Born Reginald Alfred Truscott-Jones in 1905, after three years of service as a guardsman with the Royal Household Cavalry in London, he entered British films in 1929. There are a few different stories about why he changed his name. Some say that he adopted a variation of his step-father's surname of Mullane. In Ray Milland's autobiography, "Wide-eyed In Babylon" (1974), he explains that after many hours of arguing with his agent, he got up and said, "I don't really care what you call me. I must keep the initial "R" because my mother had it engraved on my suitcases. Other than that, I don't really care, but if you all don't come up with something soon, I'm packing these suitcases and going back to the mill lands where I came from!", thus Ray Milland was born. After several roles, both big and small, he set out for Hollywood in 1930. For several years he played mostly second leads, usually as the heroes friend or rival, but graduated to leads in the mid 1930s. Charming, and debonair, he played suave, self-assured romantic leading men in many drawing room comedies and an occasional mystery or adventure. Always an accomplished performer, he drew little attention to his acting until his strong dramatic performance as an alcoholic writer in The Lost Weekend, for which he won the 1945 Academy Award. Most of his subsequent roles were less rewarding, but he often proved capable of overcoming minor vehicles with interesting characterizations. Starting in 1955, he directed himself in a number of films with surprising proficiency but less-than-remarkable results. After an absence of several years, he returned to the screen in 1970, playing a character part in Love Story, then resumed playing leads in low-budget horror films. He also starred in the TV comedy series The Ray Milland Show: Meet Mr. McNulty (1953-55) and in the drama series Markham (1959-60). A book-loving homebody, he kept away from the Hollywood glitter and was rarely mentioned in the gossip columns. He was married to the same woman Malvina for 54 years.
When working on I Wanted Wings, with Brian Donlevy and William Holden, he went up with a pilot to test a plane for filming. While up in the air, Ray decided to do a parachute jump (being an avid amateur parachutist) but, just before he could disembark, the plane began to sputter and the pilot said not to jump as they were running low on gas and he needed to land. Well, once on the ground and in the hanger, Ray began to tell his story of how he'd wanted to do a jump. As he told the story, the color ran out of the costume man's face. When asked why, he told Ray that the parachute he'd worn up in the plane was "just a prop". There had been no parachute! Ray Milland got his stage name from a riverside street called Milland Road in Neath, where he resided prior to becoming an actor. During the filming of Reap the Wild Wind, Milland's character was to have "curly" hair. Milland's hair was naturally straight, so the studio used hot curling irons on his hair to achieve the effect. Milland felt that it was this procedure that caused him to go prematurely bald forcing him to go from leading man to supporting player earlier than he would have wished. One son-Daniel David; One adopted daughter-Victoria. Has a tattoo on his upper right arm of a skull with a snake curled up on top of it with the tail of the snake sticking out through one of the eyes. The tattoo can be seen for a brief moment in the movie Her Jungle Love. Had a near-fatal accident on the set of Hotel Imperial. One scene called for him to lead a cavalry charge through a small village. An accomplished horseman, Milland insisted upon doing this scene himself. As he was making a scripted jump on the horse, his saddle came loose, sending him flying straight into a pile of broken masonary. Laid up in the hospital for weeks with multiple fractures and lacerations, he was lucky to be alive. Was the first choice for the Don Ameche role in _Trading Places (1983)_ . He is the only winner of the Best Actor Oscar (for _Lost Weekend, The (1945)_ ) to have uttered not a single word during his acceptance speech opting, instead, to simply bow his appreciation before casually exiting the stage. First performer to win an Acting Award at the Cannes Film Festival and an Oscar for the same role (for The Lost Weekend). Only got the lead role in The Lost Weekend) because Paramount vetoed writer-director Billy Wilder's first choice for the role, Broadway actor José Ferrer. Hedging its bets, Paramount demanded the casting of a star to headline the risky production, but Cary Grant and most of the other leading male stars of the day turned Wilder down. Milland got the role by default and won an Oscar. Was the first Welsh actor to win an Oscar.