When working on I Wanted Wings (1941), 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 (1942), 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 (1938).

Had a near-fatal accident on the set of Hotel Imperial (1939). 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 (1945)).

Only got the lead role in The Lost Weekend (1945)) 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.

Biography in: "The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives". Volume Two, 1986-1990, pages 628-629. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1999.

Personal Quotes

"The greatest drawback in making pictures is the fact that film makers have to eat."

[on Louella Parsons] "She never forgot a thing and, by the same token, never forgave anyone who crossed her. But she was never vicious."

[on Hedda Hopper] "She was venomous, vicious, a pathological liar, and quite stupid."