At one point Laddie and Mark joined Lady St. Aloysius Seminary to become priests.
[4] While still in school, he became interested in the arts by performing in plays, and after his retirement, he continued to look for drama companies during the holidays.
Coming forward as a stage actor, he formed the "Arcadians" drama troupe.
In Velenda Sewaya of Radio Ceylon, he had the opportunity to work as a program producer.
He made his debut cinema appearance in the 1952 English film Outcast of the Islands shot in Sri Lanka.
[4] The film directed by Carol Reed was later translated to Sinhala as Divainwala Kulahinaya.
According to the Silumina newspaper, Laddie is the only actor who has made Sri Lanka famous and respected for his acting.
It is the biggest money earned by an actor in Sri Lanka at that time.
[4] In the film, he played the role of an innocent clerk, a kind husband, and a loving father.
Therefore, Laddie became the first highest-paid Sri Lankan actor to act in a film before Gamini Fonseka.