European Film Star Postcards: Sue Carol

06 March 2024

Sue Carol

Sue Carol (1906-1982) was an American actress and talent agent. Carol's film career lasted from the late 1920s into the 1930s. When it ended, she became a talent agent. The last of her four marriages was to one of her clients, Alan Ladd, from 1942 until he died in 1964.

German postcard by Ross Verlag Foreign, no. 3727/1, 1928-1929. Photo: PDC.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4178/1, 1929-1930. Photo: Fox.

French postcard by Cinémagazine-Edition, Paris, no. 721, sent by mail in 1931.

One of the WAMPAS Baby Stars of 1928

Sue Carol was born Evelyn Jean Lederer in 1906 in Chicago, Illinois. Her parents were Samuel Lederer and Caroline Lederer née Schmidt, Jewish emigrants from Austria and Germany, respectively.

While Carol was in Hollywood on vacation, a director offered her a screen test that resulted in a contract with Fox. In 1927, she began playing minor parts in such films as the silent comedy-drama Slaves of Beauty (John G. Blystone, 1927). She had a major part in the comedy Soft Cushions (Edward F. Cline, 1927), now considered lost.

She became one of the WAMPAS Baby Stars in 1928. The WAMPAS Baby Stars was a promotional campaign sponsored by the United States Western Association of Motion Picture Advertisers, which honoured 13 young actresses each year whom they believed to be on the threshold of movie stardom.

Her next films were made in association with producer Cecil B. DeMille such as Skyscraper (Howard Higgin, 1928) starring William Boyd and the silent drama Walking Back (Rupert Julian, 1928) in which she starred as a bob-haired flapper. For Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, she starred in the silent drama Beau Broadway (Malcolm St. Clair, 1928) with Lew Cody and Aileen Pringle. For Fox, she made the comedy Win That Girl (David Butler, 1928) with synchronised sound. Both films are considered lost now.

Among her other films for Fox are the musical Fox Movietone Follies of 1929 (David Butler, Marcel Silver, 1929) and the melodrama Girls Gone Wild (Lewis Seiler, 1929), which was released in sound and silent versions. The latter film starred Carol with Nick Stuart. Being an up-and-coming young film duo, they were moulded by Fox in the Janet Gaynor/Charles Farrell tradition. The two would be married later in the year, in November, in a surprise ceremony.

British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. 379a.

Austrian postcard by Iris Verlag, no. 5688. Photo: Max Munn Autrey / Fox.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4397/1, 1929-1930. Photo: Fox. Collection: Marlene Pilaete.

Charles Morton and Sue Carol in Check and Double Check (1930)

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 5411/1, 1930-1931. Photo: RKO Radio Pictures. Charles Morton and Sue Carol in Check and Double Check (Melville W. Brown, 1930).

Wife and manager of Alan Ladd

Sue Carol co-starred with George O'Brien in the Western The Lone Star Ranger (A.F. Erickson, 1930) based on a novel by Zane Grey. With Dixie Lee, she co-starred in the popular comedy The Big Party (John G. Blystone, 1930). In the next years followed fewer and minor films. Denny Jackson at IMDb: "While she didn't land the roles her contemporaries did, Sue was a very competent actress."

She retired from acting in 1937. After retiring, Carol established her talent agency, the Sue Carol Agency. She married four times. In 1924, Carol married Allen H. Keefer, a buyer for a Chicago stockyard firm. They divorced in early 1929. In July 1929, Carol became engaged to actor Nick Stuart, and the couple married that November. They had a daughter, actress Carol Lee Ladd (1932), who was briefly married to actor Richard Anderson.

In 1933, Sue Carol was cleared in a case involving the disappearance of a baby from a Brooklyn, New York, family. The family had complained that the baby had been taken for adoption in November 1932 by a woman who said she was acting on behalf of Carol. The Stuarts divorced in 1934. In 1936 in Los Angeles, Carol married for the third time to fellow actor William Harold Wilson. That marriage also ended in divorce in 1942.

She married actor Alan Ladd in 1942, in Mexico. They had a son, producer David Ladd, and a daughter, Alana Ladd Jackson who married radio commentator Michael Jackson. Actress Jordan Ladd is one of their grandchildren. Carol was also the stepmother of Alan Ladd, Jr.

Sue Carol was Alan Ladd's manager until he died in 1964. Sue Carol died in 1982, in Los Angeles, California, from a heart attack. She was 75. Carol was interred next to Alan Ladd in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California. For her contribution to the motion picture industry, she was honoured in 1982 with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1639 N. Vine Street.