Alan Lad Jr., who as producer and studio director was the leading figure behind dozens of successful films no bigger than Star Wars, which he advocated when the young director George Lucas had trouble making it, died at the Wednesday at his home in Los Angeles. He was 84.
Katie Berlin, who has worked with him for years at his production company and at MGM, said the cause was kidney failure.
Mr. Ladd was vice president of creative affairs at 20th Century Fox in 1973, when Mr. Lucas’s agent, Jeff Berg, began talking to him about Mr. Lucas’s still evolving concept of what had happened. “Star Wars”. Mr. Lucas had just made American Graffiti, but it had not yet been released – once it was, it would become one of the greatest films of 1973 – and so Mr. Lucas’s idea for a space film did not receive much respect; United Artists and Universal were not interested.
But Mr. Ladd was. He knew movies and audiences – his father was an actor who had acted in more than 100 films and TV shows – and he understood the appeal of Mr. Lucas’s vision.
“That brought me back to the old Saturday mornings,” he told the New York Times in 1977, while Star Wars, released a few months earlier, broke box office records. “I was crazy about Superman and Flash Gordon. When I heard that Universal had betrayed him, I thought, “They’re crazy!” So I chose that. “
This was not the first time Mr Lad had seen potential where others did not. A few years earlier, Mel Brooks had been shopping for the idea of ”Young Frankenstein,” but Colombia objected when he insisted on making the film in black and white. Mr. Brooks then sat down with Mr. Ladd.
“We all got along on our first date because the first thing Laddie” – Mr. Ladd’s nickname – said, “You’re absolutely right. It has to be done in black and white, “Mr Brooks wrote in his book, All About Me! My remarkable life in show business ”(2021).
“I knew right then and there,” Mr Brooks added, “that I finally met a studio boss I could really trust.”
Mr. Brooks made several other films with Mr. Ladd, including the Star Wars parody of 1987, when Mr. Ladd was chairman of MGM. Until then, Mr Brooks had won gold in the box office, thanks in part to Young Frankenstein, who had made more than $ 100 million and, as he told The Los Angeles Times in 1987, he could take ” Spaceballs ”at almost every major studio.
“But I’ve known Laddie for years,” he said. “And I’m not so wise, so old, or so powerful that I can resist a lot of intellectual help all the way – and especially emotional support – which is something Laddie has always provided.
Mr. Lad, who at various times held senior positions at 20th Century Fox and MGM / UA, as well as managing the Ladd Company, which he founded in 1979, was known for his relatively calm business style, full of intrusive executives. In an interview with The New York Times in 1999, director Norman Joyson recalled his experience working with Mr. Lad on the 1987 Oscar-winning hit Moonstruck.
“I gave him a price for what I thought I could do for the film,” Mr Joyson said, “and I told him I would go after Cher to play the lead role. There are no other big stars. And he called me and said, “Okay.” And I never saw him again until I told him the movie was over and I wanted him to see it. That’s not happening anymore. “
Ms Berlin said that while Mr Lad’s defense of Star Wars could be his calling card, he also deserved credit for supporting films such as Moonstruck, Julia (1977) and Thelma and Louise ”(1991), who have strong female characters. He is usually credited with proposing that the main character in Ridley Scott’s Alien (1979), originally written as a man, be changed, giving Sigourney Weaver a chance to create a memorable science fiction character.
I always ask myself, “Could this role be more interesting if it’s played by a woman than a man?” He told The Los Angeles Times in 1988.
Alan Walbridge Lad Jr. was born on October 22, 1937 in Los Angeles to Alan Ladd, best known as the 1953 western star Shane, and his first wife, Marjorie Jane Harold.
Alan Jr. studied at the University of Southern California, was drafted as a reservist by the Air Force during the Berlin crisis in the early 1960s, and after his release went to work in the post office of the talent agency Creative Management Associates. He soon became an agent, representing, among others, Judy Garland.
In the early 1970s, he formed a production partnership in London with several others and produced his first films, including The Nightcomers (1971), starring Marlon Brando.
Returning to the United States, he became vice president of Fox in 1973. In 1976, he became president of the company. Three years later, he announced that he was leaving to start his own company.
Mr. Lad has been a senior executive at MGM twice. In 1985, he was hired to lead one of his film divisions; soon after, he was appointed president and chief operating officer, and then chairman. He left in 1988, the company undergoing ownership and organizational changes. He was in charge of Pathé Communications’ film division when the company acquired MGM, and in 1991 he became CEO. He was evicted in 1993 during another change of ownership.
Among the films Ladd had a hand in was Chariots of Fire (1981), which won an Oscar for Best Picture. Braveheart (1995), another Ladd Company project, won the same award.
But Star Wars was almost certainly Mr Lad’s greatest triumph. He was still unsure if the film would work when he attended the San Francisco premiere – until he heard a surge of applause at the end.
“This went on; it didn’t stop, “he later recalled. “And I’ve just never had that kind of reaction to any movie. In the end, when it was all over, I had to get up and go out in tears. “
Mr. Lad’s marriage to Patricia Beasley ended in divorce, as did his second marriage to Sindra Pincock. He is survived by three children from his first marriage, Kelian Lad, Tracy Lad and Amanda Lad Jones; brother David; sister, Carol Lee Weich; and six grandchildren. The daughter of his second marriage Chelsea Lad died in 2021.