Born Alan Walbridge Ladd in Hot Springs, Arkansas on September 3^rd 1913 to British immigrant parents and by the age of four Alan was alone with his mother after his father died. Moving to California while just a child was a whole new opening for Ladd when he found his talent lay in sports. He excelled in swimming and athletics and began training for a place with the American squad in the 1932 Olympics. However, his dream was dashed when he sustained an injury that prevented him from participating in the trials.

Alan’s other passion at school was that of performing in school stage productions and it was that career path that the young Ladd took. The early days of his career were spent supporting himself in jobs such as lifeguarding, gas station attendant and a hot dog vendor.  Ladds’ first venture into show business came with his radio performances in plays and then moving on to local theaters where he initially filled small roles and by the early 1930’s he was gaining bit parts in minor films.

His limited stature is rumoured to have played a part in his restrictive start in the industry being on around five feet 2 inches tall.  Ladd’s acting career continued and he landed a minor part in Orson Welles’ 1941 classic, ‘Citizen Kane’ which also gave Nat King Cole the role of a piano player. Following his appearance in his first movie he met a talent agent in Hollywood who banded his name around and helped him audition for and achieve the role Raven, an assassin in ‘The Gun for Hire’ when he starred opposite Veronica Lake. His relationship with the talent agent grew and after divorcing his wife he went on to marry Sue Carol in 1942.

It was Ladd’s role as Shane in the 1953 movie of the same name that won him huge critical acclaim as the icy cold gun slinger. Just prior to the release of ‘Shane’ Ladd traveled to England to star in the 1954 film ‘The Black Knight’ where he starred alongside Peter Cushing and Patrick Troughton  where he was unusually cast as a medieval swashbuckling hero. Unfortunately, this film was being made just as ‘Shane’ was becoming a gigantic hit causing Ladd to miss out on the public events surrounding his most popular success.  With the arrival of the 1960’s Ladd saw a steady decline in his starring roles as Hollywood viewed  him too much as a cliché  having filled the roles of bar room heroes for so many years.

With acting in the family blood Alan’s son Alan Jr went on to follow in his father’s footsteps and became a motion picture executive founding the ‘The Ladd Company’ and his other son, David Ladd married the actress Cheryl Ladd of ‘Charlie’s Angels’ fame. Lass also had a granddaughter who went on to become an actress, Jordan Ladd. Over the years, although he continued to make movies his career plummeting and Ladd became depressed and it was his depression that caused his probable suicide in 1964 at the age of just fifty when he was found having taken an overdose of sedatives and alcohol.

ABB