Jordan Ladd

Jordan Elizabeth Ladd (born January 14, 1975) is an American actress. The daughter of actress Cheryl Ladd and producer David Ladd, she initially worked with her mother in several made-for-television films, before making her big screen debut at 19, in the vampire film Embrace of the Vampire (1994). She subsequently appeared in the drama Nowhere (1997) and the comedy Never Been Kissed (1999). Ladd became known as a scream queen, having appeared in several successful horror films, including Cabin Fever (2002), Club Dread (2004), Death Proof (2007), and Grace (2009).

Jordan Ladd
Ladd at the Grindhouse premiere in 2007
Born
Jordan Elizabeth Ladd

(1975-01-14) January 14, 1975
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
OccupationActress
Years active1990–present
Spouse(s)
Conor O'Neill
​
(
m. 2001; div. 2005)
Parents
RelativesAlan Ladd (grandfather)
Sue Carol (grandmother)
Alan Ladd Jr. (half-uncle)

Personal life

Background

Ladd was born in Hollywood, California, the daughter of Charlie's Angels star Cheryl Ladd (née Stoppelmoor) and David Ladd, a producer and former actor. Her parents divorced in 1980. Her paternal grandfather is actor Alan Ladd,[1] and her paternal grandmother was Sue Carol (née Evelyn Lederer), a Hollywood talent agent and actress. She has a stepsister, Lindsay Russell, an aspiring actress.

She graduated from high school in 1993, managing to lead a normal life despite her family's fame; she once remarked: "When I was in high school I used to go to the clubs, and of course that's exciting [...] You want to drink before you can and get into places you can't. But once I started acting professionally, I really didn't want to do the Hollywood nightlife thing."[2] She attended Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas.[3]

Relationships

She married her longtime boyfriend, documentary film editor Conor O'Neill, in 2001.[3] The couple divorced in July 2005.[4]

Career

1990s

At the age of two, Ladd began appearing in commercials. Her first commercial was for Polaroid. She began acting in film and television while in school, working with her mother in made-for-television films such as The Girl Who Came Between Them (1990) and Broken Promises: Taking Emily Back (1993).[5] After graduating high school, she took up acting professionally.

In 1994, she guest-starred in an episode of the NBC series Saved by the Bell: The New Class and made her big screen debut with a supporting appearance as a campus slut, opposite Alyssa Milano, in the vampire film Embrace of the Vampire. She spent the majority of the 1990s appearing in a variety of independent films, including Inside Out, Nowhere, Stand-ins (all 1997), and Taking the Plunge (1999). In 1999, she landed her first high-profile role as a popular teenager who tortures an insecure copy editor in the teen comedy Never Been Kissed, alongside Drew Barrymore. The film was a commercial success, grossing US$84.5 million globally,[6] and gave her an initial wide exposure with audiences.

2000s

Ladd appeared in The Specials (2000), a comedy about a group of superheroes on their day off; in the film she played a neurotic named Nightbird.[7] By 2000, she also had starred as an actress who vying for an Academy Award in E! first original film Best Actress, and appeared in the critically acclaimed anthology film Boys Life 3.

Ladd starred as a college graduate and the victim to a flesh-eating virus in Eli Roth's directorial debut, the horror film Cabin Fever (2002).[8] Ladd described as "insane" to work on the film, which began shooting just a month after 9/11. She remarked: "We shut down, we got up and running, and then we shut down again. We just hoped to finish the movie and hoped people would really understand and appreciate it. We had a blast doing it, even the tougher stuff. I'd rather work that way than on a big-budget fancy thing where you are completely separate from the process."[9] It was with this film that her career would begin focusing on horror genre, as she had a "real education on that way of storytelling" with Roth and the film.[10] Cabin Fever was largely praised by critics,[11] and made US$30.5 million on a budget of US$1.5 million.[12] She played a crying woman in David Lynch's Japanese-style horror short Darkened Room (also 2002).

In 2004, Ladd took on the role of a suspect in a recent string of murders on a vacationing island in the horror comedy Club Dread, and starred as a mental health facility nurse in the horror Madhouse. Her topless scene in Club Dread ranked 14th in Complex magazine's "15 Best Topless Moments In Mainstream Horror Movies".[13] In 2005, she appeared opposite Anna Faris, Ryan Reynolds and Justin Long in the independent romantic comedy Waiting..., and in 2006, she briefly appeared in David Lynch's film Inland Empire, which also starred her mother.[14]

Quentin Tarantino cast her as a wild, partying Texan and the victim of a killer stuntman in Death Proof, his high-speed segment of the double–feature exploitation horror Grindhouse (2007),[15] alongside Rosario Dawson, Tracie Thoms, Zoë Bell, and Kurt Russell.[16] The film flopped at the box office, but attracted significant media buzz and critical acclaim.[17][18] Director Eli Roth, in his contribution to Grindhouse, worked again with Ladd in a fake promo called Thanksgiving, which she shot "on the fly over" in Prague, where Hostel: Part II was being filmed;[19] in the horror sequel, she played the girlfriend of the sole survivor of the first film.

In her next film, the horror Grace (2009), Ladd portrayed a woman, who after a car accident, decides to carry her unborn baby to term anyway. The film was screened on the film festival circuit in North America, to critical acclaim.[20][21] John Anderson of Variety felt that Ladd played her role with "tongue planted firmly in cheek", in what he described as "a satirical creepfest that mines modern motherhood for all its latent terrors".[22] In 2009, she also starred in the made-for-television film The Wishing Well, as a journalist from New York City who gets sent to a small town in Illinois to report on a legendary wishing well.[23]

2010s

Ladd filmed a comedic short film entitled First Dates, exploring the dating scene of several single people. The production premiered at the AFI screening room in Los Angeles on January 8, 2011.[24] She starred in the fantasy romance film Awaken (2012), which premiered at the Newport Beach Film Festival, as a mysterious woman who changes the mundane life of a man. In 2012, she also appeared in the direct-to-DVD disaster film Air Collision, as a stewardess, and in the thriller Murder on the 13th Floor, as a wife who discovers her husband is having an affair with the live-in nanny and decides to seek revenge.

In 2015, Ladd guest-starred in an episode of the YouTube horror anthology series Scary Endings, directed by John Fitzpatrick. In 2016, she reunited with Fitzpatrick for the short thriller film Brentwood Strangler, in which she played a lonely woman goes on a blind date with a man who, unbeknownst to her, was replaced by an active and notorious serial killer, opposite Adam J. Yeend and Annika Marks.[25] She was cast in her role, following an introduction from Skypemare actress Cerina Vincent, who Ladd worked with on Cabin Fever.[26] The 19-minute production premiered on film festival circuits in North America and Australia, to a positive critical response.[27] Gruesome Magazine found Ladd to be a "delight" as an "emotionally strong woman who lets her guard down and exposes her vulnerability".[28]

In 2017, Ladd starred in the made-for-television thriller Stage Fright, as an opera soprano facing a series of dangers, and in the independent drama Blue Line, as a woman who, along with her best friend, go on a crime spree to rob her abusive husband and escape her marriage.[29]

Filmography

Film
Year Title Role Notes
1994 Embrace of the Vampire Eliza
1997 Inside Out Summer
1997 Nowhere Alyssa
1997 Stand-ins Monica-Bette Davis
1999 Taking the Plunge
1999 Never Been Kissed Gibby Zerefski
2000 The Specials Nightbird
2000 Boys Life 3 Summer Short film
2001 Puzzled Skye
2002 Crazy Little Thing Dana Also known as The Perfect You
2002 Darkened Room Girl 1
2002 Cabin Fever Karen
2004 Club Dread Penelope Also known as Broken Lizard's Club Dread
2004 Junked Nikki
2004 Madhouse Sara
2004 Dog Gone Love Arianna
2005 Waiting... Danielle
2006 Inland Empire Terri
2007 Hostel: Part II Stephanie
2007 Grindhouse Shanna "Death Proof" segment
2009 Grace Madeline Matheson
2011 First Dates Joanna Short film
2012 Awaken Rachel Arai
2012 Murder on the 13th Floor Ariana Braxton
2012 Air Collision Lindsay Bates
2016 Brentwood Strangler Maggie Short film
2017 Blue Line Lindsay Walters
2017 The Untold Story Rebecca

Television
Year Title Role Notes
1978 Charlie's Angels Young Kris Monroe in flashbacks Episode: "Angel on my Mind"
1990 The Girl Who Came Between Them Waitress Movie
1993 Broken Promises: Taking Emily Back Waitress Movie
1994 Love Street Bordello Player Episode: "Bordello"
1994 Saved by the Bell: The New Class Debbie Episode: "The Return of Screech"
1997 Weapons of Mass Distraction Letitia Movie
1997 Total Security Fiona Richards Episode: "One Wedding and a Funeral"
1998 Every Mother's Worst Fear Martha Hoagland Movie
2000 Best Actress Amber Lyons Movie
2000 The Deadly Look of Love Janet Flanders Movie
2001 Six Feet Under Ginnie Episode: "An Open Book"
2005–07 Robot Chicken Various characters 5 episodes
2007 It Was One Of Us Avis Monroe Movie
2009 The Wishing Well Cynthia Tamerline Movie
2015 Scary Endings Grace Episode: "Voyeur"
2017 Stage Fright Sarah Conrad Movie
2018 The Christmas Contract TV film
gollark: I am willing to make that bet due to my code guessing entry containing it, of course.
gollark: Might be fun.
gollark: I bet you could jump between functions/modules with even more accursed hacks.
gollark: At least two, even.
gollark: There are *two* gotos, one which patches stack frames and one which works as a decorator which patches bytecode.

References
  1. "Jordan Ladd Biography (1975-)". www.filmreference.com. Retrieved September 2, 2019.
  2. Malkin, Marc (April 10, 2007). "A Daughter of Hollywood Grinds On". E! Online.
  3. Brady, James (August 10, 2003). "In Step with Jordan Ladd". Parade. Lakeland Ledger.
  4. "Ladd, Jordan 1975-". Encyclopedia.com. Retrieved August 26, 2019 – via www.encyclopedia.com.
  5. Anglis, Jaclyn (June 21, 2017). "Cheryl Ladd's Daughter Is All Grown Up and the Spitting Image of Her Mom". Woman's World.
  6. "Never Been Kissed (1999) - Box Office Mojo". www.boxofficemojo.com.
  7. "Rent The Specials (2000) on DVD and Blu-ray - DVD Netflix". dvd.netflix.com.
  8. Tobias, Scott. "Cabin Fever". Film.
  9. "14 Surprising Facts About Cabin Fever". mentalfloss.com. September 11, 2018.
  10. "Exclusive Interview: Jordan Ladd". January 14, 2016.
  11. "Cabin Fever (2002)" – via www.rottentomatoes.com.
  12. "Cabin Fever (2003) - Box Office Mojo". www.boxofficemojo.com.
  13. "The 15 Best Topless Moments In Mainstream Horror Movies". Complex.
  14. Lynch, David (August 26, 2009). David Lynch: Interviews. Univ. Press of Mississippi. ISBN 9781604732368 – via Google Books.
  15. "Latest Movie News | Film Industry - Empire". Empire. Retrieved October 1, 2017.
  16. Huver, Scott (April 5, 2007). "'Grindhouse' Grrls! Sydney Poitier, Jordan Ladd and Vanessa Ferlito Are the Dishy Dames of 'Death Proof'". Hollywood.com.
  17. "Grindhouse (2007) - Box Office Mojo". boxofficemojo.com. Retrieved October 1, 2017.
  18. "Grindhouse". Retrieved October 1, 2017.
  19. "Interview: Jordan Ladd from "Grindhouse" - Movie Review / Film Essay". March 12, 2007.
  20. "The horror of baby pangs". Los Angeles Times. August 14, 2009.
  21. Grossberg, Josh (January 17, 2009). "Sundance Notebook: Spike Lee, Wesley Snipes, more". E! Online.
  22. Anderson, John; Anderson, John (January 26, 2009). "Grace".
  23. "Jordan Ladd And Jason London Star In Hallmark's "The Wishing Well"". Icelebz.com. December 15, 2009.
  24. Limited, Alamy. "Stock Photo - Erica Leerhsen 'First Date' premiere screening held at The American Film Institute (AFI) Screening Room Los Angeles, California - 08.01.11". Alamy.
  25. "Exclusive First Word, Poster & Images from John Fitzpatrick's Brentwood Strangler". DreadCentral.com.
  26. "Exclusive Interview: Jordan Ladd Talks Brentwood Strangler". WickedHorror.com.
  27. "Review: John Fitzpatrick's Brentwood Strangler". Horror Society. May 4, 2016.
  28. Perry, Joseph (November 5, 2016). ""Brentwood Strangler" (Shriekfest 2016): Death Goes on a Date in Masterly Short Thriller".
  29. "Blue Line Review". July 12, 2017.
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