French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 269, 1950. Photo: Paramount Pictures Inc.
Alan Ladd (1913-1964) had his big break as a killer in the film noir This Gun For Hire (1942). Throughout the 1940s, his tough-guy roles packed audiences, but he is best known for his title role in the classic Western Shane (1953)
Alan Walbridge Ladd was born in Hot Springs, Arkansas, USA in 1913. His mother, Ina Raleigh. had emigrated from England at age 19, and his accountant father, Alan Ladd, died when his son was only four. At age five, Alan burned his apartment playing with matches, and his mother moved them to Oklahoma City, where she married Jim Beavers, a housepainter. Alan was malnourished, undersized and nicknamed 'Tiny', and the family moved to California. Alan picked fruit, delivered papers, and swept stores. In high school he discovered track and swimming. By 1931 he was training for the 1932 Olympics, but an injury put an end to those plans. He opened a hamburger stand called Tiny's Patio, and later worked as a studio carpenter (as did his stepfather) at Warner Brothers Pictures. He married his friend Midge in 1936, but couldn't afford her, so they lived apart. In 1937, they shared a friend's apartment. They had a son, Alan Ladd Jr., and his destitute alcoholic mother moved in with them, her agonizing suicide from ant poison witnessed a few months later by her son. For a short time, Ladd was part of the Universal Pictures studio school for actors. His size and blond hair were regarded by Universal as not right for movies, so he worked hard at radio. There talent scout and former actress Sue Carol discovered him early in 1939. He appeared in a string of bit parts in B-pictures - and an unbilled part as a newspaper reporter in Orson Welles' classic Citizen Kane (1941). Late in 1941, he got his big break when he tested for This Gun for Hire (Frank Tuttle, 1942) based on the novel by Graham Greene. His fourth-billed role as psychotic hitman Raven made him a star.
Alan Ladd and his co-star in This Gun for Hire, Veronica Lake, made seven films together. These included The Glass Key (Stuart Heisler, 1942), The Blue Dahlia (George Marshall 1946), and Saigon (Leslie Fenton, 1948). Ladd was drafted in January 1943 and discharged in November with an ulcer and double hernia. His cool, unsmiling tough-guys proved popular with wartime audiences, and he was one of the top box office stars of the decade. In an adaptation of Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby (Elliott Nugent, 1949), Ladd had the featured role of Jay Gatsby. Four years later he appeared in what many regard as his greatest role, Shane (George Stevens, 1953). The film was nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Picture. From then on he was performing in lucrative but unrewarding films . By the end of the 1950s liquor and a string of so-so films had taken their toll. In November 1962 he was found unconscious lying in a pool of blood with a bullet wound near his heart. In 1963 Ladd's career looked set to make a comeback when he filmed a supporting role in The Carpetbaggers (Edward Dmytryk, 1964), which became one of the most popular films of the year. He would not live to see its release. In January 1964 Alan Ladd was found dead, apparently due to an accidental combination of alcohol and sedatives. Ladd was only 50. He was married twice. After his divorce from Marjorie Jane Harrold in 1941, he married former film actress Sue Carol in 1942. Carol was also his agent and manager. The couple had two children, Alana Ladd and David Ladd. He was the grandfather of Jordan Ladd.
Sources: Ed Stephan (IMDb), Wikipedia and IMDb.
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