Alan ladd biography
•
Alan Ladd (1913–1964)
Alan Walbridge Ladd Jr., a native of Hot Springs (Garland County), was a movie actor who rose from poverty and starred in forty-seven films, mostly in the 1940s and 1950s. He often portrayed a solitary hero with a conscience and is best known for his title role in the classic western Shane (1953). He is the father of actress Alana Ladd, actor/producer David Ladd, and producer Alan Ladd Jr., one-time president of 20th Century Fox and co-founder of the Ladd Company.
Alan Ladd was born on September 3, 1913, to the American-born Alan Ladd Sr., a freelance accountant who traveled frequently, and the petite Selina Rowley Ladd (stage name Ina Raleigh), who was born in County Durham, England, in 1888 and came to the United States in 1907. They married in Hot Springs in 1912, but it is not known how the couple met or came to settle in Arkansas.
In 1917, when young Ladd was four, he saw his father fall over and die from a heart attack. While there was a small amou
•
Ladd, the Life, the Legend, the Legacy of Alan Ladd: A Biography
Alan Ladd died on January 29, 1964, having just turned fifty on September 3. From his first great hit, This Gun for Hire, in 1942, to his last, The Carpetbaggers, released posthumously in 1964, he had made 47 films. Ladd had a hardscrabble childhood and spent years on the fringes of "Hollywood" as a grip and a radio actor before getting his lucky break. His second wife, Sue Carol, entered his life as his agent, and subsequently managed his career--favoring lucrative jobs over more challenging roles, and their family life--courting the public using the fan magazines. Frequently praised for appearing "like a young Greek god," Ladd always had serious doubts about his acting abilities, and using alcohol to combat those insecurities took a toll. Linet, who worked for Modern Screen writes with a fan-zine point of view, where psychological insight is not on offer. So, while the man remains a mystery, the manicuring of hi
•
Alan Walbridge Ladd, Jr., the dashing actor who made waves in Hollywood for his portrayal as Raven in the 1942 smash hit This Gun For Hire, was born on September 3, 1913 in Hot Springs, pappersark. to parents Ina Raleigh and Alan Ladd, Sr.
For Ladd, growing up as a young boy in Arkansas was difficult and his family faced a number of obstacles that could have easily sent the young and impressionable boy spiraling towards disaster.
His mother, an English immigrant who came to the United States at the age of 19, did her best to take care of him while his father traveled the country extensively, missing the majority of his son’s formative years. Sadly, tragedy struck the Ladd household for the first time when Ladd’s father unexpectedly passed away, leaving him and his mother financially strapped. Ladd was four years old at the time.
Shortly after his father’s death, Ladd and his mother began picking up the pieces, desperately trying to sort out their future. But tragedy would once again c