Alan Ladd
Born Alan Walbridge Ladd Jr. on
Sept. 3, 1913
in Hot Springs, AR
Died
Jan. 29, 1964
of drug and alcohol overdose in Palm Springs, CA
Alan Ladd was a velvet-voiced, iron-jawed hero of 150 Hollywood films. If success in acting depended only on dramatic displays of emotion. Ladd would have been a failure. The role as the hired killer, Raven, in "This Gun for Hire" — with voice low and steady, eyes ever steely and jaw ever firm — set the pattern of his subsequent portrayals, whether villain or hero. One of his most memorable portrayals was that of the reluctant gun fighter in "Shane." In virtually all of his films, Ladd was the strong, silent man of action who spoke with his fists or six-guns.
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One thought about Alan Ladd
As a kid I met Alan, a friend of my dad's. As I recall, I never thought about his height, the subject of unkind Hollywood lore. He carried himself with authority and grace, and he had this wonderful baritone voice. He prized his home and family. I remember one day a friend of one of his kids came into the house without knocking. This really bothered Alan. He tended to be moody. I think he had inherited his mother's chronic depression, which wasn't well-understood in those days and which he, like many fellow-sufferers, self-medicated with alcohol. Though those close to him were more on the business side -- Paramount producer A.C. Lyles was one of his closest friends, my dad was a businessman, and his sons Alan, Jr., and David are producers, and he was proprietor of an eponymous hardware emporium in Palm Springs -- I got the feeling Alan was frustrated that his acting career hadn't achieved more. He had a great talent for projecting anguish through an impassive facade, much like Mitchum. One can see this in his landmark parts: Raven, in This Gun for Hire, his definitive and under-appreciated Gatsby, and of course Shane. Alan's last role, as Nevada Smith in the Carpetbaggers, stole the show. But this didn't help his self-esteem. He told my dad, "It isn't much."
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