🔗 Share this article

This award-nominated actor Diane Ladd, a Hollywood veteran left us at the age of 89.

This actor, with credits spanned Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, left this world in her residence in California’s Ojai. This announcement was shared via an announcement from her child, Oscar-winning actor her daughter Laura Dern.

Dern, who appeared with her mother in a number of films like Rambling Rose, called her “my incredible hero and my precious gift being my mom”, stating that she was by her side during her final moments.

“She was the greatest mother, daughter, grandmother, performer, creative as well as compassionate soul that felt like a dream come true,” she wrote. “We were blessed to have her. Her spirit soars with angels.”

Early Career and Major Success

The start of her career included minor parts in television programs including The Fugitive while the seventies saw her starring next to Jack Nicholson in the classic Chinatown.

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

Subsequent Years

Throughout the 1980s, she appeared in the dramatic film the movie Black Widow and comedy sequel National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation while also joining the sitcom Alice, a television series based on the film Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore.

In the following decade, she received another best supporting actress Oscar nomination for her role in David Lynch’s Wild at Heart where she acted as the mother of her real-life daughter the character played by Dern. The next year she was awarded an additional nod for her role in the film Rambling Rose that also featured her daughter.

“This movie that the late Princess Diana selected as her very favorite, and she brought me and Laura to London for a royal premiere and an event for us,” Ladd said about the film Rambling Rose. “And she sat between us, taking our hands, and crying, viewing our performance.”

The nineties also saw roles in humorous films Cemetery Club, a film bringing her back with Ellen Burstyn, Primary Colors, a political story, a comedy about politics, with John Travolta and the film by Alexander Payne the movie Citizen Ruth where she acted as the mother of Dern again. The decade also brought her Emmy nominations for roles in the series Dr Quinn, Medicine Woman, the show Grace Under Fire and Touched by an Angel.

Collaborations with Daughter

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

Her more recent television parts included Ray Donovan and Young Sheldon.

Writing and Directing

Ladd also wrote and directed the comedy Mrs Munck, a film featuring Diane Ladd and previous spouse Bruce Dern, an actor. “Bruce is a great actor,” she said. “I was honored to direct him on a project. Indeed, I stand as the only woman in recorded history to helm a film with her ex. I humorously say: ‘I advise females, if you want revenge, direct your ex-husband.’ Though I’m just teasing.”

Family Ties

She happened to be a relative of the great Tennessee Williams, who she called “a great influence throughout my life”.

Back in 2018, Ladd was misdiagnosed with a respiratory illness and told she had just six months to live but she regained full health after her daughter moved her to a different hospital.

“When you use your pain and avoid letting it accumulate similar to a wound, instead apply it to discover, to make the path clearer for yourself and others, then you are triumphing,” Ladd remarked.