Alan Walbridge Ladd

Background

Alan Walbridge Ladd was born in Hot Springs, Arkansas, the son of Alan Ladd, an accountant, and of Ina Rawley. His father died in 1917. Three years later, his mother remarried and the family moved to California, living first in Alhambra and then in North Hollywood.

Education

Ladd enrolled in North Hollywood High School on 18 February 1930.

Career

While at school, Ladd worked after class as a newsboy, a drugstore clerk, and a lifeguard among other jobs. He was also the West Coast diving champion (1931) and had a major role in the school play, The Mikado (1933). This performance attracted the attention of talent scouts from Universal Studios, which had begun a program to train young actors. But within a few weeks of beginning the class, the studio let go Ladd and a fellow "discovery, " Tyrone Power.

Ladd obtained a job in the advertising department of the San Fernando Valley Sun-Record. He soon worked his way up to advertising manager at $35 a week. Acting had become Ladd's goal, though, and he took a job at Warner Brothers as a grip. He spent two years rigging lights on catwalks, where, he recalled, "I never did see much of what went on below. " After a bad fall, Ladd decided to try acting again and enrolled in the Ben Bard School of Acting. But the training led to no film contracts.

Radio proved Ladd's road to success. After occasional assignments on several Los Angeles-area stations, he landed a job at KFWB in 1936. As the station's lone resident actor, Ladd averaged almost twenty programs a week, doing everything from dramatic portrayals to newscasting. When scripts demanded it, he would take two parts, which forced him to train his speaking voice to have the flexibility that was to become one of his trademarks. A program on which he played an elderly man and his son provided the break that brought Ladd to the screen and stardom.

Listening to the broadcast, Sue Carol (born Evelyn Lederer), a former screen star and then an actor's agent, thought the two actors, not knowing that Ladd was performing both roles, might have screen potential. Under her guidance, Ladd's screen career began to develop. By then, Ladd had appeared in several "B" pictures, beginning with Rulers of the Sea (1939), Beasts of Berlin (1939), and Captain Caution (1940). He also remained active in radio, appearing with Bette Davis on two occasions.

In 1942, Ladd played major film roles in Joan of Paris for RKO and This Gun for Hire for Paramount. The latter film made him a star. The glint of his eye and his inscrutable manner created a flood of fan mail.

In January 1943, following leading roles in The Glass Key and Lucky Jordan (both 1942), Ladd joined the army. He served until November, when he was discharged with the rank of corporal, because of a double hernia. The same year, Ladd headed a national poll as the most popular male star.

In the following years, Ladd starred in a long list of movies for Paramount, including Two Years Before the Mast (1946), The Blue Dahlia (1946), O. S. S. (1946), The Great Gatsby (1949), Captain Carey, U. S. A. (1950), Branded (1951), and Botany Bay (1953). In Shane (1953), directed by George Stevens, he had probably his most remembered role: a mysterious stranger who helps a turn-of-the-century farming family ward off a land grab by a group of villainous cattlemen. The hard-riding, quick-shooting Shane personified all strong, silent western heroes, larger than life, a man feared by men and loved by women and children. After leaving Paramount, Ladd played in The Iron Mistress (1952), The McConnell Story (1955), Boy on a Dolphin (1957), and All the Young Men (1960), among other films at several studios.

In 1963, he returned to Paramount and appeared in the multi-million-dollar production of The Carpetbaggers (1964), drawing rave reviews for his performance as Nevada Smith, destined to be his final portrayal. Ladd founded and was president of his own film company, Jaguar Productions, for which he produced and starred in four pictures. He was also president of Ladd Enterprises, which was involved in real estate and oil development. In 1962, Ladd shot himself in the chest, according to official accounts, while cleaning a gun. He died two years later in Palm Springs, Calif. , at least in part as the result of the combined effects of alcohol and sleeping pills.

Achievements

• Ladd found success in film in the 1940s and early 1950s, particularly in Westerns such as "Shane" (1953) and films noir in which he was often paired with Veronica Lake, such as "This Gun for Hire" (1942), "The Glass Key" (1942) and "The Blue Dahlia" (1946). His murderous but strangely appealing image became the prototype of a new cinematic character, the tough guy who was young, handsome, and sensitive, yet cold and unreachable. Other notable credits include "Two Years Before the Mast" (1946), "Whispering Smith" (1948) and "The Great Gatsby" (1949). Ladd has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1601 Vine Street. His handprint appears in the forecourt of Grauman's Chinese Theatre, in Hollywood.

Works

More photos

• book

  • The Badlanders
  • The Blue Dahlia
  • Thunder in the East
  • Red Mountain
  • Man In The Net
  • The Black Knight
  • Shane
  • All The Young Men
  • Guns of the Timberland
  • Hell Below Zero

Connections

In late October 1936 Ladd married Marjorie Jane Harrold. They had one son, named for his father, who later became a noted film executive. In July 1941, Ladd was divorced from his wife, and on March 15, 1942, he married Sue Carol. Their children David and Alana became film actors.

Father:

Alan Ladd

Accountant

Mother:

Ina Rawley

Spouse:

Marjorie Jane Harrold

Spouse:

Sue Carol

Daughter:

Alana Ladd

Son:

David Ladd

Son:

Alan Ladd Jr.

Film industry executive

References

• The Films of Alan Ladd
• Hollywood Herald June 1946 Edition 2 Vol 1 Cover: Alan Ladd
• Ladd: The Life, The Legend, The Legacy of Alan Ladd: A Biography
• Alan Ladd, héros fragile