Alan Ladd

Alan Ladd (9/3/1913 - 1/29/1964)

Alan Walbridge Ladd was born in Hot Springs, Arkansas, the only child of Ina Raleigh (aka Selina Rowley) and Alan Harwood Ladd, a freelance accountant. His mother was English, from County Durham. His father died when he was four. At age five, he burned his apartment playing with matches, and his mother moved them to Oklahoma City. He was malnourished, undersized and nicknamed Tiny. His mother married a house painter who moved them to California.

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.

AL: I have the face of an aging choirboy and the build of an undernourished featherweight. If you can figure out my success on the screen you're a better man than I.