The last survivor

And so, farewell Luise Rayner - the first actor to win multiple Academy Awards and the first to win them consecutively; the last survivor of a long-lost golden era of film - who has died at the grand old age of 104.

When she walked away from the despised "studio system" after her initial success, Louis B Mayer said: "We made you and we are going to destroy you."

"Well, he tried his best," she recalled later. "I replied: 'You are now 60 and I am 20. When I am 40, the age of a successful actress, you will be dead and I will live!'"

And she certainly did.

RIP Luise Rainer (12th January 1910 - 30th December 2014)

My previous entry for Miss Rainer.

I don’t believe in acting

“I don’t believe in acting. I think that people in life act, but when you are on the stage, or in my case also on screen, you have to be true. You must feel it, and give birth to it, like to a child."

"Happiness lies in moments, and while you have it you’re not even aware, only afterwards do you know you were happy.”

"When you lose your curiosity, you’re dead.”

Luise Rainer, last survivor of the Golden Age of 1930s Hollywood, star of The Great Ziegfield and oldest living Oscar-winner (born 12th January 1910).