Ray Milland

Ray Milland, born Alfred Reginald Jones on 3 January 1907 in Neath, Wales, was a Welsh-American actor and film director who built one of Hollywood's most distinguished careers before making his Broadway debut in 1966. The son of Elizabeth Annie Truscott and steel mill superintendent Alfred Jones, Milland attended elementary school in Neath and later in Radyr following his parents' separation. He briefly attended King's College school in Cardiff and, at eighteen, passed the entrance examination to University College Cardiff, though he did not enroll. He died on 10 March 1986.

Before pursuing acting, Milland served in the Royal Horse Guards of the Household Cavalry beginning in 1925. He became an expert marksman, winning numerous competitions including the Bisley Match and earning the British Army Championship in both pistol and rifle. His time in London brought him into contact with dancer Margot St Leger, through whom he met American actress Estelle Brody. Her questioning of his commitment to military life prompted him to buy himself out of the army in 1928 and pursue acting. The stage name he eventually settled on is believed to derive from a combination of his stepfather's surname, Mullane, and a district of his hometown known as the Millands. In his early career he was billed variously as Spike Milland and Raymond Milland.

His first screen appearance was as an uncredited extra in E.A. Dupont's Piccadilly in 1929. His marksmanship skills earned him extra work at British International Pictures on Arthur Robison's The Informer, the first film adaptation of Liam O'Flaherty's novel. While on that set, he was invited to test for a neighboring production, impressing director Castleton Knight sufficiently to be cast as Jim Edwards in The Flying Scotsman, also released in 1929. That role led to a six-month contract under which he appeared in two further Knight-directed films, The Lady from the Sea and The Plaything, both in 1929. Seeking to strengthen his craft, Milland pursued stage work and took the role of second lead in a touring production of The Woman in Room 13, written by Sam Shipman and Max Marcin.

MGM vice-president Robert Rubin, having seen The Flying Scotsman, offered Milland a nine-month contract at $175 per week based in Hollywood. Milland accepted and departed for the United States in August 1930, appearing in his first American film, Passion Flower, that same year. MGM deployed him as a stock player in small speaking parts, and he was lent to Warner Bros. for several productions, frequently going uncredited. His most substantial role during this period was as Charles Laughton's nephew in Payment Deferred in 1932. While in the United States, he met Muriel Frances Weber, a student at the University of Southern California whom he called Mal; the two married on 30 September 1932 at the Riverside Mission Inn. They had a son, Daniel, and adopted a daughter, Victoria. When MGM declined to renew his contract, Milland spent five months searching for work before returning temporarily to Britain.

Paramount Pictures subsequently signed Milland and employed him initially in lesser speaking parts, typically as an English character. Universal borrowed him for the Deanna Durbin musical Three Smart Girls in 1936, and its success positioned him for the lead in The Jungle Princess, also released that year, opposite Dorothy Lamour. The film's commercial success elevated both performers to stardom, and Milland remained under contract with Paramount for nearly two decades, becoming the studio's highest-paid actor. During that period he appeared alongside Gene Tierney, Jean Arthur, Grace Kelly, Lana Turner, Marlene Dietrich, Maureen O'Hara, Ginger Rogers, Jane Wyman, Loretta Young, and Veronica Lake.

His film credits across those years included Easy Living in 1937, Beau Geste in 1939, Billy Wilder's The Major and the Minor in 1942, Reap the Wild Wind in 1942, The Uninvited in 1944, Fritz Lang's Ministry of Fear in 1944, The Big Clock in 1948, and The Thief in 1952, the last of which earned him a second Golden Globe nomination. The defining role of his career came in Wilder's The Lost Weekend in 1945, in which he portrayed an alcoholic writer. The performance brought him the Best Actor prize at Cannes, a Golden Globe Award, and the Academy Award for Best Actor, making him the first Welsh actor to receive those honors. Later career highlights included Alfred Hitchcock's Dial M for Murder in 1954 and Love Story in 1970. After departing Paramount, Milland moved into directing and television work.

Milland made his Broadway appearance in 1966 in Hostile Witness, adding a stage credit to a career that had already spanned decades of film and television work. He had published an autobiography in 1974, in which he reflected on his upbringing, his father's quiet temperament and romantic nature, and his mother's preoccupation with propriety.