Trivia

After Dick Cavett made a disparaging remark to John Houseman about Ladd's minimal acting talents, Houseman replied, "You would be in despair. You would go down to the set and you would say, 'Why are we even making this film?' Then you would go to the rushes, and there would be these beautiful eyes, full of hidden thoughts. A marvelous film actor.".

In a 1961 interview, Ladd was asked, "What would you change about yourself if you could?" He replied tersely: "Everything".

He was the visual inspiration for the original illustrations of superhero Green Lantern/Alan Scott (created in 1940). Ladd was 27 years old at the point. Scott's full name is Alan Ladd Wellington Scott.

According to June Allyson in her biography, he was scared of flying. When he had to travel to Europe he went by boat and traveled around in a train or by car.

While he never enjoyed popularity among film critics, he and his films were popular with the public. He was mobbed at guest appearances on network radio programs such as "The Lux Radio Theater" and in the 1940s his films grossed almost $55 million.

In November 1962, he made an unsuccessful suicide attempt and was found unconscious after shooting himself. The incident was covered up as an accident by the studio. His death from an overdose in January 1964, although suspected to be suicide, was officially ruled to be accidental.

Discovered Rory Calhoun while horseback riding in Griffith Park, a notorious cruising area. Impressed with his looks and physique, Ladd invited Calhoun (then Francis McCown) home to meet his talent agent wife Sue Carol.

At the time of his death, he had expressed an interest in playing Steve McQueen's role in Nevada Smith (1966), a role he had played three years earlier in The Carpetbaggers (1964).

He and Veronica Lake made seven movies together: The Blue Dahlia (1946), Duffy's Tavern (1945), The Glass Key (1942), Saigon (1947), 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.

Ladd was a sensitive, troubled man with a history of alcoholism. He was nothing like the tough, wily he-men he portrayed on film.

Interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, CA, in the Freedom Mausoleum, Sanctuary of Heritage.

In Rebel Without a Cause (1955), Plato (played by Sal Mineo) keeps a photograph of Ladd in his school locker.

Turned down James Dean's role in Giant (1956) and Spencer Tracy's role in Bad Day at Black Rock (1955).

Contrary to urban myth, Charlie's Angels (1976) actress Cheryl Ladd is not his daughter. However, she is his ex-daughter-in-law, as she was previously married to his son David Ladd for seven years.

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.

Frequently attended meetings at the house of director George Cukor from the mid-1930s. Cukor had once been slated to helm The Great Gatsby (1926) for his debut as a film director. Ladd was a fan of the 1926 version and later starred in the remake, The Great Gatsby (1949), in the hopes of being taken seriously as a dramatic actor.

In 1947 he ranked tenth in popularity in a poll of movie fans conducted by the "Motion Picture Herald". From 1948-50 he ranked #1 in that poll.

Awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1601 Vine St. on February 8, 1960.

His former home in Palm Springs, CA, is still on the bus tour of movie stars' homes. An office building also bears his name.

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.

In 1943 "Modern Screen" magazine ran 16 stories on him in its 12 issues that year.

He was the second actor to portray F. Scott Fitzgerald's character Jay Gatsby in a major motion picture. The other actors were Warner Baxter in The Great Gatsby (1926), Robert Redford in The Great Gatsby (1974), and Leonardo DiCaprio in The Great Gatsby (2013).

In 1945 he ranked fourth in a "Modern Screen" magazine popularity poll among readers.

Ladd's height was 5'6". To allow him to appear to be the same height on screen as taller actresses and actors, crew members placed him on boxes or ramps that were strategically out of frame. When he was making Boy on a Dolphin (1957) in Greece with the 5'8" Sophia Loren, boxes were not possible on the sand. Consequently, the crew dug a trench for Loren to stand in for scenes in which she and Ladd were standing and walking together.

In 1956 he proposed a television series based on his radio series "Box 13". The idea didn't sell. He had played his "Box 13" character Dan Holiday in the "Committed" episode of General Electric Theater (1953) on television. In 1963 he said he hoped to reunite several of his 1940s-era co-stars, including William Bendix and Veronica Lake, for a big-screen version of "Box 13".

He was a staunch Republican and campaigned for Dwight D. Eisenhower in the 1952 presidential election.

Was a chain smoker.

The prisoner he plays in Botany Bay (1952) is keelhauled, marking what may be the only time a Hollywood leading man suffers this particular form of punishment.

In 1947, '53 and '54 he was voted one of the top ten stars,.

In his movies, he suffers two cat-o-nine-tails floggings aboard sailing ships: (1) in Two Years Before the Mast (1946), he receives 10 lashes for striking an officer; (2) in Botany Bay (1952), he receives 50 lashes for attempting to escape from a prison transport ship.

His father was an accountant who died when Ladd was four.

As a child Alan Ladd was playing with matches and set the house on fire which killed his father in Hot Springs Arkansas.

Ladd portrayed Dan Holiday on Mutual Radio's "Box 13" (1948-1949). This show was also syndicated.

He was the son of Selina "Ina" (Raleigh) and Alan Harwood Ladd. His father was born in Neenah, Winnebago, Wisconsin, to a family of Colonial American (largely English) descent, with roots in Vermont, Connecticut, and Massachusetts. His mother was from England. Alan's paternal grandmother was born in Canada, to American parents.

A photograph of his flogging in Two Years Before the Mast (1946) appears on the cover of the book: "Lash! The Hundred Great Scenes of Men Being Whipped in the Movies" (2004).

Studied at the Ben Bard School of Acting.

His daughter Carol is married to film executive John Veitch.