Alan ladd autobiography

Beverly Linet's biography of Alan Ladd is, to my knowledge, the only biographical book ever published about the actor, so if you are interested in knowing more.
The tragedy of a man who got what he wanted.
TRAGEDY OF A MAN WHO GOT WHAT HE WANTED***A BIOGRAPHY Genres Biography Nonfiction 294 pages, Hardcover First published May 5, 1955.

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Ladd, the Life, the Legend, the Legacy of Alan Ladd: A Biography

Alan Ladd died on January 29, 1964, having just turned fifty on September 3. From his first great hit, This Gun for Hire, in 1942, to his last, The Carpetbaggers, released posthumously in 1964, he had made 47 films. Ladd had a hardscrabble childhood and spent years on the fringes of "Hollywood" as a grip and a radio actor before getting his lucky break. His second wife, Sue Carol, entered his life as his agent, and subsequently managed his career--favoring lucrative jobs over more challenging roles, and their family life--courting the public using the fan magazines. Frequently praised for appearing "like a young Greek god," Ladd always had serious doubts about his acting abilities, and using alcohol to combat those insecurities took a toll. Linet, who worked for Modern Screen writes with a fan-zine point of view, where psychological insight is not on offer. So, while the man remains a mystery, the manicuring of his nice-guy image is documented in ghastly detail, as is the process by which his career was eventual

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Ladd: The Life, the Legend, the Legacy of Alan Ladd: A Biography

November 19, 2017

Today, Alan Ladd is probably only remembered by a handful of hardcore cinephiles, and that is too bad. The golden-haired actor, whose physique in his prime was compared to that of a Greek deity, reached instant superstar status in 1941 with a great film noir, This Gun For Hire (in which he was paired with Veronica Lake, with whom he formed a mythical movie couple), and he remained one of cinema’s most popular figures for many years and all over the world, his crowning achievement being the legendary western Shane. A beautiful man empowered with quiet charisma and a penetrating voice, Ladd remains to this day an elusive, vaguely mysterious figure, whose rise to fame and slow fall from grace are emblematic of the Hollywood illusory dream machine – that in so many cases turned out to be a nightmare machine. Ladd’s difficult childhood and experience with poverty, his deeply rooted insecurities that he could never get rid of, the lack of critical recognition that undermined him even when he was on top

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Alan Ladd

American actor (1913–1964)

For his son – the film industry executive and producer – see Alan Ladd Jr.

Alan Walbridge Ladd^[2] (September 3, 1913 – January 29, 1964) was an American actor and film producer. Ladd found success in film in the 1940s and early 1950s, particularly in films noir and Westerns. He was often paired with Veronica Lake in films noir, such as This Gun for Hire (1942), The Glass Key (1942), and The Blue Dahlia (1946). Whispering Smith (1948) was his first Western and color film, and Shane (1953) was noted for its contributions to the genre. Ladd also appeared in ten films with William Bendix.

His other notable credits include Two Years Before the Mast (1946) and The Great Gatsby (1949). His popularity diminished in the mid-1950s, though he continued to appear in numerous films, including his first supporting role since This Gun for Hire in the smash hit The Carpetbaggers released in 1964.^[3]

Biography

Ladd was born in Hot Springs, Arkansas, on September 3, 1913. He was the only child of Ina