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Ray Milland: Lost Weekend
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Not only did Milland work often with the two directors (six features with Leisen, four with Farrow), his stylistic development can be seen clearest when his roles for them are compared. The quintessential Milland performances of the "leading man" variety are contained in Leisen's delightful Easy Living and Kitty. The darker, more sinister side of his personality first came to the fore in Farrow's Alias Nick Beal, a film in which Milland plays the Devil himself. It was, undoubtedly, The Lost Weekend that first suggested the less savory aspects of Milland's character, but it was Farrow who developed and nurtured the duality of a suave, handsome gentleman who contains within himself the suggestion of blackest evil. In Farrow's Westerns California and Copper Canyon, Milland portrays an ostensible hero, but with the suggestion of a cruel and violent past; in The Big Clock, he essays the role of an "innocent" man in the intriguing position of trying to track himself down in a murder investigation.
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During the 1950s, Milland turned his hand to directing, and the 1970s saw him return to acting, although in far lower budget productions. He was a man that liked to keep himself to himself, and preferred to settle down with a good book than be in the midst of the Hollywood glitterati. He won a Best Actor Oscar for his movie ‘The Lost Weekend’ and is the only actor ever to have simply bowed and accepted his award rather than launching into a long speech.
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The pinnacle of Milland's career and acknowledgement of his serious dramatic abilities came in 1946 when he won an Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of an alcoholic in Billy Wilder's film The Lost Weekend (1945). In 1951 he gave a heart-breaking performance in
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Lost Weekend