Matinee Classics - Alan Ladd Biography & Filmography

Alan Ladd ACTOR

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ALAN LADD BIOGRAPHY & FILMOGRAPHY:

Alan Ladd was born on September 3, 1913 in Hot Springs, Arkansas to parents Ina and Alan Ladd, Sr. His father died when he was four, and shortly after Alan and his mother moved to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, where she remarried to Jim Beavers, a local housepainter. The family would move again, this time to North Hollywood, California.

During high school Alan joined the swim team and won numerous awards for his swimming and diving abilities, and also participated in the high school drama club. Later, Alan would open his own business, a hamburger and malt shop, which was called Tiny's Patio. Alan also worked as a studio carpenter for a short time and was part of the Universal Pictures studio school for actors. However, Universal dropped him since they felt he was too short in stature and too blonde. Fortunately, this did not deter Alan from acting, and he found work in radio instead. Alan was married twice; first to his high school sweetheart, Midge Harold, with whom he had a son, Alan Ladd Jr., in 1942, and then to Sue Carol, his manager/agent.

Alan's first movie appearance was in "Tom Brown of Culver" (1932) starring Tom Brown, Slim Summerville and Richard Cromwell. That same year he also starred in "Once in a Lifetime" along with Jack Oakie, Sidney Fox and Aline MacMahon. Alan took on numerous small roles including a role in "Citizen Kane" (1941) starring Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten, Everett Sloane, Paul Stewart, Ray Collins, Dorothy Comingore and Agnes Moorehead, in which he played a faceless reporter always shown in silhouette.

It would be his role in "Joan of Paris" (1942) starring Michèle Morgan, Paul Henreid, Thomas Mitchell and Laird Cregar, that would gain him a bit of notoriety. Following Joan of Paris, Alan would star in "This Gun for Hire" (1942) starring with Veronica Lake, Robert Preston, Laird Cregar, Tully Marshall and Yvonne De Carlo. This role, in which he played a hit man with a conscience, would seal Alan's fate as a noted Hollywood star. Alan, who once played the movie extra, had now changed his persona with this gritty role. "This Gun for Hire", along with Alan's performance, helped to develop the gangster genre of movies. Alan took the stereotypical hard faced, gaudy, mean persona of the typical movie gangster and brought an elegance and suaveness that would change the gangster image for good.

Alan starred in several Paramount Picture films, and took part in the United States Army Air Force's First Motion Picture Unit after being drafted into the military in January 1943. He appeared in "The Glass Key" starring with Brian Donlevy, Veronica Lake, Richard Denning, Bonita Granville and William Bendix and "Lucky Jordan" (1942) with Helen Walker and Sheldon Leonard.

Alan proved to be very popular with wartime audiences, and established himself as one of the top box office stars of the decade. Alan starred in a trio of silver screen classics: "Two Years Before the Mast" co-starring Brian Donlevy, Barry Fitzgerald, William Bendix, Ray Collins, Howard Da Silva, Frank Faylen and Albert Dekker, "The Blue Dahlia" also starring William Bendix, Veronica Lake, Howard Da Silva, Will Wright, Hugh Beaumont and Frank Faylen and the World War II espionage thriller, "O.S.S." (1946) with Colton Winters and Geraldine Fitzgerald.

Two years later Alan formed his own production companies for film and radio. Alan starred in his own syndicated radio series called "Box 13" (1948-49). He also landed the feature role of Jay Gatsby in "The Great Gatsby" (1949) also starring Betty Field, Macdonald Carey, Ruth Hussey, and Barry Sullivan and features Shelley Winters, Howard Da Silva and Elisha Cook Jr. In 1953 Alan played the title role in the classic western movie "Shane" starring alongside Van Heflin, Jean Arthur, Brandon De Wilde, Jack Palance, Elisha Cook Jr., Edgar Buchanan, Douglas Spencer, Ben Johnson, Nancy Kulp and Ellen Corby. This movie would be nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Alan made the Top Ten Money Making Stars Polls three times: in 1947, 1953 and 1954. Alan eventually went to Columbia Pictures where he made "The Red Beret" (1953) with Leo Genn, "Hell Below Zero" with Stanley Baker and Joan Tetzel and "The Black Knight" (1954) with Peter Cushing and Harry Andrews. In the same year, Alan formed a new production company named Jaguar Productions.

Although Alan Ladd’s Hollywood career was lucrative, towards the end of the 1950’s alcohol and mediocre roles caused his decline. In November 1962, he was found lying unconscious in a pool of blood with a bullet wound near his heart, an unsuccessful suicide attempt. In 1963 Ladd co-starred in "The Carpetbaggers" which also featured an all-star ensemble cast including George Peppard, Carroll Baker, Robert Cummings, Lew Ayres, Elizabeth Ashley, Arthur Franz, Tom Tully, Audrey Totter, Ralph Taeger, Martha Hyer, Martin Balsam, Vaughn Taylor and Leif Erickson, but would not live to see its release.

Alan Ladd starred in three films that went on to inspire television shows, "The Iron Mistress" (1952) (The Adventures of Jim Bowie) co-starring Virginia Mayo, Phyllis Kirk and Robert Emhardt, "Shane" and "Whispering Smith" (1948) also starring Robert Preston, Brenda Marshall, Donald Crisp, William Demarest, Frank Faylen, J. Farrell MacDonald and Will Wright with the latter tv version starring Audie Murphy.

On January 29, 1964, at the age of 50, he was found dead in Palm Springs, California of an overdose of alcohol and drugs His death was ruled an accident. He was entombed in Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.

Alan Ladd has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and his handprint appears in the forecourt of Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood, California

Filmography:

1932 Once in a Lifetime

1932 Tom Brown of Culver

1933 Island of Lost Souls

1933 Saturday's Millions

1936 Pigskin Parade

1937 All Over Town

1937 Hold 'Em Navy

1937 Souls at Sea

1937 The Last Train from Madrid

1938 Come On, Leathernecks!