Ray Milland : Totally awesome in the 70's and 80's!!

Totally awesome in the 70's and 80's!!

Ray really had a good time in the latter part of his career: FROGS, THE THING WITH TWO HEADS, CRUISE INTO TERROR, THE DEAD DON'T DIE, THE ATTIC and so many more.. Those are my favorites!!

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Re: Totally awesome in the 70's and 80's!!

Everyone's entitled to their taste, but the OP's roster of favorite Ray Milland films is pretty demeaning to this fine actor.

This is a man who starred in such movies as Beau Geste, The Major and the Minor, Reap the Wild Wind, The Uninvited, Ministry of Fear, The Big Clock, Alias Nick Beal, It Happens Every Spring, The Thief, Dial M for Murder, A Man Alone and many other good films. He won an Oscar for The Lost Weekend. I doubt very much that he enjoyed making the schlock he was saddled with in the 70s and 80s, or most of the 60s for that matter. With very few exceptions, and for whatever reasons, that was all he was offered. He took the work he could get.

The notion that he liked running around with a replica of Rosey Grier's head on his shoulder (or vice-versa) instead of getting significant parts in major films worthy of his talent is pretty ridiculous. But, true professional that he was, he put his all even into such bad films. He certainly elevated them beyond anything they deserved.

Anyone who thinks Ray Milland wanted his career to wind down this way, or enjoyed or preferred such roles, doesn't know what he's talking about. He made the best of a bad situation, that's all.

He did have some major TV work in this period, notably a couple of episodes of Columbo (one of which he directed) and most significantly the miniseries Rich Man, Poor Man. In general he did better on TV than in movies in his last twenty years. He would have had a great role in Trading Places in 1983, but he failed the physical because of the onset of the cancer that would ultimately kill him, and so was dropped from the film as uninsurable. Don Ameche replaced him, and saw a stunning revival of his dormant career. What might the success of that film have done for Ray Milland?

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