Photo Coverage: Luise Rainer Turns 101
By: Walter McBride Jan. 12, 2011
Luise Rainer is a German film actress, known as The "Viennese Teardrop." She is the first woman to win two Academy Awards, and the first person to win them consecutively. She was discovered by MGM talent scouts while acting on stage in Austria and Germany and after appearing in Austrian films.
Rainer made her first appearance on the stage at the Dumont Theater in 1928, followed by appearances at various theaters in MADAMOISELLE, MEN IN WHITE, SAINT JOAN, and MEASURE FOR MEASURE. She made her Broadway debut in the 1942 revival of A KISS FOR CINDERELLA. In 1950, she starred as Ellida in the Broadway revival of THE LADY FROM THE SEA.
Her first American role was in the film Escapade (1935), which was soon followed with a relatively small part in the musical biopic The Great Ziegfeld (1936). Despite her limited appearances in the film, she "so impressed audiences" that she won the Oscar for Best Actress. For her dramatic telephone scene in the film, she was later dubbed "the Viennese teardrop". In her next role, producer Irving Thalberg was convinced, despite the studio's disagreement, that she could play the part of a poor uncomely Chinese farm wife in The Good Earth, based on Pearl Buck's novel about hardship in China.
9/12/1981
5/12/1982
Luise Rainer in New York City - 2/16/83
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