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Alan Ladd Jr

Producer, Executive
22 October 1937 to 2 March 2022

An American film producer and executive, who will be forever remembered as the man who greenlit the original Star Wars (1977) when head of 20th Century Fox. Ladd started out as an agent working for Creative Management Associates, with clients that included Robert Redford and Judy Garland. He moved into producing in 1969, with Villain (1971) and X, Y and Zee (1972) the pick of the films that followed, before he became head of creative affairs at Fox in 1973. He stepped up to head of production in 1974 and then president in 1976. Ladd left Fox in 1979 to set up his own production house, The Ladd Company, before joining MGM/UA in 1985. He then re-established his producing roots with The Ladd Company and Paramount Pictures in 1993. While Ladd was responsible for many hundreds of theatrical and award-winning hits during his industry tenure, he was only named once as an Oscar winner himself, picking up the Best Picture award for Braveheart (1995).

Read Alan Ladd Jr's New York Times obituary

Read Alan Ladd Jr's Telegraph obituary

Read Alan Ladd Jr's Guardian obituary