Claude Rains

 Bette Davis: "My favorite person to work with was Claude Rains."

In her 1987 memoir, "This 'N That," Davis revealed that Rains (with whom she shared the screen four times in "Juarez" (1939), "Now, Voyager" (1942), "Mr. Skeffington" (1944, below), and "Deception" (1946)) was her favorite co-star. In an interview with Dick Cavett, Davis said about Rains, "Well, of course he petrified me, the first time I played with him was in ('Juarez'), and I had to make an entrance [into] the King of France's domain for a rehearsal and he's playing the King of France (Napoleon III) in rehearsal. As all of us '"other era people,' we don't just run through lines and say, 'Turn the camera"; we rehearse beforehand. Anyway, Claude and I couldn't and he was the King of France who loathed Carlotta and I was a kid and petrified of Mr. Rains, so I thought he hated me, I didn't know he was playing the character. I thought he thinks I just stink! What am I going to do? Eventually we worked together quite a lot and became really great friends, really great friends."

Davis later went on to describe him: "Claude was witty, amusing and beautiful, really beautiful, thoroughly enchanting to be with and brilliant." She also praised his performances: "He was marvelous in 'Deception' and was worth the whole thing as the picture wasn't terribly good, but he was so marvelous and the restaurant scene where he's talking about all the food...brilliant and, of course, in 'Skeffington," he was absolutely brilliant as the husband, just brilliant."

Rains became the first actor to receive a million-dollar salary when he portrayed Julius Caesar in a large budget but unsuccessful version of Shaw's "Caesar and Cleopatra" (1945), filmed in Britain. Shaw apparently chose him for the part, although Rains intensely disliked Gabriel Pascal, the film's director and producer.

Happy Birthday, Claude Rains!