🔗 Share this article

This award-nominated actor Diane Ladd, a Hollywood veteran has died 89 years old.

This star, with roles featured Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, died at her home in Ojai, California. This announcement was announced via an announcement shared by her offspring, Academy Award-winning star Laura Dern, her daughter.

Her daughter, who starred with her mother in a number of films such as Rambling Rose, described her as “my incredible hero as well as my precious gift of a mother”, stating that she was at her bedside as she died.

“She was the greatest mother, daughter, grandmother, actress, artist and caring individual that seemed almost dreamlike,” she wrote. “We were lucky to have her. Her spirit soars with angels.”

Early Career and Breakthrough

Her initial acting years featured small roles in TV shows like The Fugitive while that decade saw her starring with Jack Nicholson in Chinatown.

During that year, 1974, she appeared alongside Ellen Burstyn in the Martin Scorsese praised dramatic comedy Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, a classic. Her role earned Ladd her first Oscar nomination as best supporting actress.

Later Decades

Throughout the 1980s, she starred in the thriller Black Widow and comedy sequel National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation while also joining the show Alice, a comedy program inspired by the film Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore.

During the next ten years, she received an additional supporting actress Academy Award nomination for her part in Lynch’s Wild at Heart, a cult classic where she acted as the mom of her real-life daughter Dern’s character. The next year she received another nomination for her performance in Rambling Rose which included her daughter.

“This movie that Princess Diana picked as her top choice, and she flew us to England for a royal premiere and a party dedicated to us,” Ladd said about the film Rambling Rose. “She positioned herself between us, grasping our hands, with tears, viewing our performance.”

That decade included parts in the comedy Cemetery Club bringing her back with her co-star Burstyn, Primary Colors, a political comedy, with John Travolta and the film by Alexander Payne Citizen Ruth, a dark comedy where she acted as Laura Dern’s mom another time. That period also earned her TV award nominations for roles in Dr Quinn, Medicine Woman, the show Grace Under Fire plus Touched by an Angel.

Partnerships with Her Daughter

She kept appearing with her daughter in dramatic comedies Daddy and Them, the David Lynch project Inland Empire, a surreal film and Mike White’s comedy-drama series the program Enlightened. She additionally starred alongside actress Sandra Bullock in 28 Days, Anthony Hopkins, a legend in that movie plus Jennifer Lawrence in Joy, a biographical drama.

Her later TV roles featured the series Ray Donovan and Young Sheldon, a comedy.

Writing and Directing

She additionally penned and directed the comedy film the movie Mrs Munck which starred Diane Ladd and previous spouse Bruce Dern. “Bruce is a talented star,” she noted. “I’m privileged to have directed him in a film. Indeed, I am the sole female ever to direct her ex-husband. I make a joke: ‘I tell women, if you want revenge, helm a movie with your ex.’ But I’m only kidding.”

Personal Connections

Ladd was also a relative of playwright Tennessee Williams, whom she described as “a great influence in my life”.

During 2018, doctors misdiagnosed Ladd with lung disease and told she only had half a year left yet she recovered completely after her daughter shifted her to a new hospital.

“If you can take your pain and prevent it from festering like a sore or something, instead use it to discover, to clarify the journey for yourself and others, then you are winning,” Ladd remarked.