Oscar Profile #363: Alan Ladd

Born September 3, 1913 to Ina Rawley and Alan Ladd, an accountant, Alan Walbridge Ladd was four when his father died. He was five when he burned his apartment, playing with matches. His mother moved them to Oklahoma City. He was malnourished, undersize and nicknamed “Tiny” at eight, when his mother married a housepainter who moved them to California. He picked fruit, delivered papers, and swept stores to earn money. In high school he discovered track and swimming. By 1931 he was training for the 1932 Olympics, but an injury ended his plans. He opened a hamburger stand called Tiny’s Patio, and later worked as a grip at Warner Brothers, while beginning his on-screen career as an extra in films. He married high-school sweetheart Marjorie “Midge” Harrold in 1936. Their son, Alan Ladd, Jr. was born in 1937. His destitute alcoholic mother moved in with them and Ladd witnessed her agonizing suicide from ant poison a few months later. Ladd’s 5’5″ height and coloring were regarded as not right for movies, so he concentrated on radio, where talent scout and former actress Sue Carol discovered him early in 1939.

Under Carl’s management, Ladd’s screen career improved, including an unbilled part in as a reporter in Citizen Kane. He and Harrold were divorced in 1941 and he married Carol in 1942. Given a contract by Paramount, he became a star opposite Veronica Lake in 1942’s This Gun for Hire and The Glass Key, quickly followed by the same year’s Lucky Jordan. He filmed 1943’s China before being inducted into the army in January of that year. Daughter Alana was born while he was in uniform. He was discharged in October 1943 due to illness.

Paramount filmed 1944’s And Now Tomorrow before Ladd was supposed to have been re-inducted. Paramount got him a deferment so that he could film Two Years Before the Mast which wouldn’t be released until 1946, after The Blue Dahlia and O.S.S.. He was then supposed to be re-inducted in 1945, but the government released all inductees over 30 before it could take effect. Son David was born in 1947.

1949’s The Great Gatsby offered Ladd a change of pace, but 1950’s Captain Carey U.S.A. and Appointment with Danger were more standard fare. 1953’s Shane, directed by George Stevens, would become his biggest hit, but he turned down the opportunity to play the part in Stevens’ Giant that eventually went to James Dean, because it wasn’t the lead.

Ladd’s very successful mid-1950s output included Black Knight, Drum Beat, The McConnell Story, Hell on Frisco Bay, The Big Land, Boy on a Dolphin, The Deep Six, The Proud Rebel (featuring son David), The Badlanders and All the Young Men. He finally played the second led in a film, 1964’s The Carpetbaggers, which was released posthumously.

Alan Ladd died on January 29, 1964 of a lethal mixture of alcohol and three other drugs. Although there were rumors of suicide, his death was ruled accidental. Sons Alan, Jr. and David both became highly successful producers.

ESSENTIAL FILMS

THE GLASS KEY (1942), directed by Stuart Heisler

Ladd became a star as the hired gunman in 1942’s This Gun for Hire in which his scenes opposite Veronica Lake made audiences sit up and take notice, but Lake’s love interest wasn’t Ladd, it was Robert Preston. Paramount quickly remedied that by casting the two in this fast-moving remake of a 1935 film in which they are indeed romantically entangled. William Bendix received the lion’s share of critical notices for his portrayal of a brutal bodyguard, but was Oscar-nominated for his more sympathetic role in the same year’s Wake Island. The film gave Akira Kurosawa the inspiration to make 1961’s Yojimbo.

THE BLUE DAHLIA (1946), directed by George Marshall

Together for the third time, Ladd and Lake sizzle in this nifty film noir, with William Bendix again taking the lion’s share of the critical kudos for his portrayal of Ladd’s brain-damaged war buddy. Doris Dowling also sizzles as Ladd’s unfaithful wife whom he is accused of murdering, and Howard Da Silva also turns in a memorable performance as Dowling’s lover. The film became embroiled in headlines in 1947 when 22-year-old Elizabeth Short, nicknamed ‘the black dahlia” after the film (the bartender who gave her the name got the title wrong) was murdered, a notorious killing that has never been solved.

SHANE (1953), directed by George Stevens

One of the all-time great westerns and Ladd’s signature role, the one in which he plays a weary gunfighter who tries to settle down with a homestead family comprised of Van Heflin, Jean Arthur and Brandon de Wilde), but the bad guys, especially Jack Palance, won’t let him. Nominated for six Oscars (including Best Picture) and winner of one (Best Cinematography – Color), Ladd was not nominated, allegedly because his contract with Paramount had ended and they were more interested in pushing eventual winner William Holden, a hot Paramount star at the time, for his role in Stalag 17.

THE PROUD REBEL (1958), directed by Michael Curtiz

Ladd had one of his most sympathetic roles as a Confederate veteran living in the Yankee North with his mute son and helping a local ranchwoman. Olivia de Havilland is the kindly ranchwoman and Ladd’s son David is the son who hasn’t uttered a word since he saw his mother die in the fire that destroyed the family home. Dean Jagger, Cecil Kellaway, John Carradine and Harry Dean Stanton also turn in fine performances but it’s young David Ladd, later one of Hollywood’s most successful producers, who steals the show earning a Golden Globe for Best Juvenile Actor, as well as nominations for Best Supporting Actor and Best Newcomer.

THE CARPETBAGGERS (1964), directed by Edward Dmytryk

The protagonist played by George Peppard is a thinly disguised Harold Hughes, aviator, movie mogul and womanizer whose conquests include Carroll Baker, Martha Hyer and Golden Globe nominee Elizabeth Ashley. Robert Cummings, Lew Ayres and Martin Balsam co-star. Second billed Ladd received some of the best reviews of his career, albeit posthumously, as a down on his luck cowboy actor, a role later played by Steve McQueen as a younger man in 1966’s Nevada Smith. Ironically, McQueen, like Ladd, would also die way too soon at the age of 50 in 1980.