VERONICA LAKE & ALAN LADD
‘Your Heart Is As Black As Night’ sung by Melody Gardot
The Hollywood movie stars made seven films together, all in the 1940s: This Gun for Hire (1942); The Glass Key (1942); The Blue Dahlia (1946); Saigon (1947); Star-Spangled Rhythm (1942); Duffy’s Tavern (1945); and Variety Girl (1947).
BOTH GONE TOO SOON
Alan Ladd was a chronic insomniac and regularly used sleeping pills and drank alcohol to get to sleep. On January 29, 1964, in his home in Palm Springs, California, he died of an acute overdose of alcohol, tranquilizers and a barbiturate. His death was ruled an accident. He was 50 years old.
As her career faded, Veronica Lake moved to New York, lived in cheap hotels and worked as a cocktail waitress. She was arrested several times for drunkenness and disorderly conduct.
A known alcoholic, she died of cirrhosis of the liver on July 7, 1973. She also was 50. She died in Montreal but her last lover Nat Perlow transported her body to nearby Burlington, Vermont, telling border guards that she was sleeping.