Alan Ladd's mother immigrated from England age 19. His accountant father died when he was four. At age five he burned his apartment playing with matches, and his mother moved them to Oklahoma City. He was malnourished, undersized, and nicknamed Tiny. His mother married a house painter who moved them to California a la "Grapes of Wrath" when he was eight. He picked fruit, delivered papers, and swept stores. In high school he discovered track and swimming. By 1931 he was training for the 1932 Olympics, but an injury put an end to those plans. He opened a hamburger stand called Tiny's Patio, and later worked as a grip at Warner Brothers Pictures. He married friend Midge in 1936 but couldn't afford her, so they lived apart. In 1937 they shared a friend's apartment. They had a son,Alan Ladd Jr., and his destitute alcoholic mother moved in with them, her agonizing suicide from ant poison witnessed a few months later by her son.

His size and coloring were regarded as not right for movies, so he worked hard at radio where talent scout and former actress Sue Carol discovered him early in 1939. After shopping him through bit parts he tested for This Gun for Hire late in 1941. His fourth-billed role as the psychotic killer Raven made him a star. He was drafted in January 1943 and discharged in November with an ulcer and double hernia.

Throughout the 1940s his tough-guy roles filled theaters and he was one of the very few males whose cover photos sold movie magazines. In the 1950s he was performing in lucrative but unrewarding films (an exception being what many regard as his greatest role, Shane (1953)_ ). By the end of the 1950s,liquor and a string of so-so films had taken their toll. In November 1962 he was found unconscious lying in a pool of blood with a bullet wound near his heart. In January 1964 he was found dead, apparently due to an accidental combination of alcohol and sedatives.


Boy on a Dolphin (1957): $290,000
O.S.S. (1946): $75,000
Rulers of the Sea (1939): $250

Father of Alan Ladd Jr. with first wife, Marjorie 'Midge' Harrold. Father of Alana Ladd and David Ladd with second wife, Sue Carol. Grandfather of Jordan Ladd. Owing to a clerical error, Ladd was inaccurately included in the cast credits for Born to the West (1937) in studio publicity material. In fact, he was never in the film, despite the fact that it often shows up in his credits and even on the video box!. He so badly wanted the title role in Lawrence of Arabia (1962) that he personally pressed his case with director David Lean, but Lean cast Peter O'Toole in the part. In a 1961 interview Ladd was asked, "What would you change about yourself if you could?" He replied tersely: "Everything." A photograph of his flogging in Two Years Before the Mast (1946) appears on the cover of the 2004 book: "Lash! The Hundred Great Scenes of Men Being Whipped in the Movies". He and Veronica Lake made seven movies together: The Blue Dahlia (1946), Duffy's Tavern (1945), The Glass Key (1942), Saigon (1948), Star Spangled Rhythm (1942), This Gun for Hire (1942) and Variety Girl (1947). In Variety Girl (1947), Star Spangled Rhythm (1942) and Duffy's Tavern (1945), they appear as themselves. His former home in Palm Springs, California, is still on the bus tour of movie stars' homes. An office building also bears his name. Discovered Rory Calhoun while horseback riding in Griffith Park. At the time of his death he had expressed an interest in playing Steve McQueen's role in Nevada Smith (1966). In 1954 he and Barbara Stanwyck won the top spots in "Modern Screen" magazine's Star of Stars Award competition as the most popular actors among fans in the previous ten years. In 1945, he ranked fourth in a "Modern Screen" magazine popularity poll among readers. Attempted suicide by shooting himself in November 1962.