Alan Lad Jr., a veteran film producer who won an Oscar for Best Picture for Braveheart, commissioned George Lucas to write Star Wars and was an influential CEO of Fox and MGM / United Artists, died today, his family said. He was 84.
His daughter, Amanda Lad-Jones, who directed the 2017 feature film Laddie: The Man Behind the Movies, wrote on social media: at home surrounded by his family. Words cannot express how deeply he will miss her. His influence on films and filmmaking will continue in his absence. “
Watch the trailer for her documentary below.
Left: Marty Feldman, Cloris Leachman, Gene Wilder and Terry Garr in Young Frankenstein (1974) Everett Collection
Along with Star Wars and Braveheart, Ladd was responsible for such Hollywood classics as producer and studio boss, including Alien, Blade Runner, The Omen, All That Jazz, Norma Ray, Chariots of Fire, Thelma & Louise and Young Frankenstein.
In total, his films have won more than 50 Oscars – including two Best Picture awards – and more than 150 nominations.
“If you have to work as a studio boss, he was,” Brooks told Laddie.
Lud was born on October 22, 1937 in Los Angeles and grew up in the industry as the son of Shane and the great Gatsby star Alan Lad. He began producing films in the early 1970s after starting a business as a film talent agent at Creative Management Associates. His list of clients included such heavyweights as Judy Garland, Warren Beatty and Robert Redford. Lad later moved to London, where he produced nine films in four years.
Left: Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford in Star Wars (1977) Lucasfilm
A man of few words about chatty industry standards and restrained style, Lad was in his mid-30s when he returned to Los Angeles in 1973 to serve as creative director at Twentieth Century Fox. He quickly rose through the ranks and was elected president of the studio in 1976. Soon after joining Fox, he was intrigued by the then unreleased American graffiti and sought a meeting with his young director George Lucas to see if he had any ideas. for another movie.
Lucas outlined a space epic run by heroes. Despite little precedent for such a film, Lad liked the idea and commissioned Lucas to write what would become Star Wars.
“Ladi was one of the few people who actually said, ‘I trust the artist,'” Lucas said in the documentary.
Later, Lad will give the green light and / or shepherd Fox films such as “Return of the Jedi”, “The Alien”, “The Alien”, “Omen”, “Rising Hell”, “Young Frankenstein”, “Norma Ray”, “All This”. Jazz “,” The Rock Horror Show “,” Silver Stripe “,” The Rose “and” The Towering Inferno “. Rocky Horror Picture Show.
During his tenure at Twentieth Century Fox, the studio’s profits went to another galaxy and its shares jumped 1,600%. In the mid-1970s, Lad would nominate Ashley Boone as Fox’s marketing president – making him the first black man to be president of a studio. His sister Cheryl Boone-Isaacs later became the first black president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Ladd made the cover of Esquire magazine in April 1978, entitled The Triumph of Casual Style.
He left Fox in 1979 to return to production and founded The Ladd Company. It was a quick success, winning the Palme d’Or at Cannes for Akiro Kurosawa’s Kagemusha (1980) and winning the Oscar for Best Chariot of Fire (1981). The company followed with such popular and acclaimed films as Blade Runner (1982) – starring “Star Wars” and Harrison Ford of American Graffiti – The Right Stuff (1983), Once Upon a Time in America (1984) and lucrative, albeit troubled films of the Police Academy.
Left: Shelley Long, Henry Winkler and Michael Keaton in Everett’s Night Shift (1982).
He hired a child actor who became an action star, an ambitious director to direct the 1982 comedy “Night Shift” at the morgue. Ron Howard will win two Oscars and become one of Hollywood’s greatest players.
“This kind of risk-taking is somewhat lacking,” Howard said in 2017.
Night Shift featured Howard’s co-star in Happy Days with a young TV actor named Michael Keaton – starting the latter’s acting career. Pre-cheers Shelley Long is also involved.
Fast forward to 1985, when Ladd took over MGM / United Artists. Lad disbanded his production company to become the studio’s chairman and CEO, marking a quick hit with Rocky IV (1985). He went on to pass such MGM / UA classics as Norman Joyce’s Moonstruck (1987), Mel Brooks’ Spaceballs (1987), John Cleese’s A Fish Called Wanda (1988), Howard’s Willow (1980) and 1991’s Thelma and Louise. by Alien Ridley Scott.
Alien star Sigourney Weaver said in the documentary Laddie: “The goal was to help these incredibly creative people make the best film they can.
Front, left: Brendan Gleeson, Mel Gibson and David O’Hara in “Braveheart” (1995) Everett Collection
Lad left executive life in 1993, resurrecting The Ladd Company at Paramount Pictures. There, he rolled the dice of another action star who became a film director. Mel Gibson had directed only the 1993 drama The Faceless Man, when he went behind the camera to direct Braveheart. The 1995 tale of legendary Scottish warrior William Wallace won five Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director.
“There are guys who just do it,” Gibson told Laddie. “He’s one of those guys, and that’s what you want.”
The Ladd Company later made The Brady Bunch and The Man in the Iron Mask, the latter starring Leonardo DiCaprio in the first role since Titanic.
The company left Paramount in 1999, and his first film since then will be Lasse Hallstrom’s 2005 Unfinished Life for Miramax, starring Redford, Jennifer Lopez and Morgan Freeman. The Ladd Company followed with Gone Baby Gone, a 2007 thriller directed by Ben Affleck.
Along with his daughter Amanda, Lad is survived by his wife, Sindra Pincock; children Kelian and Tracy Lad; half-brother, David Lad; half-sister, Alana Lad; and step-sister Carol Lee Stewart-Lad.
Here is the full trailer for Laddie: The Man Behind the Movies: