September 3, 1913– Alan Ladd
“If you can figure out my success on the screen, you’re a better man than I.”
In Rebel Without A Cause (1955), Sal Mineo’s character, Plato, opens his school locker & longingly gazes at James Dean reflected in a small mirror. Tucked behind the mirror is a photo of Alan Ladd.
Ladd was the #1 box office star of 1954, the year that I was born. I never understood his appeal until I saw the classic western Shane (1953) in Film Survey class in my early 20s. Ladd was sort of the Tom Cruise of his day, short of stature (5’6’’), intense & deeply closeted. But, Ladd’s cool manner & beautiful deep voice made him especially well-suited for his finest role- movie star.
Ladd worked briefly as a studio carpenter & for a short time he was part of the Universal Pictures studio school for actors. But Universal decided he was too blond & too short, & they dropped him. Ladd began getting small parts on radio shows & on stage during the 1930’s. In the early 1940s he was receiving feature rolls in B movies at independent studios, like Republic. He appears briefly as a reporter in Orson Welles‘ masterpiece Citizen Kane (1941). But, it was his stunning starring turn in the terrific film noir This Gun For Hire (1942) that Ladd was able to join the ranks as one of Hollywood’s hottest male stars. This taut thriller also stars luscious Veronica Lake. They made 7 films together. She was a perfect match for Ladd at 4’11”.
Throughout the 1940’s, Ladd was a top ranked actor, appearing in all sorts of genres: dramas, westerns, war movies & crime films. Just as his career began to slip, he was cast in the leading role of the George Stevens‘ production of Shane, a role that would put him back way on the top & cement his legacy. The Western is a genre that I really go for & Shane is the greatest Western, says me. The film was nominated for 6 Academy Awards, including Best Picture. It is listed at #4 on the American Film Institute‘s ranking of the 100 Top Films Of All Time. The scene in where Ladd & Van Heflin struggle together, shirtless, to remove a tree stump is Hollywood homo-eroticism at its best.
Ladd was the perfect actor to play the lead in my favorite film version of The Great Gatsby (1949). His performance captures F. Scott Fitzgerald‘s tragic hero with every nuance, every movement, every hidden torment.
In 1942, Ladd married his agent/manager, former actress Sue Carol. Despite Alan Ladd’s fathering 3 children, he frequented hot spots in Hollywood’s gay subculture. He was a regular at gay director George Cukor’s Sunday afternoon pool parties attended by closeted celebrities & attractive young men from the bars & gyms.
His dream role was as gay adventurer T.E. Lawrence & Ladd lobbied hard for the role when it was announced that a film was to be made in 1962. But, director David Lean rejected the idea, casting Peter O’Toole in Lawrence Of Arabia, a disappointment from which Ladd never recovered.
He may have realized that his time as a leading man was coming to an end, & his closeted gayness might also have contributed to his emotional state at the end of his life. Shortly after his 50th birthday, Ladd was found dead in his Palm Springs home from an overdose of sedatives & alcohol, an apparent suicide. Ironically his last role was that of a washed-up actor in The Carpetbaggers (1964).
His children went on to have careers in show business. David Ladd took up acting & Alan Ladd Jr. is very successful & well-liked in the biz as a film producer & studio executive.
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