R.I.P. Alan Ladd Jr, Legendary Film Exec Behind Star Wars, Braveheart, Blade Runner Dead at 84

Wren Graves
·3 min read
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.

The post R.I.P. Alan Ladd Jr, Legendary Film Exec Behind Star Wars, Braveheart, Blade Runner Dead at 84 appeared first on Consequence.

Alan Ladd Jr., the legendary film executive who greenlit Star Wars and produced such films as Braveheart and Blade Runner, has died at the age of 84.

Via Variety, is daughter Amanda Ladd-Jones confirmed the news in a Facebook post. “With the heaviest of hearts, we announce that on March 2, 2022, Alan Ladd, Jr. died peacefully at home surrounded by his family,” she wrote. “Words cannot express how deeply he will be missed. His impact on films and filmmaking will live on in his absence.”

Born October 22nd, 1937, Ladd Jr. grew up in the shadow of his famous father, the actor Alan Ladd (Shane). While he never became a household name like his dad, his mark on the film industry is undeniable.

Ladd Jr. began his career as an agent, working with such luminaries as Robert Redford and Judy Garland. In 1973 he joined 20th Century Fox as VP of Production, before quickly working his way up to head of Production and then President. In addition to facing down the Fox board when they wanted to pull the plug on Star Wars, Ladd’s tenure brought about Ridley Scott’s Alien franchise, Mel Brooks’ Silent Movie and Young Frankenstein, and prestige classics including All That Jazz and Breaking Away.

He left Fox in 1979 to form The Ladd Company. The new project had its first hit distributing Chariots of Fire for Warner Bros., and it followed that by producing some of the most indelible films of the 1980s, including Blade Runner, two Police Academy movies, and Sergio Leone’s epic Once Upon a Time in America. Despite these successes, the company was saddled with debt, and Ladd left for MGM.

At MGM Ladd produced a coupe of classics, notably Moonstruck, A Fish Called Wanda, and Rain Man. But there were more misses than hits, and after the company was sold to Ted Turner, Ladd left in 1988. He spent a little time twisting in the wind, working with the soon-to-be-incarcerated Giancarlo Parretti and producing Thelma and Louise. By the early ’90s, The Ladd Company was back in business, this time partnering with Paramount.

This period saw some of Ladd’s biggest successes, especially Braveheart, for which he accepted the Academy Award for Best Picture. He also produced The Brady Bunch Movie and A Very Brady Sequel, and executive produced Leonardo DiCaprio’s period epic The Man in the Iron Mask.

The final film from The Ladd Company was 2007’s Gone, Baby, Gone, directed by Ben Affleck, which earned Amy Ryan an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. Ladd’s career ended with over 150 Academy Award nominations and 50 Oscar wins.

Alan Ladd Jr. was the subject of the 2020 documentary Laddie: The Man Behind the Movies, directed by his daughter Ladd-Jones. In that film, scores of his old collaborators paid him tribute. Mel Brooks said, “If you gotta work for an old-fashioned studio boss, he was it.”

“There’s guys that just do it,” Mel Gibson recalled. “He’s one of those guys. And that’s what you want.” Sigourney Weaver said his “objective was to help these incredibly creative people make the best possible movie they could.” George Lucas added, “Laddie was one of the few people that actually said, ‘I trust the artist.'” Check out a trailer for the documentary below.

R.I.P. Alan Ladd Jr, Legendary Film Exec Behind Star Wars, Braveheart, Blade Runner Dead at 84
Wren Graves

Popular Posts

Subscribe to Consequence of Sound’s email digest and get the latest breaking news in music, film, and television, tour updates, access to exclusive giveaways, and more straight to your inbox.