Alan Ladd, he "blazed across the screen like a young Greek god" in the 1940s and 1950s in such films as This Gun for Hire, The Blue Dahlia and Shane to become one of Hollywood's Biggest stars. Yet on January 29, 1964, at the age of fifty, he died, alone, from a combination of pills and alchohol.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
An interesting but flawed read for Ladd fans,
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This review is from: Ladd, the life, the legend, the legacy of Alan Ladd: A biography (Hardcover)
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 about him, your options are limited.
Linet's prose is melodramatic and sometimes sensationalist, which is tiresome, but not surprising given her background as a former fan magazine writer. She makes insinuations about Sue Carol, Ladd's second wife, which are not backed up by any evidence other than her own opinions. In this book, she is portrayed as quite controlling and conniving - which she may have been, but Linet is clearly biased in favour of Ladd's first wife. I also noticed several minor inaccuracies, which leads me to question her reliability on other points. Linet is disposed toward amateur psychoanalysis, and her obsessions with Ladd's various complexes lead her away from his life story at times. Major events and undertakings are swept by the wayside: for example, the popular radio programme Box 13, produced, syndicated, performed and co-written by Ladd, is dismissed in one sentence. Overall, this is a good read - it goes quickly and does give some insight into the life and career of a sensitive, talented and sad man, but take Linet's suppositions with a grain of salt.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent biography about one of our major classic stars,
By Elaine Campbell "Desert Dweller" (Rancho Mirage, CA United States) - See all my reviews (VINE VOICE) (REAL NAME)
This review is from: Ladd, the life, the legend, the legacy of Alan Ladd: A biography (Hardcover)
Some reviewers criticize Ladd by Beverly Linet because it was written by a former contributor to "Modern Screen". However, in the '50s and '60s "Modern Screen" and "Photoplay" were highly respected magazines. They were studio-backed, stars contributed to them and the articles were completely positive. The tabloids, the first in the form of "Confidential", came into being later.
She was acquainted with Alan Ladd and his wife, Sue Carroll, at least on a professional basis. It was he that told her, when she asked several years before he died at the age of 50, if there was anything he would change about himself, "practically everything." His life from the get-go seemed to be dodged with tragedy. His father died when he was four; his mother was not prepared to support either her son or herself. She later married a house painter, but he made a paltry living, and Ladd's upbringing was very poor. The second husband died when Ladd was a teenager, leaving Ladd's mother once again totally destitute. Ladd married and had a child early. His efforts to become an actor were hampered by his height (everyone disagrees as to what his height really was) and his scant lack of training. He had become resigned to doing radio work when he met a young, well-to-do Jewish girl from Chicago (10 years his senior) who had grown weary of acting and opened up an agency for film actors. Though she was already on her third husband, she was thoroughly smitten. We do not know how much of his interest in Sue Carroll was due to being "crazy in love," and how much was due to the fact that she knew everyone in the business and made it her primary project to make Alan Ladd a star. She succeeded. And that's what he wanted. But he had to sacrifice a young wife and a 3-1/2 year old son to fully enter the doors of professional success. In the meantime, his mother died in the most horrible way. Had she just held on a few more years, her life would have been transformed into a life of plenty. Alan Ladd was to become a millionaire many times over, with Sue Carroll ever by his side handling the practical and tactical matters. What started out as stewardship may have become suffocating to Ladd. He was mum on the subject, so we just don't know. With the approach of middle age, everything started to fall apart. His career began to dwindle, he was extremely accident prone and kept injuring himself over and over again. He began to quarrel with his wife. And he seemed to turn more and more to sedatives and alcohol. The photos of him in his last few years show a vacant man. He himself admitted that he chose film roles not for their quality, but according to what he would be paid. And he regretted it. About five years before he died, he fell in love, or so it seems, with June Allyson, then married to Dick Powell. Ms. Allyson states they were only friends. This relationship was quashed by Sue Carroll who telephoned Dick Powell who, ever suave, refused to join in with her alarm. Ladd was furious and walked out, but not for long. Well, Ms. Carroll got her husband back. Or did she? He shot himself, and a cover story was invented to explain what was an obvious suicide attempt. Not long after, Ladd died alone (except for a servant) in his Palm Springs home of an overdose of barbiturates and alcohol. This is a very, very sad book. Even at the height of his success, there is an aura of sadness about it. I liked Alan Ladd. I always perk up when I see him come on screen in one of his films. He doesn't put me to sleep like Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. He was real. One wishes people in his life were more able to understand his suffering. His two best friends, William Bendix and Van Heflin, were out of state on acting roles at the time of his death. Still, he left us a legacy. No frills, no subterfuge, someone handsome but not overly so, soft-spoken but still masculine, not a highly trained actor, but a natural one. Just plain Alan Ladd, who wished toward the end he could change "everything" about himself. Everything.
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