Awards presented March 7, 1946
The nominees were ...
... when they should have been ...
And the Oscar went to ...
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| Ray Milland and his Oscar |
Milland was reportedly not the first choice to play alcoholic Don Birnam in this film of Charles Jackson's autobiographical novel. Director and screenwriter Billy Wilder and his co-writer, Charles Brackett, had Jose Ferrer in mind, but Paramount forced them to settle for Milland, whose career to this point had been largely in light comedy and romantic roles, including Wilder's
The Major and the Minor. Although he returned to type after winning the Oscar, he also found a niche in more menacing roles, such as the murderous husband in Alfred Hitchcock's
Dial M for Murder. In the 1950s he found more work in television than on screen, including a sitcom, "The Ray Milland Show," and a detective series, "Markham." He continued to perform on TV and occasionally in films into the 1980s, frequently as a crusty, villainous sort, most notably as Oliver Barrett III in
Love Story. Although his performance in
The Lost Weekend won him not only an Oscar but also best actor awards from the Golden Globes, the Cannes Film Festival, the National Board of Review, and the New York Film Critics Circle, he never received another Oscar nomination.
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| Milland's Don Birnam in the throes of delirium tremens |
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