Alan Ladd in Top Gun? Born On This Day- September 3rd... Alan Walbridge Ladd

In Rebel Without A Cause, Sal Mineo’s character-Plato opens his school locker & he longingly gazes at James Dean reflected in a small mirror. Tucked behind the mirror is a photo of Alan Ladd.


Alan Ladd was the #1 box office star the year that I was born. I never understood his appeal until I saw Shane in Film Survey class in my early 20s. Although he was the Tom Cruise of his day, very short of stature (5’6’’), intense & deeply closeted, Ladd's cool manner & deep voice made him well suited for the role of movie star.


Ladd worked briefly as a studio carpenter & for a short time was part of the Universal Pictures studio school for actors. But Universal decided he was too blond & too short & dropped him. He began getting small parts on radio shows & in the theater during the 1930's. By 1940 he was getting feature rolls in B movies for independent studios, such as Republic & PRC. He appears briefly as a reporter in Orson Welles' Citizen Kane. It was his stunning starring role in This Gun For Hire that he was hailed as one of Hollywood's hottest new stars. Throughout the 1940's, Ladd maintained his position as a top ranked star, appearing in westerns, war movies & crime films. Just as his career began to slow down, he was cast in the leading role of the George Stevens' production of Shane, a role that would put him back on top & cement his legacy. Shane is the greatest Western. The film was nominated for 6 Academy Awards, including Best Picture. It was listed at No. 4 on the American Film Institute's ranking of the top films.

In 1942, Ladd married his agent/manager, former actress Sue Carol. Despite Alan Ladd's fathering three children, he frequented gay haunts with members of Hollywood's gay subculture he was a regular at George Cukor’s Sunday afternoon parties attended by closeted celebrities & attractive young men from the bars & gyms.

Ladd may have realized that his time as a leading man was coming to an end, & his sexuality could have contributed to his emotional state on the night of his untimely death. Shortly after his 50th birthday, Alan 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.

With Veronica Lake... they made 7 films together. She was perfect for him at 4'11''.

His children want on to have careers in show business. Alan's son David Ladd took up acting & his son Alan Ladd Jr. became a successful movie producer & studio executive.


The scene in Shane where Alan Ladd & Van Heflin struggle together, shirtless, to remove a tree stump from Heflin's farm is Hollywood homoeroticism at its best.