🔗 Share this article

The Oscar-nominated performer Diane Ladd left us at the age of 89.

This actress, with filmography featured Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, left this world in her residence in Ojai, California. Her passing was shared via an announcement by her child, Oscar-winning actor her daughter Laura Dern.

Laura Dern, who starred with Diane Ladd in several movies including Wild at Heart, referred to her as “my incredible hero plus my profound gift being my mom”, noting that she was by her side during her final moments.

“She was an exceptional mother, daughter, grandmother, performer, creative and caring individual that seemed almost dreamlike,” she wrote. “We were blessed to have her. She is flying with her angels now.”

Initial Roles and Breakthrough

Ladd’s early career saw small roles on television series including Perry Mason whereas the 1970s featured her performing with Jack Nicholson in Chinatown.

During that year, 1974, she shared the screen with actress Ellen Burstyn in the Martin Scorsese acclaimed film Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore. Her acting landed Ladd an Academy Award nomination for best supporting actress.

1980s and Beyond

In the 1980s, she appeared in crime thriller Black Widow as well as humorous film National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation and also took part in the sitcom Alice, a comedy program based on her earlier movie.

In the subsequent decade, she received a further best supporting actress Academy Award nomination for her part in Lynch’s Wild at Heart, a cult classic where she played the mom of her biological child the character played by Dern. The following year she obtained another nomination for her performance in Rambling Rose which included Dern.

“This was the film that Princess Diana picked as her top choice, and she brought Laura and I to the UK for a royal premiere and a party for us,” Ladd recalled about the film Rambling Rose. “She sat with us, taking our hands, and weeping, viewing our performance.”

The 1990s included parts in humorous films Cemetery Club joining her again with her co-star Burstyn, the movie Primary Colors, a political comedy, starring John Travolta and Alexander Payne’s Citizen Ruth where she played Dern’s mother another time. Those years also brought her Emmy nominations for work in the series Dr Quinn, Medicine Woman, Grace Under Fire, a sitcom and Touched by an Angel.

Working with Laura Dern

She continued to star alongside her daughter in comedy drama Daddy and Them, a movie, Lynch’s the movie Inland Empire and Mike White’s dark comedy series Enlightened, a TV series. She was also seen alongside Sandra Bullock in 28 Days, Anthony Hopkins in The World’s Fastest Indian, a film and Jennifer Lawrence in Joy.

Subsequent TV appearances included the series Ray Donovan and Young Sheldon.

Writing and Directing

Ladd also wrote and directed the comedy Mrs Munck featuring herself and previous spouse actor Bruce Dern. “Bruce is an excellent performer,” she noted. “I’m privileged to have directed him in a movie. Indeed, I stand as the only woman in recorded history to direct her ex-husband. I often joke: ‘I tell women, if you want revenge, guide your former spouse.’ But I’m only kidding.”

Personal Life

She was additionally a family member of Tennessee Williams, who she called “a significant impact in my life”.

In 2018, doctors misdiagnosed Ladd with a pulmonary condition and told she had just six months to live but she regained full health when her daughter moved her to a different hospital.

“Should you harness your suffering and avoid letting it accumulate like an injury, instead use it to explore, to make the path clearer for yourself and others, then you are succeeding,” Ladd remarked.