Back-to-back Oscar winner Luise Rainer dies at 104

Back-to-back Oscar winner Luise Rainer dies at 104
(Image credit: Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Hollywood legend Luise Rainer, best remembered for winning consecutive Best Actress Oscars in 1936 and 1937, has died of pneumonia. She was 104.

Rainer, a German-born actress, was a stage star in Vienna before migrating to Hollywood under contract with MGM's Louis B. Mayer. She made her Hollywood debut in 1935's Escapade; just a year later, she starred in The Great Ziegfeld, a Best Picture-winning musical drama that netted Rainer her first Best Actress Oscar. The following year, she won Best Actress again for her starring role in an adaptation of Pearl S. Buck's The Good Earth — the first actor in history to win back-to-back acting Oscars. (Only four others have managed the feat since.)

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Scott Meslow

Scott Meslow is the entertainment editor for TheWeek.com. He has written about film and television at publications including The Atlantic, POLITICO Magazine, and Vulture.