November 2, 1962

Hot Springs (Garland County) native Alan Ladd was found with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to his chest, which he said was accidental. Ladd was a movie actor who rose from poverty to star in forty-seven films, mostly in the 1940s and 1950s. He often portrayed a solitary hero with a conscience and is best known for his title role in the classic western Shane (1953). Less than two years after the gunshot incident, at age fifty, Ladd was found dead at his Palm Springs, California, home of an overdose of sedatives and alcohol. He is buried at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Glendale, California. His star appears on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He also received a star on the Arkansas Walk of Fame in Hot Springs in 1997.