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It_s Not Good That the Alan Ladd Mystery Has Finally Been Solved(720P_HD)
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00:00it wasn't just a plea for shane to come back when joey the boy said it in the movie shane alan ladd the man who had spent his whole life running away from who he was got the dangerous call
00:12he wasn't very tall he wasn't loud he also wasn't a sex icon like clark gable or marlon brando but his eyes were sad and there was a chilling silence that filled the screen
00:26alan ladd was one of the strangest and most loved maine men in hollywood from the nineteen forties to the nineteen fifties he was short and had a whispering voice he didn't act like a hero in any of his roles from philip raven the hitman in this gun for hire to shane the lonely cowboy
00:46he looked like a sad ghost quietly fixing everything that was wrong with the world before leaving behind those perfect frames though was a man who was suffering from guilt sleeplessness alcoholism and prescription drugs
01:03a soul that never really got better at age fifty he died by himself it was a surprise to everyone it couldn't be stopped when his son alan ladd jr produced star wars braveheart and blade runner hollywood finally understood the harsh facts of a life it had never really understood
01:24his birthday is september third nineteen thirteen and he was born in hot springs arkansas a vacation town a place that sounded quiet but it was never meant to be for the boy who would become the face of loneliness on the screen
01:40his father died when he was only four years old he had a mother named ena raleigh who came to america from england and had a hard time raising him during hard times they moved to oklahoma city and she married again
01:54this time it was painter jim beavers who worked at fbo studios alan had his first experience with the bright lights of hollywood at that point not to dream but to stay alive
02:07when he was seven the family packed up again and took the slow hard way that people did during the great depression to get to california they didn't take a bus or train it took four months to go
02:20before moving in the san fernando valley they made it in a migrant camp in pasadena it was a hot dusty suburb full of tired working-class size the pain wasn't just being poor though alan's peers made fun of him by calling him tiny thin short and always hungry
02:40it would never go away that he felt bad about himself to hide how short he was he often stood on platforms or played with shorter actresses on film sets he learned to hide his fear even when he was a boy
02:54one painful memory that alan ladd never talked about much he set fire to his family's small house by accident when he was five years old and playing with a box of matches
03:06even though his mother forgive him he will always feel guilty and scared about what happened alan ladd was still scared of fire darkness and his own image even after he became famous
03:20alan found out by accident that the stage was the only place in high school where he didn't feel invisible he didn't just act in the school's version of the mikado he lit up the stage there was a talent scout in the crowd who took note of his name and put him in touch with universal pictures
03:39when alan ladd stood in public for the first time he almost felt fine it wasn't warm enough though because just a few years later when life was starting to look hopeful again another terrible blow hit
03:53in nineteen thirty seven allen's mother killed herself with ant poison in his car right in front of him all of his old wounds got bigger alan ladd stayed a boy afraid of fire the dark and the fact that his soft voice would never be loud enough to save the people he loved after that
04:13lots of movie fans loved him but he was still a boy alan ladd didn't make a big entrance into the movie business instead he slipped through the small holes that hard work had made
04:25his student role in the mikado led to an offer from universal pictures but all it got him was a nameless mute part in the nineteen thirty two movie once in a lifetime
04:37it was harsh her hair was too bright her voice was too soft and she was too short hollywood which was still crazy about chiseled faces and deep baritone voices quickly labeled alan ladd as not good enough to be a main man
04:54though he didn't give up he also couldn't make a living as an extra alan ladd went back to living a normal life it was his job to paint billboards sell tickets and haul things he was so poor at one point that he ate mush for food instead of rice
05:11but he held on to one thing a vague idea that the door would open if only one person believed in him alan ladd had small parts in movies like pigskin parade
05:23rulers of the sea hitler beast of berlin and joan of paris from the middle of the nineteen thirties to the early nineteen forties a few directors were interested in alan ladd's small part in joan of paris even though he didn't say much
05:39there was something about him that people couldn't look away from even when he didn't say much in nineteen forty two when he was cast as philip raven in this gun for hire
05:50things began to change the killer was cold and quiet but his eyes showed that he was sad alan ladd didn't need to talk people were shocked because they had never seen someone kill with such clear pain
06:04his eyes told a story all by themselves alan ladd went from having a small but important supporting part to becoming a huge star people called him the first anti-hero on film someone who didn't have to have classic looks or a big personality to move the whole country
06:23he quickly became one of the most sought-after faces in crime and film noir movies after a claim in the glass key as ed beaumont he was on the rise but all of a sudden he left to fight in world war two
06:38he had to start all over again when he got back but this time alan ladd wasn't the boy that hollywood had turned down before his eyes had seen both war and domestic disaster because he had lived through them
06:52that was the start of his career going in the right direction but the clouds from his early years never really went away that's when alan ladd came back to acting his eyes were different now they were deeper sadder and more believable in parts that needed emotional conflict
07:10in a time when hollywood was full of big strong heroes became a quiet icon a man who didn't say much killed quickly loved quietly and often left without saying good-bye
07:23after gun for hire nineteen forty two was a big hit ladd quickly cemented his place in the spotlight with his part as ed beaumont in the glass key
07:35in this role he continued to explore the bad guy turned good archetype or men who had fallen into darkness but still tried to reach for the light even if they were by themselves
07:47soon he was one of hollywood's highest-paid stars and a major figure in film noir a genre that is based on questionable morals
07:57during this time he was in duffy's tavern and variety girl under his own name which was very unusual for stars at the time and showed how famous he was
08:08the war started up again though alan ladd left acting to serve and when he came back it wasn't just as an actor he was a survivor with wounds that could not be seen
08:21when he went back to movies he kept up his great performance in movies like the blue dahlia 1946 and calcutta later he played jay gatsby in the 1949 movie version of the great gatsby
08:36the movie didn't do well at the box office but ladd was praised for playing a quiet regretful gatsby who wasn't as flashy as the character in the book but was heart-breakingly real
08:48in a rare interview he said i'm not good-looking or tall i don't have a great voice but i know what it's like to be left behind that might be why he didn't need to do anything all he had to do was remember
09:03when the movie shane came out in 1953 based on a real story it was his shining moment ladd had turned down the part more than once because he didn't think he was good enough as a cowboy
09:17but it was that difference that made ladd's shane one of the most memorable characters in american movies the part where joey runs after shane and yells shane shane come back is remembered as one of the most moving scenes in movie history
09:33and not just because it was said by a child it was also a reflection of the audience's own plea to a figure they could never hold on to a quiet hero who came and went without asking for praise or giving an explanation
09:49allan ladd became the golden face of westerns after shane some movies like guns of the timberland one foot in hell drumbeat and saskatchewan did well at the box office even though reviewers didn't love them
10:04ladd on the other hand was a promise of something very comforting to the people the man from the past who always showed up when it was needed and then got lost leaving a hole that no one else could fill
10:17he was in war movies like the deep six action hell on frisco bay adventure the big land and even tv shows he used to make four or five movies a year even though his health was getting worse
10:34he played each part with his usual quiet style few words and few movements but each one felt eerily real like the character had really existed and just walked into the movie
10:46behind the scenes though ladd's health was starting to break down behind those great acts was a body that was worn out from having trouble sleeping getting hurt over and over and nights when she had to drink or take sleeping pills just to lie down
11:03alan ladd kept playing until the end of his life but the spotlight could never quite get rid of the dark cloud that was gathering in his mind behind the sad eyes on the screen shane was a quiet figure who wandered the vast western fields
11:19behind him was a man who also lived a quiet life and carried wounds that were hard to name alan ladd wasn't the type of person who talked about how he felt
11:29as a result of being shy and quiet the women in his life may have felt stuck in a love story without any resolution
11:37always being close to a man they could never fully reach his high school sweetheart marjorie jane harrell was his first wife they got married while they were both still trying to make ends meet the marriage was simple and not very exciting but that was the only thing alan had at the time
11:56a boy named alan ladd jr was born to them in nineteen thirty seven he would go on to make hollywood history in a very different way behind the scenes but the attention didn't come right away alan wasn't known as an actor for a long time
12:12getting by with small parts in the background while marjorie took care of the house love couldn't last because life was too narrow they got a divorce in nineteen fifty seven after being married for more than twenty years it was a quiet split that didn't cause any trouble but it did hurt
12:32alan and his son never had a full bond as father and son with movies like star wars blade runner and braveheart making him a huge star alan jr hardly ever talked about his father there wasn't any anger but there wasn't any closeness either
12:50there was a long-lasting emotional gap that had started in childhood and never ended alan married sue carroll after his first divorce
12:59sue was smart and used to be an actor but now works as a talent agent even more important she was the only person who was willing to look into his dark soul without running away
13:11sue wasn't just alan's wife she was also his manager his agent and his friend she was also the only person who knew that alan never really thought he deserved to be loved
13:23alan and sue stayed together all the way through in his first marriage he had sue's daughter carol and with her he had two children alana and david ladd the second one would become an actor
13:37at first glance the ladd family looked like the perfect hollywood family but it was really a mental wall and in the middle of it was a man who never got past the walls he had built around himself
13:50alan ladd always had a faint smile on his face in the few family pictures that were available but there was something in his eyes that made it look like he didn't quite belong
14:01even though his wife loved him his kids admired him and the crowd praised him he was still a stranger in his own life it was like he had never really found a place to call home
14:13alan ladd always looked calm stoic and invincible on screen as if nothing could hurt him alan wasn't cold though fear and worry gripped him so much that he could barely do anything without planning ahead
14:28from the nineteen forties until his death he had trouble sleeping all the time it wasn't because of stress at work it was because of an unknown shapeless fear that was always there when he closed his eyes
14:42alan used barbiturates booze and then tranquilizers to fall asleep after years his body forgot what it felt like to sleep naturally to someone who made his name in westerns he was afraid of gunshots which was funny
14:58he was afraid of heights if you watched him ride horses along mountain slopes you would never guess that he was also afraid of himself
15:08he once admitted that he always felt like he wasn't good enough big enough or strong enough this wasn't just a problem with how tall he was
15:18he was only five feet six inches tall which was short for a hollywood leading man he also felt like he wasn't good enough like he was never meant to be picked
15:30alan was the saddest person i've ever met according to an actor who worked with him he wasn't complaining he was just sad and didn't need to say anything
15:40it was in his eyes the way he stood in the corner of a set and the fact that he never watched his own movies alan ladd never went to his own premieres even though he played hundreds of parts and starred in many well reviewed movies
15:56that's not because he was ashamed of himself he just couldn't stand to look at himself on the big screen when asked about it he once watched an old video clip and just smiled and shook his head
16:08it's a mystery to me why people like me it sounded humble to the people listening but for people who knew him well it was a quiet admission that he no longer saw any value in himself
16:20in february 1962 alan ladd was found asleep in a pool of blood in his own home he had a bullet hole in his chest hollywood was shook up the news was full of headlines but many people didn't believe the official story he told them
16:36he said that night he heard someone breaking in and grabbed his gun to check it out but in his haste he tripped and accidentally pulled the trigger which sent a bullet through his left chest
16:49the police did not file any charges the press stopped speculating but people who knew him well knew what was going on everyone from family and friends to people who work in the field knew it wasn't an accident
17:03it was an attempt that failed because the man was too tired even though the wound didn't kill him it left a hole inside him that would never close again it was deeper than any scar that could be seen
17:17from then on he pulled away even more relying even more on sleeping pills alcohol and blank stares that no one could break i think he just wanted to go to sleep and never wake up an old friend said
17:31after that night alan's wife agent and person who always tried to keep him from going too far sue carroll said that he became a shadow in the truest sense becoming quieter more distant and almost unwilling to take on new parts
17:47it's hard to believe that the man who once captured america as shane the strong silent cowboy was also perpetually afraid and had tried to leave this world not because he hated it but because he was too weak to stay
18:02alan ladd was found dead in his bed in palm springs on january twenty ninth nineteen sixty four he had only been fifty years old there was no gunshot blood or suicide note there was only a still body that had given up while being high on hard booze barbiturates and tranquilizers that's what the formal cause of death was acute cerebral edema
18:29but people who had seen the sadness in his eyes in his last years didn't find that surprising it was like the sad unavoidable end of a movie where the hero never really beat the demons inside him
18:43no one said for sure that he had killed himself but everything pointed that way put down the fight the sad repeat was the most haunting part
18:53he died because his mother ina rawley drank ant poison in a car one time that pain had been a part of alan's youth and it was also a part of how he left the world it seemed like the disaster had been passed down through blood and no one could break the chain
19:11when the movie business heard about his death it shook friends were sad fans were shocked but hollywood the machine that never stops gave him only a few short lines before moving on to the next group of stars
19:27there will be no special oscars memorials or broad look backs alan ladd who was once america's only hero was forgotten and only recognized through old film reels
19:40they may have found it even more upsetting that people had forgotten about the place that had once made him feel so good
19:48but those who loved him knew what he meant when he died alan ladd's battle was over he was too tired to keep fighting alan ladd left in silence after thirty years in movies and more than eighty parts
20:03but what he left behind wasn't just the dark roles he played in shane and this gun for hire it was a slow burning light that his son will carry with him forever
20:13alan ladd jr spent most of his time with his mother after his parents split up the father and son didn't have a close relationship but it was never cold
20:24even though ladd jr grew up away from the fame of his famous father he quietly kept a great love of movies that his father had given him
20:33he started out as a manager for famous people like judy garland and robert redford later he went to england to learn how to make movies he didn't want to be in the news like his father did he made history by staying behind the camera
20:49alan ladd jr joined twentieth century fox when he got back to the u s he was the one who believed in star wars and gave it the go-ahead when no one else did
21:00he went on to make great movies like alien blade runner chariots of fire braveheart and gone baby gone which defined a whole age of movies
21:11he started the ladd company and made it a hollywood sign of new ideas and vision people no longer knew him as alan ladd's son they just knew him as ladd jr the famous director
21:24when alan ladd jr died in twenty twenty two he was eighty four years old hollywood fell silent in grief he had not only continued his father's work but he had made it even better
21:37alan ladd himself never dared to hope for anything when it comes to alan ladd he didn't leave behind gold statues or award speeches it was the lonely figure standing on the western fields with a sad face looking out into the darkness of film noir
21:55he wasn't a great hero but he was a symbol he was one of the few artists who was brave enough to show pain vulnerability and hurt through his eyes instead of words
22:07people remember him for having a quiet face that could never be replaced and a way of acting that was never flashy but always creepy there was a star that went out quickly but left a trail of light that could never be copied
22:21a long time ago he said he didn't think he deserved to be loved but his son's amazing work and the fans love for him show that he touched more hearts than he knew alan ladd didn't die because he had lived a long time he passed away because he had no more hope
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