The Lost Weekend

Ray Milland (Actor) .. Don Birnam

Born: January 03, 1907
Died: March 10, 1986
Birthplace: Neath, Wales

Trivia: Welsh actor Ray Milland spent the 1930s and early 1940s playing light romantic leads in such films as Next Time We Love (1936); Three Smart Girls (1936); Easy Living (1937), in which he is especially charming opposite Jean Arthur in an early Preston Sturges script; Everything Happens at Night (1939); The Doctor Takes a Wife (1940); and the major in Billy Wilder's The Major and the Minor opposite Ginger Rogers. Others worth watching are Reap the Wild Wind (1942); Forever and a Day (1943), and Lady in the Dark (1944). He made The Uninvited in 1944 and won an Oscar for his intense and realistic portrait of an alcoholic in The Lost Weekend (1945). Unfortunately, it was one of his last good films or performances. With the exception of Dial M for Murder (1954), X, The Man With X-Ray Eyes (1953), Love Story (1970), and Escape to Witch Mountain (1975), his later career was made up of mediocre parts in mostly bad films. One of the worst and most laughable was the horror film The Thing with Two Heads (1972), which paired him with football player Rosie Grier as the two-headed monster. Milland was also an uninspired director in A Man Alone (1955), Lisbon (1956), The Safecracker (1958), and Panic in Year Zero (1962).

Jane Wyman (Actor) .. Helen St. James

Born: January 05, 1917
Died: September 10, 2007
Birthplace: St. Joseph, Missouri, United States

Trivia: Born Sarah Jane Fulks, Jane Wyman tried to break into films as a child but was unsuccessful despite encouragement from her mother. A decade later, she began her show business career as a radio singer, using the name Jane Durrell. In 1936, she began appearing in films as a chorus girl and bit player. Eventually, she moved into secondary roles and occasional leads, usually playing brassy blondes in comic relief. She broke out of this mold with her performance in The Lost Weekend (1945), in which she demonstrated her talents as a serious actress; this led to better roles as a major star. For her work in The Yearling (1946), she received a Best Actress Oscar nomination, then won an Oscar for her portrayal of a deaf-mute rape victim in Johnny Belinda (1948). She went on to star in many films, demonstrating her versatility in both comedies and tearjerkers. She was twice more nominated for Oscars, for The Blue Veil (1951) and Magnificent Obsession (1954). After 1956, her screen work was infrequent. She returned from retirement in the early '80s to play a regular role on the TV series Falcon Crest. From 1940 to 1948, she was married to Ronald Reagan; their daughter, Maureen Reagan, was a singer-actress. After a long period of inactivity, Wyman died at age 93 in early September 2007.

Howard Da Silva (Actor) .. Nat

Born: May 04, 1909
Died: February 16, 1986

Trivia: Howard Da Silva worked the steel mills of Pennsylvania to pay his way through Carnegie Institute. After finishing his acting training, Da Silva went to work for Eva Le Galliene's theatrical troupe. He brought attention to himself by staging a one-man show, Ten Million Ghosts, which led to several years' work with Orson Welles' Mercury Theatre. On Broadway, the stocky, booming-voiced Da Silva created the roles of Jack Armstrong in Abe Lincoln in Illinois (a part he re-created in the 1940 film version) and Jud Frye in Oklahoma. His earliest movie appearance was in the Manhattan-filmed Jimmy Savo vehicle Once in a Blue Moon (1934), but Da Silva didn't gain cinematic prominence until signed by Paramount in the 1940s, where among many other choice assignments he was cast as the bartender in the Oscar-winning The Lost Weekend (1945). As one of most vocal and demonstrative of Hollywood's Left Wing, Da Silva became a convenient target for the House Un-American Activities Commission, and he was blacklisted. Unable to find movie or TV work, DaSilva returned to the stage in the 1950s, not facing the cameras again until 1962's David and Lisa (1962). Among his many memorable portrayals of the 1970s were Benjamin Franklin in stage and film versions of 1776, Nikita Khrushchev in the 3-hour TV drama Missiles of October, and his award-winning supporting performance in PBS' Verna: The USO Girl. Howard Da Silva also appeared in both the 1949 and 1974 versions of The Great Gatsby, playing the tragic garage owner Mr Wilson in the first version, and the Arnold Rothstein-like gambler Meyer Wolfsheim in the second.

Philip Terry (Actor) .. Nick Birnam

Doris Dowling (Actor) .. Gloria

Born: May 15, 1923
Died: June 18, 2004

Trivia: The older sister of Hollywood leading lady Constance Dowling, American actress Doris Dowling began making films in the mid '40s. Not a classic beauty in the movie sense, Dowling had a cosmopolitan attractiveness that made her useful in "this girl is trouble!" roles. Her best part was as Ray Milland's saloon pickup and erstwhile drinking companion in The Lost Weekend (1945). In The Blue Dahlia (1946), she dispensed truculence to screen husband Alan Ladd and everyone else around her for a full reel before being bumped off by a mystery killer. Not interested in continuing in such unsympathetic parts, Doris left for Italy in 1948 to appear in such neorealistic films as Bitter Rice (1948) and in such Rennaissance-drenched pieces as Orson Welles' Othello (1951), in which she played Bianca. Doris Dowling remained in European picture-making until her retirement in the late '50s.

Frank Faylen (Actor) .. Bim

Born: December 08, 1907
Died: August 02, 1985

Trivia: American actor Frank Faylen was born into a vaudeville act; as an infant, he was carried on stage by his parents, the song-and-dance team Ruf and Clark. Traveling with his parents from one engagement to another, Faylen somehow managed to complete his education at St. Joseph's Prep School in Kirkwood, Missouri. Turning pro at age 18, Faylen worked on stage until getting a Hollywood screen test in 1936. For the next nine years, Faylen played a succession of bit and minor roles, mostly for Warner Bros.; of these minuscule parts he would later say, "If you sneezed, you missed me." Better parts came his way during a brief stay at Hal Roach Studios in 1942 and 1943, but Faylen's breakthrough came at Paramount in 1945, where he was cast as Bim, the chillingly cynical male nurse at Bellevue's alcoholic ward in the Oscar-winning The Lost Weekend. Though the part lasted all of four minutes' screen time, Faylen was so effective in this unpleasant role that he became entrenched as a sadistic bully or cool villain in his subsequent films. TV fans remember Faylen best for his more benign but still snarly role as grocery store proprietor Herbert T. Gillis on the 1959 sitcom Dobie Gillis. For the next four years, Faylen gained nationwide fame for such catch-phrases as "I was in World War II--the big one--with the good conduct medal!", and, in reference to his screen son Dobie Gillis, "I gotta kill that boy someday. I just gotta." Faylen worked sporadically in TV and films after Dobie Gillis was canceled in 1963, receiving critical plaudits for his small role as an Irish stage manager in the 1968 Barbra Streisand starrer Funny Girl. The actor also made an encore appearance as Herbert T. Gillis in a Dobie Gillis TV special of the 1970s, where his "good conduct medal" line received an ovation from the studio audience. Faylen was married to Carol Hughes, an actress best-recalled for her role as Dale Arden in the 1939 serial Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe, and was the father of another actress, also named Carol.

Mary Young (Actor) .. Señorita Deveridge

Born: January 01, 1880
Died: January 01, 1971

Anita Sharp-Bolster (Actor) .. Mrs. Foley

Born: August 28, 1895

Lillian Fontaine (Actor) .. Mrs. St. James

Born: January 01, 1886
Died: January 01, 1975

Lewis L. Russell (Actor) .. Charles St. James

Born: September 10, 1889

Frank Orth (Actor) .. Opera Attendant

Born: February 21, 1880
Died: March 17, 1962

Trivia: Moonfaced American actor Frank Orth came to films from vaudeville, where he was usually co-billed with wife Ann Codee. Orth and Codee continued appearing together in a series of two-reel comedies in the early '30s, before he graduated to features with 1935's The Unwelcome Stranger. From that point until his retirement in 1959, Orth usually found himself behind a counter in his film appearances, playing scores of pharmacists, grocery clerks and bartenders. He had a semi-recurring role as Mike Ryan in MGM's Dr. Kildare series, and was featured as a long-suffering small town cop in Warners' Nancy Drew films. Orth was an apparent favorite of the casting department at 20th Century-Fox, where he received many of his credited screen roles. From 1951 through 1953, Frank Orth was costarred as Lieutenant Farraday on the Boston Blackie TV series.

Gisela Werbiseck (Actor) .. Mrs. Wertheim

Born: January 01, 1874
Died: January 01, 1956

Eddie Laughton (Actor) .. Mr. Brophy

Born: January 01, 1903
Died: March 21, 1952

Trivia: Relocating from England to the U.S. in the 1920s, dapper, mustachioed Eddie Laughton worked in vaudeville until he was signed by Columbia Pictures in 1935. Laughton spent most of his time in the studio's two-reel comedies, earning his $55 per day in an exhausting variety of roles: hotel clerks, gangsters, snobbish socialites, jealous lovers, train conductors, and, sometimes, just one of the crowd. The Three Stooges, Columbia's top two-reel attraction, were so impressed by Laughton that they hired him as his straight man for their stage appearances. After toting up hundreds of credits in both shorts and features, Laughton left Columbia in 1945 to free-lance. Retiring in 1949, Eddie Laughton died of pneumonia three years later at the age of 49.

Harry Barris (Actor) .. Piano Player

Born: January 01, 1904
Died: January 01, 1962

Jayne Hazard (Actor) .. M.M.

Craig Reynolds (Actor) .. M.M.'s Escort

Born: January 01, 1906
Died: January 01, 1949

Walter Baldwin (Actor) .. Albany

Born: January 02, 1889

Fred 'Snowflake' Toones (Actor) .. Washroom Attendant

Born: January 05, 1905
Died: February 13, 1962

Trivia: During Hollywood's pre-"politically correct" era, it was not uncommon for African-American performers to be saddled with such demeaning professional monikers as "G. Howe Black," "Stepin Fetchit," and "Sleep 'n' Eat." One of the more egregious racially oriented nicknames was bestowed upon a talented black character actor named Fred Toones. From 1931 until his retirement in 1948, Toones was usually billed as "Snowflake," often playing a character of the same name. His standard characterization, that of a middle-aged "colored" man with high-pitched voice and childlike demeanor, was nearly as offensive as his character name. True to the Hollywood typecasting system of the 1930s and 1940s, "Snowflake" was generally cast as redcaps, bootblacks, and janitors. He appeared in dozens of two-reelers (including the Three Stooges' first Columbia effort, 1934's Woman Haters) and scores of B-Westerns. During the early '40s, Fred Toones was a semi-regular in the zany comedies of producer/director/writer Preston Sturges.

Clarence Muse (Actor) .. Washroom Attendant

Born: October 07, 1889
Died: October 13, 1979

Trivia: Black actor of Hollywood films, onscreen from 1929. He graduated from law school, but in his early '30s he abandoned law to work as an actor in New York with the Lincoln Players; he co-founded his next acting company, the Lafayette Players. He was offered a role in the all-black film musical Hearts in Dixie (1929), and accepted after the studio signed him for $1250 a week. He made films for almost five decades, and much of the time he was busy almost constantly; he often played Uncle Tom types, but also gave many performances that were invested with considerable dignity and intelligence. In 1973 he was inducted in the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame.

Gene Ashley (Actor) .. Male Nurse

Jerry James (Actor) .. Male Nurse

William Meader (Actor) .. Male Nurse

Died: January 01, 1979

Emmett Vogan (Actor) .. Doctor

Born: September 27, 1893
Died: October 06, 1964

Trivia: Character actor Emmett Vogan appeared in films from 1934 through 1956. A peppery gentleman with steel-rimmed glasses and an executive air, Vogan appeared in hundreds of films in a variety of small "take charge" roles. Evidently he had a few friends in the casting department of Universal Pictures, inasmuch as he showed up with regularity in that studio's comedies, serials and B-westerns. Comedy fans will recognize Emmett Vogan as the engineer partner of nominal leading man Charles Lang in W.C. Fields' Never Give a Sucker an Even Break (1941), and as the prosecuting attorney in the flashback sequences of Laurel and Hardy's The Bullfighters (1945).

Milton Wallace (Actor) .. Pawnbroker

Born: January 01, 1887
Died: January 01, 1956

Lester Sharpe (Actor) .. Jewish Man

Born: January 01, 1894
Died: January 01, 1962

Bertram Warburgh (Actor) .. Jewish Man

Theodora Lynch (Actor) .. Opera Singer

John Garris (Actor) .. Opera Singer

Byron Foulger (Actor) .. Shopkeeper

Born: January 01, 1900
Died: April 04, 1970

Trivia: In the 1959 Twilight Zone episode "Walking Distance," Gig Young comments that he thinks he's seen drugstore counterman Byron Foulger before. "I've got that kind of face" was the counterman's reply. Indeed, Foulger's mustachioed, bespectacled, tremble-chinned, moon-shaped countenance was one of the most familiar faces ever to grace the screen. A graduate of the University of Utah, Foulger developed a taste for performing in community theatre, making his Broadway debut in the '20s. Foulger then toured with Moroni Olsen's stock company, which led him to the famed Pasadena Playhouse as both actor and director. In films from 1936, Foulger usually played whining milksops, weak-willed sycophants, sanctimonious sales clerks, shifty political appointees, and the occasional unsuspected murderer. In real life, the seemingly timorous actor was not very easily cowed; according to his friend Victor Jory, Foulger once threatened to punch out Errol Flynn at a party because he thought that Flynn was flirting with his wife (Mrs. Foulger was Dorothy Adams, a prolific movie and stage character actress). Usually unbilled in "A" productions, Foulger could count on meatier roles in such "B" pictures as The Man They Could Not Hang (1939) and The Panther's Claw (1943). In the Bowery Boys' Up in Smoke (1957), Foulger is superb as a gleeful, twinkly-eyed Satan. In addition to his film work, Byron Foulger built up quite a gallery of portrayals on television; one of his final stints was the recurring role of engineer Wendell Gibbs on the popular sitcom Petticoat Junction.

Helen Dickson (Actor) .. Mrs. Frink

David Clyde (Actor) .. Dave

Born: January 01, 1888
Died: May 17, 1945

Trivia: The older brother of film actors Andy and Jean Clyde, David Clyde was an actor/director/theatre manger in his native Scotland. Clyde came to Hollywood in 1934, by which time his brother Andy was firmly established as a screen comedian. Though the older Clyde never scaled the professional heights enjoyed by Andy, he found steady work in films for nearly a decade. His more sizeable roles included T. P. Wallaby in W.C. Fields' Man on the Flying Trapeze (1935) and Canadian constable Thompson in the excellent Sherlock Holmes opus The Scarlet Claw (1944). David Clyde was the husband of actress Fay Holden, of Andy Hardy fame.

Phillip Terry (Actor) .. Nick Birnam

Born: March 07, 1909
Died: February 23, 1993

Trivia: Philip Terry labored away as an oil-rig worker until enrolling at Stanford University, where the 6'1" San Franciscan distinguished himself on the football field. After college, Terry travelled to London to study acting, assuming that a British accent would automatically assure him good roles upon his return to America (it didn't). A nominal movie leading man at RKO and Paramount in the early 1940s, Terry managed to pick up a few good notices for his star turn in the 1941 western The Parson of Panamint. The following year, Terry became the third husband of superstar Joan Crawford (he'd been a bit player in Crawford's 1937 vehicle Mannequin, but was not formally introduced to the actress until four years later). A competent but bland screen presence, Terry tended to be overshadowed by his world-famous spouse. Though all reports indicate that the marriage was a happy one, Terry eventually chafed at being Mr. Joan Crawford, and in 1946 the couple was amicably divorced. In films until 1966, Philip Terry is best remembered for his portrayal of Wick Birman, the straight-arrow brother of alcoholic Ray Milland in The Lost Weekend (1945).

Anita Bolster (Actor) .. Mrs. Foley

Born: August 29, 1895
Died: June 01, 1985

Trivia: A member of Ireland's famed Abbey Theatre, sharp-featured character actress Anita Bolster (sometimes billed Anita Sharp-Bolster) had enjoyed a long career on the British stage and screen before coming to America in 1938. She received rave reviews on Broadway in Lady in Waiting, with which she also toured until making her American screen debut in 1941. Bolster became one of the busiest character actresses of the 1940s, usually playing prissy spinsters, gossips, and housekeepers. In the 1950s, she twice played "second witch" in television versions of Macbeth and she finished her career playing yet another housekeeper, this time in the cult daytime soap opera Dark Shadows.

William O'Leary (Actor) .. Irishman

Born: August 24, 1887
Died: June 24, 1954

Trivia: Lead actor, onscreen from the '80s.

Jess Lee Brooks (Actor)

Born: January 01, 1893
Died: January 01, 1944

James Millican (Actor) .. Nurse

Born: January 01, 1910
Died: November 24, 1955

Trivia: Signed up by MGM's dramatic school directly after graduating from the University of Southern California, American actor James Millican was groomed for that studio's stable of young leading men. Instead, he made his first film, Sign of the Cross (1932), at Paramount, then moved on to Columbia for his first important role in Mills of the Gods (1934). Possessor of an athletic physique and Irish good looks, Millican wasn't a distinctive enough personality for stardom, but came in handy for secondary roles as the hero's best friend, the boss' male secretary, and various assorted military adjutants. According to his own count, Millican also appeared in 400 westerns; while such a number is hard to document, it is true that he was a close associate of cowboy star "Wild Bill" Elliott, staging a number of personal-appearance rodeos on Elliott's behalf. Fans of baseball films will recall James Millican's persuasive performance as Bill Killefer in the Grover Cleveland Alexander biopic The Winning Team.

Pat Moriarity (Actor) .. Irishman

Peter Potter (Actor) .. Shaky and Sweaty

Born: April 14, 1905
Died: April 17, 1983

Lee Shumway (Actor) .. Guard

Born: January 01, 1884
Died: January 04, 1959

Trivia: Stage actor Lee Shumway first gave the upstart movie industry a try in 1909. He returned to picture-making on a more regular basis in the mid-teens, remaining in Hollywood until his retirement in 1947. On both sides of the talkie revolution, Shumway was most gainfully employed in Westerns and serials, switching from comparative heroics to villainy after the movies learned to talk. Lee Shumway may well be the only actor to have ever appeared with both Bela Lugosi (1935's Mystery of Mr. Wong) and Lou Gehrig (1938's Rawhide).

Douglas Spencer (Actor) .. Beetle

Born: January 01, 1890
Died: October 06, 1960

Trivia: From 1939 until his death in 1960, gangly, balding Douglas Spencer could be spotted in unbilled film roles as doctors and reporters. By the early '50s, Spencer had graduated to supporting parts, often in films with a science fiction or fantasy theme. One of his lengthier assignments was Simms, the seance-busting reporter in Houdini (1953). Douglas Spencer's best-ever film role was bespectacled reporter Ned "Scotty" Scott in the 1951 sci-fi classic The Thing, wherein he closed the film with the immortal cautionary words "Keep watching the skies!"

Walter S. Baldwin (Actor) .. Albany

Born: January 01, 1887
Died: January 27, 1972

Trivia: Bespectacled American actor Walter Baldwin was already a venerable stage performer at the time he appeared in his first picture, 1940's Angels over Broadway. With a pinched Midwestern countenance that enabled him to portray taciturn farmers, obsequious grocery store clerks and the occasional sniveling coward, Baldwin was a familiar (if often unbilled) presence in Hollywood films for three decades. Possibly Baldwin's most recognizable role was as Mr. Parrish in Sam Goldwyn's multi-Oscar winning The Best Years of Our Lives (1946), for which the actor received thirteenth billing. He also had a prime opportunity to quiver and sweat as a delivery man whose truck is commandeered by homicidal prison escapee Robert Middleton in The Desperate Hours (1955). Seemingly ageless, Walter Baldwin made his last film appearance three years before his death in 1969's Hail Hero.

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