Ms. Dowling made a far bigger impact in Hollywood. Her second film was Billy Wilder's Oscar-winning drama about alcoholism, "The Lost Weekend." She played Gloria, a sympathetic barfly and prostitute, opposite Ray Milland. Many expected her to be nominated for an Oscar (she was not). "One day Billy Wilder and I were lunching at Lucey's with Charles Jackson, who wrote the novel `The Lost Weekend,''' she said, according to The Independent. "He said it was too bad I wasn't a more common type so that I could play Gloria. And Billy never even looked up. He just said,`She is.' That's all. Just, `She is.' I almost went crazy with excitement." She and the married Wilder would soon embark on a years-long affair that was an open secret in Hollywood.