Luise Rainer Net Worth

What Was Luise Rainer's Net Worth?

Luise Rainer was a German-born actress who had a net worth of $1.5 million at the time of her death.

Luise Rainer holds a unique place in Hollywood history as the first performer to win two Academy Awards and the first to win acting Oscars in consecutive years. After establishing herself on the German and Austrian stage under legendary theater director Max Reinhardt, she was signed by MGM and brought to Hollywood in the mid-1930s. Her American film career lasted only a few years, but she rapidly became one of the industry's most acclaimed actresses. Rainer won her first Academy Award for playing entertainer Anna Held in 1936's "The Great Ziegfeld," with her emotional telephone scene becoming one of the most celebrated moments of her career. She won again the following year for portraying the long-suffering O-Lan in "The Good Earth." Despite becoming one of MGM's most prestigious stars, Rainer disliked the studio system and repeatedly clashed with studio chief Louis B. Mayer over her roles and career. She walked away from MGM while still in her 20s and largely abandoned Hollywood. Over the following decades, Rainer returned occasionally to theater, television, and film, but spent much of her extraordinarily long life in Europe. She died in 2014 at the age of 104.

Early Life

Luise Rainer was born on January 12, 1910, in Düsseldorf, Germany. Her father, Heinrich Rainer, was a businessman, while her mother, Emilie, was a pianist. Rainer grew up in a cultured Jewish family and spent portions of her childhood in Germany and Austria.

Her father expected her to follow a more conventional path, but Rainer became determined to pursue acting while still a teenager. At 16, she began appearing on the stage and quickly demonstrated an unusual intensity as a dramatic performer.

Rainer eventually joined the theatrical company of Max Reinhardt, one of the most influential European stage directors of the era. She performed in Berlin and Vienna in productions that included works by playwrights such as Luigi Pirandello and Frank Wedekind. Long before Hollywood discovered her, Rainer had established herself as a respected European stage actress.

Move to Hollywood

An MGM talent scout saw Rainer performing in Vienna and the studio signed her to a long-term contract. She moved to Hollywood in 1935 at a time when MGM was home to stars including Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford, Clark Gable, and Norma Shearer.

Rainer made her American film debut opposite William Powell in "Escapade." She replaced Myrna Loy in the role, and Powell reportedly helped her adjust from stage acting to the subtler demands of performing for a movie camera.

"Escapade" was successful enough to establish Rainer almost immediately as one of MGM's promising new actresses. The studio began promoting her as a major star, but her relationship with MGM management soon became difficult. Rainer considered herself primarily a serious actress and resisted attempts to turn her into a conventional glamorous Hollywood personality.

The Great Ziegfeld

Rainer's breakthrough came with MGM's lavish 1936 musical biopic "The Great Ziegfeld," starring William Powell as Broadway impresario Florenz Ziegfeld Jr.

Rainer played Anna Held, Ziegfeld's former common-law wife and one of the most famous stage performers of the early 20th century. Although Rainer's screen time was relatively limited, one scene became famous. After learning that Ziegfeld had remarried, Held telephones him to offer her congratulations. She maintains a cheerful voice while gradually breaking down emotionally.

The sequence became known as Rainer's "telephone scene" and was widely viewed as the centerpiece of her performance. "The Great Ziegfeld" won the Academy Award for Best Picture, while Rainer won Best Actress.

The victory transformed her from a promising MGM newcomer into an Oscar-winning star after only a short time in Hollywood.

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The Good Earth and Second Oscar

Rainer followed her first Oscar with an even more dramatic role in 1937's "The Good Earth," MGM's adaptation of Pearl S. Buck's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel.

She played O-Lan, the wife of Chinese farmer Wang Lung, portrayed by Paul Muni. Rainer's character ages over the course of the story while enduring poverty, famine, displacement, motherhood, and her husband's increasing prosperity. The performance relied heavily on facial expression and physical acting rather than dialogue.

The movie's casting of white actors as Chinese characters reflected a Hollywood practice that would later become heavily criticized, but Rainer's performance itself received enormous acclaim at the time.

She won the Academy Award for Best Actress for the second consecutive year, defeating a field that included Greta Garbo for "Camille" and Barbara Stanwyck for "Stella Dallas." With the victory, Rainer became the first performer in Academy history to win two Oscars and the first to win acting awards in consecutive years.

Her record was eventually matched by performers including Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Jason Robards, and Tom Hanks, but Rainer was the first to accomplish it.

Problems at MGM

Remarkably, the second Oscar marked the high point rather than the beginning of a long Hollywood reign.

MGM cast Rainer in films including "The Emperor's Candlesticks," "Big City," "The Toy Wife," "The Great Waltz," and "Dramatic School." Several offered her little of the dramatic complexity she wanted, and she grew increasingly frustrated with the studio's control over her career.

Rainer repeatedly clashed with Louis B. Mayer. She later recalled telling Mayer that she could no longer continue making films because she had exhausted what she could give creatively. Mayer, accustomed to exercising enormous authority over MGM's contract stars, did not react favorably.

Rainer's personality also conflicted with Hollywood's star-making machinery. She resisted glamorous publicity, disliked the social expectations placed on movie stars, and wanted greater control over the roles she performed.

By the end of 1938, after winning two Oscars before turning 30, her MGM career was effectively finished.

Life After MGM

Rainer returned to theater after leaving Hollywood. She performed in Britain and the United States and made her Broadway debut in J.M. Barrie's "A Kiss for Cinderella" in 1942.

She briefly returned to movies for the 1943 World War II drama "Hostages," but it would be her only Hollywood film after leaving MGM.

During the years surrounding World War II, Rainer also became involved in humanitarian efforts benefiting refugees and victims of European fascism. Rather than attempting to rebuild a conventional movie career, she increasingly devoted herself to theater, travel, family life, and personal interests.

Rainer returned to Broadway in 1950 in Henrik Ibsen's "The Lady from the Sea." She also appeared occasionally on television, including anthology programs and later episodes of "Combat!" and "The Love Boat."

Federico Fellini attempted to bring Rainer back to movies for "La Dolce Vita," but she ultimately did not appear in the film.

The Gambler and Later Years

After more than five decades away from feature films, Rainer returned to the big screen in 1997's "The Gambler," inspired by the Fyodor Dostoevsky novel. She played an elderly gambling-obsessed grandmother, and her brief performance received strong reviews.

As interest in classic Hollywood grew, Rainer increasingly appeared at retrospectives and Academy events. She attended ceremonies honoring past Oscar winners and became one of the last surviving links to Hollywood filmmaking of the 1930s.

Her unusual career fascinated film historians because it ran almost opposite to the conventional Hollywood trajectory. Rainer reached the industry's highest level of recognition almost immediately, won two consecutive Oscars, and then voluntarily stepped away from the system that had made her famous.

Personal Life

Rainer married playwright Clifford Odets in 1937. Odets was one of the most important American playwrights of the era, known for works including "Waiting for Lefty" and "Awake and Sing!" Their relationship was turbulent, and the marriage ended in divorce in 1940.

In 1945, Rainer married publisher Robert Knittel. They had one daughter, Francesca, and spent much of their married life in Switzerland and Britain. The marriage lasted until Knittel's death in 1989.

Rainer eventually settled in London's Eaton Square, where she lived for many years. Painting, writing, travel, and mountain climbing were among her interests outside acting.

Luise Rainer died from pneumonia at her London home on December 30, 2014. She was 104 years old, just under two weeks away from her 105th birthday. Despite appearing in relatively few Hollywood films, her extraordinary two-year run at the Academy Awards and her decision to abandon stardom at its peak made her one of the most unusual figures of Hollywood's Golden Age.

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