A belated happy birthday to Luise Rainer, Age 102

[best12bars]

Posted: 1/17/12 at 2:36pm

The two-time Oscar-winner turned 102 on January 12, 2012.

She won Best Actress for The Great Ziegfeld (1936) and The Good Earth (1937), consecutively. The first person to do that.

She also told Louis B. Mayer to buzz off and walked out on her MGM studio contract at the height of her brief career there.

Her last major film at MGM, The Great Waltz, is now available via Warner Archives.




IMDb.com

[SNAFU]

Posted: 1/17/12 at 2:57pm

Remember seeing her in The Good Earth. Had read the Pearl S Buck novel in Junior High and our Social Studies class showed the film after school.
What a great age to reach!

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 1/18/12 at 1:07pm

I know she's the oldest of the great stars left from her era. But has any other major movie star lived as long?

I love her in The Great Ziegfeld. Her scene on the telephone is heartbreaking.

[AC126748]

Posted: 1/18/12 at 1:15pm

Ms. De Haviland and Ms. Fontaine are certainly on their way!

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 1/18/12 at 4:23pm

^ Hell, just the years those two spent not talking to each other may ultimately surpass the sum of Rainer's hundred plus years on Earth.

[Jay Lerner-Z]

Posted: 1/18/12 at 4:32pm

I love that she lives at Eaton Square - I hope she has a fleet of servants looking after her, a la Upstairs Downstairs - might explain how she's lived so long!

[best12bars]

Posted: 1/18/12 at 5:54pm

I love that her two Oscars don't match. They switched the design of the pedestal from black to a taller gold one for the '38 ceremony, even though they were awarded to her in consecutive years.

Updated On: 1/18/12 at 05:54 PM

[Jay Lerner-Z]

Posted: 1/18/12 at 6:05pm

Do you know when that picture (with the two Oscars) was taken, best12?

[best12bars]

Posted: 1/18/12 at 6:24pm

Not exactly, but within the past 5 years, I would say---based on other fairly recent photos of her.

[Jay Lerner-Z]

Posted: 1/18/12 at 6:43pm

She looks great!

This thread prompted me to do a search - look up #LuiseRainer102 on twitter for 102 quite interesting facts, one of which says that one of her two Oscars is a replacement, having given the original to a removal man. There's also a great interview in her home, when she was a mere 98.

Updated On: 1/18/12 at 06:43 PM

[best12bars]

Posted: 1/18/12 at 6:59pm

Excellent!

As far as the mismatching Oscars, a replacement would explain it. But they did change the design, once before WWII, and once after.

And during the war, they actually gave out plaster Oscars, since the metals used were in high demand and would have been considered totally un-PC by the day's standards.

After the war, the plaster Oscars were replaced with traditional ones.

(I wonder if anybody still has a plaster Oscar? I'm guessing they've all deteriorated by now.)

Either way, Luise's awards were pre-WWII. Wow, that's pretty amazing to say. Also, she was born before the Titanic sank. She was actually 2 when it happened.

[Paulyd]

Posted: 1/18/12 at 8:42pm

And last week she dropped into the Curzon Cinema in London to watch The Artist.

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 1/18/12 at 11:46pm

^ wow, it's lovely to think of her seeing The Artist. I hope the grand old fashioned magic of the film gave her a lot of joy.

[best12bars]

Posted: 1/19/12 at 7:32am

^ And I hope she votes for it, too!

It's probably safe to assume she's the oldest active member of the Academy. I already know she's the oldest living winner.

It's pretty incredible to think of her seeing this movie and witnessing things, at least for an isolated moment, coming full-circle, as far as the history of cinema goes.

Updated On: 1/19/12 at 07:32 AM