Ray Milland

Ray Milland (3 January 1907 – 10 March 1986) was a Welsh-American actor and director.

Ray Milland
Ray Milland Markham 1959.JPG
Milland in a publicity shot for Markham
Born
Alfred Reginald Jones

(1907-01-03)3 January 1907
Neath, Wales, U.K.
Died10 March 1986(1986-03-10) (aged 79)
Cause of deathLung cancer
Resting placeCremated
NationalityWelsh
Other names
  • Ray the Magnificent
  • Hollywood's Master Actor
  • Ole Milland
EducationKing's College School, Cardiff
Occupation
  • Actor
  • director
Years active1929–1985
Spouse(s)Muriel Weber (m. 1932–1986)
Children2

Career

In the early years he achieved success in films such as Bulldog Drummond Escapes (1937), Hotel Imperial (1939), Beau Geste (1939), and The Major and the Minor (1942) with Ginger Rogers. He was also in Ministry of Fear (1944), by Fritz Lang. In the Billy Wilder film The Lost Weekend (1945), he played the role of Don Birnam, an alcoholic writer. That role earned him an Academy Award as best actor.

In the 1950s he starred in the Alfred Hitchcock film Dial M for Murder (1954).

Another performance was as Oliver Barrett III (1970), in the Arthur Hiller film Love Story (1970), with Ali MacGraw and Ryan O'Neal.

Sci-fi movies

In early 1960, Ray Milland started much to play evil characters, in horror and sci-fi movies such as Panic in Year Zero! (1962), he also directed. Premature Burial (1962) and X: The Man with the X-Ray Eyes (1963), by Roger Corman, in Frogs (1972), he played a man who is attacked by a plague of mutant frogs, The Thing with Two Heads (1972), he played a doctor who had a head transplant, Terror in the Wax Museum (1973).

Television

He had a long career in television, including his TV series Meet Mr. McNutley (1953–54), as Ray McNulty, and the Crime TV series Markham (1959–60), as Roy Markham a former lawyer, who works as a detective.

He was a special guest star in General Electric Theater, Night Gallery, Columbo, Battlestar Galactica, Fantasy Island, The Love Boat, Hart to Hart, and many more.

Ray Milland Media

References