Ray Milland, born January 3 ,1907

Ray Milland was a Welsh actor who was extremely well known as an romantic and comedy lead during the 1930's and 1940's. Milland was a prolific and versatile performer who appeared in almost 200 movies during his career as well as starring in over 20 television shows including his own show during the late 1950's.

He was born Alfred Reginald Jones on January 3, 1907 in Neath, Wales and until the age of five, spoke only Welsh. As a youth he excelled at sports and became an expert horseman, riding as an amateur jockey for his uncle's training stable.

After studying at King's College, Cardiff, he was accepted as a guardsman into the Royal Household Cavalry in London in 1926. During his 3 years there the athletic young man further improved his riding skills and proved to be an excellent fencer and boxer and won trophies for his shooting with the Regiment's top class rifle team.

He left the Guards in 1929 and began his acting career with small roles on the London stage followed by a role in the Silent movie 'The Flying Scotsman' in 1929. He became friendly with the popular silent movie actress, Estelle Brody, and he was offered a small role in her latest movie 'The Plaything'. Bigger roles soon followed for the tall handsome young man, including one of the leads in 'The Lady from the Sea' later in 1929.

He at first used the name Spike Milland, then Raymond Milland before hitting on the name he is known by today. Of the several different theories as to how the name "Ray Milland" was born, the most likely seems to be simply that he took his new surname from the Millands area of Neath. With his confidence bolstered he set out in 1930 for Hollywood, where he was signed by MGM but was offered little work except for the role of Charles Laughton's nephew in 'Payment Deferred' in 1932. After a year, and out of contract and returned to England.

He soon returned to Hollywood and in 1934 he was signed up by Paramount with whom he stayed for most of his career. For several years he played light romantic second leads usually as the friend or rival of the leading man in such films as 'The Return of Sophie Lang' and 'Next Time We Love' in 1936, 'Easy Living' in 1937, opposite Jean Arthur in an early Preston Sturges script, 'Bulldog Drummond Escapes' the following year and 'Her Jungle Love' with Dorothy Lamour in 1938.

In 1939 he began to attract more Hollywood plaudits when he co-starred with Gary Cooper in 'Beau Geste' and in 1942 he co-starred with John Wayne and Paulette Goddard in a sea-faring melodrama 'Reap the Wild Wind'. In the same year he appeared in another starring role as the major with Ginger Rogers in 'The Major and the Minor' which, significantly, was directed by Billy Wilder. Two years later Wilder would select Milland to star in his ground-breaking drama 'The Lost Weekend'.

Others films of note from this time are 'Forever and a Day' also in 1943, and 'Lady in the Dark' and the interesting film noir thriller, 'Ministry of Fear' in 1944.

Milland was offered the starring role in 'The Lost Weekend' in 1945 on the strength of his performance in 1942 in 'The Major and the Minor' also directed by Billy Wilder. He surprised many critics by the depth and intensity of his performance as the alcoholic writer Don Birnam and he won an Academy Award for Best Actor. He also won an award at the first Cannes film Festival for his work in the film. A modest man, Milland chose to give no speech when he accepted his Oscar, but bowed gracefully before exiting the stage.

In 1951, he gave a well received performance in 'Close to My Heart', with Gene Tierney and the next year he appeared, unusually, in a role without dialogue in 'The Thief', for which he received a Golden Globe Award nomination. He starred as an icy murderer with Grace Kelly in Hitchcock's 'Dial M for Murder' in 1954 and from 1955 onward he started directing himself in a number of movies, including a good Western, 'A Man Alone' in 1955, and the grim nuclear quickie 'Panic in Year Zero!' in 1962.

In the early 1960's he made the transition to movie character actor, rather than leading man. He portrayed a man obsessed in 'Premature Burial' in 1962 and a self-destructive surgeon 'The Man with X-Ray Eyes' the following year. He continued the horror theme in the 1970's with 'The Thing with Two Heads' in 1972, and 'The House in Nightmare Park' and 'Terror in the Wax Museum' the following year. His run of mediocre films was briefly halted when he made 'Escape to Witch Mountain' in 1975. His last film was 'The Gold Key' in 1985, after which his increasingly frail health forced him to retire.