RIP Alan Ladd

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The guy who greenlit the first Star Wars movie is now one with the force. 

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One of the most influential figures in Hollywood history has passed away. Alan Ladd Jr, the legendary producer and studio executive who greenlit the very first Star Wars movie, has passed away at the age of 84. Although he might not be a household name in the way that George Lucas, Mel Gibson, or Ron Howard are, he was crucial to all of their careers. Studio executives generally get a bad rap when the history of great films (and filmmakers) are written, but Alan Ladd Jr. was responsible for the creation of much of what we think now as fundamental pop culture. And not just Star Wars, though it is astonishing to think that he lived to see one of the biggest science fiction franchises of all time come from being the pipe dream of a young, bearded USC graduate obsessed with cars, and him saying: “Okay.” 

Thanks in part to him we have Grogu, Mando, and Imperials still filling out TPS reports.