January
12
She left Hollywood in 1938 and made only a few pictures and a handful of television guest appearances in the next 50 years, though through her own choice--she was offered many good roles that she declined (I guess that they weren't that good in her opinion, come to think of it). A few years ago she made a new movie, "The Gambler," based on a story by Dostoyevsky.
On
to January 13
|
Luise Rainer,
who won back-to-back Best Actress Oscars for "The Great Ziegfeld"
and "The Good Earth" in 1936 and 1937 turns 98 (1910, Vienna) today. A non-conformist type, Rainer had to be forced
to attend the Oscar ceremony in 1937 and was later quoted as saying
"For
my second and third pictures I won Academy Awards. Nothing worse could
have happened to me." Apparently
she mellowed with age, since she did not need to be forced to attend
the Oscar reunion that occurred during the televised ceremonies of
1998.