BIO

Ray Milland was born Alfred Reginald Jones in Neath, Glamorgan, Wales, in 1907.   He served in the British Military and, as an expert shot, he won many prestigious competitions.   When his four-year duty service was completed, Milland tried his hand at acting.

He made his film debut, at the age of 24, for British International Pictures, in 1929.   Within a year, Milland headed for Hollywood.

He appeared in his first Hollywood picture for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1930.   By the time he won the Academy Award for Actor for his performance in The Lost Weekend (1945), Milland had appeared in more than 125 feature films.   He gave the shortest acceptance speech of any Oscar winner: he simply bowed and left the stage.

Even though he continued to appear in commercially successful films through the 1950s, he failed to match his earlier success. He concentrated on directing for TV and film in the mid-1950s and returned as a movie character actor in the late 1960s.

His last film role was a direct-to-video picture released in 1985.

Milland married Muriel Weber in 1932.   The couple raised two children; one was adopted.   His adopted son, who had a history of drub abuse, died of an apparent suicide in 1981 at the age of 41.

Milland died of lung cancer in Torrance, California in 1986.   He was 79 years old.

Additional biographical information is available at:

NOTED FILMS

TV SERIES

The Ray Milland Show

Markham