Born Reginald Alfred John Truscott-Jones in Neath, Glamorgan, Wales, UK. There is a difference of opinion about how he settled on the stage name "Milland." Some sources say that he adopted a variation of his step-father's surname of Mullane. In 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!" Another source claims Milland got his stage name from a riverside street called Milland Road in Neath, where he resided prior to becoming an actor. After three years of service as a guardsman with the Royal Household Cavalry in London, he entered British films in 1929. and became a romantic leading man of the 1930s, predominantly in light comedies and occasional mysteries. Milland proved his serious dramatic abilities with an Oscar®-winning role as an alcoholic writer in Billy Wilder's THE LOST WEEKEND (1945), but failed to match his success in later years due to choices of lifeless scripts. He concentrated on directing for TV and film in the 1960s and returned as a character actor in the 70s, notably in LOVE STORY (1970). Milland is the only winner of the Best Actor Oscar to have uttered not a single word during his acceptance speech -- opting, instead, to simply bow his appreciation before casually exiting the stage.  Actor 1945: THE LOST WEEKEND 1 nomination, 1 Award