Oscar-winning producer Alan Ladd Jr dies aged 84

Mel Gibson, right, accepts the award for best picture for Braveheart at the Academy Awards in 1996, as co-producers Alan Ladd Jr, left, and Bruce Davey look on (Eric Draper/AP)

Alan Ladd Jr, the Oscar-winning producer and studio boss who as a 20th Century Fox executive greenlit Star Wars, has died aged 84.

Ladd Jr died on Wednesday, his daughter Amanda Ladd-Jones, who directed the documentary Laddie: The Man Behind The Movies, wrote in a Facebook post.