Alan Ladd Jr. Resigns Top Posts MGM

MGM/UA Communications Co., searching for new ownership and direction for the past several months, announced Sunday that Alan Ladd Jr. has resigned his positions as chairman and chief executive officer of the company’s MGM Pictures unit.

Ladd, 50, said he had decided to “pursue other interests.” The company declined to elaborate on the brief announcement. Ladd could not be reached for comment late Sunday.

Search for Stability

However, studio watchers said Ladd’s departure comes as little surprise, especially in light of the persistent instability at the Culver City movie and television production company.

Ladd, who had been with MGM/UA since January, 1985, is the second top ranking executive to leave the company in the last two months. In July, Lee Rich resigned his positions as chairman and chief executive of MGM/UA to join the Warner Bros. studio.

The departure of Ladd, who also served on the MGM/UA board of directors, comes at a time when the company has been searching for long-term stability. Over the last several years, the company has been split into two separate moving making units and seen some of its assets and operations, including its film library and Culver City production lot, auctioned off.

As recently as late July, the company was considering selling its MGM unit to investor Burt Sugarman and movie producers Jon Peters and Peter Guber. But the complex deal fell through when MGM/UA majority owner Kirk Kerkorian and Sugarman couldn’t agree on terms.

Rumors surfaced that Ladd himself had been interested in securing financing for a management-led takeover of the MGM unit. But company officials declined to comment on the speculation.

But in a prepared statement he said: “Over the past few months, I had received inquiries from third parties regarding other opportunities. I felt that it was inappropriate for me to consider these while still affiliated with MGM. Recently, I made the decision to pursue other interests.”

Ladd said with the recent box-office successes of the company’s “Moonstruck,” “Willow” and “A Fish Called Wanda,” movies, he felt confident that he was leaving MGM “in the best shape it has been in the past several years.”