Double Oscar winning actress, Luise Rainer, dies at 104

As the year was drawing to an end, terrible news came amidst the celebrations. Former Hollywood actress Luise Rainer, passed away at the age of 104, last night. Rainer was a gifted actor who is a double Academy Award winner and was a part of movies like "The Great Ziegfeld" and popular shows like “The Good Earth.”

Her daughter with publisher Robert Knittel, later revealed that Rainer was suffering from pneumonia that later led to her death. At a time when most women were controlled by the men in the industry, who made all their decisions for them, Rainer stood up for herself, even if that meant sabotaging herself at the peak of her career.

Luise Rainer: Poster of 'The Good Earth' .
Picture by: Allposters.com

Born on January 12^th, 1912, Rainer was the first American actress to have won two Oscars in consecutive years. The only other actress who was able to achieve this was Katharine Hepburn for "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" and "The Lion in Winter". In a short span of time, Rainer saw both highs and lows. She later moved to London after a falling out with the head of the studio that had launched her.

Rainer was said to have had a big brawl with the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer chief, Louis B Mayer, over the having control over her career. She later broke her contract and moved. "I was a machine, practically - a tool in a big, big factory, and I could not do anything. And so I left. I just went away. I fled. Yes, I fled," she later said in an interview, according to a report by The Guardian.

Luise Rainer smiles for the camera with her Oscars.
Picture by: Press TV

She later appeared in popular Television shows like ‘The Love Boat’ and made a Hollywood film in 1943, ‘Hostages.’ In an interview conducted by The Hollywood Reporter, she was asked about her comeback. She said, "It became very difficult because I went back to Europe, and when I came back I was not permitted to work because Louis B. Mayer did not permit me because I'd broken my contract... I wanted badly to do For Whom the Bell Tolls, but it wasn't to be. Louis B. forbid me... Later on, I felt very sad not to have managed to give out much, much more in my life, which was given to me in my cradle."

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