Oscar-winning Jewish actress Luise Rainer dies

Luise Rainer, a star of cinema's golden era who won back-to-back Oscars but then walked away from a glittering Hollywood career, has died. She was 104.

Rainer was born to a Jewish family in Germany.

She gained Hollywood immortality by becoming the first person to win an acting Academy Award in consecutive years, taking best actress prizes for the 1936 film "The Great Ziegfeld" and "The Good Earth" in 1937.

She fought with her studio over control of her career, fled Hollywood for New York, and suffered through a brief, unhappy marriage to the playwright Clifford Odets. By the early 1940s, her stardom had essentially ended.