The Academy Award-nominated actress the celebrated Diane Ladd has died aged 89.
This actor, with credits featured Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, passed away at home in Ojai, California. Her passing was revealed in a statement from her daughter, award-winning actress Laura Dern.
Laura Dern, who performed alongside her mother in several movies like Wild at Heart and Rambling Rose, described her as “my incredible hero as well as my special gift of a mother”, writing that she was at her bedside as she died.
“She was the greatest grandmother, mother, daughter, actress, artist as well as empathetic spirit that only dreams could have seemingly created,” she stated. “We were lucky to have her. She is flying with her angels now.”
Ladd’s early career included small roles in TV shows including Gunsmoke while that decade featured her performing with the legendary Jack Nicholson in Chinatown.
That very year, 1974, she appeared alongside Ellen Burstyn in the Martin Scorsese celebrated film Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, a classic. Her acting landed Ladd an Academy Award nomination for best supporting actress.
In the 1980s, she starred in the dramatic film Black Widow, a suspense story plus comedy sequel Christmas Vacation and appeared on the sitcom Alice, a television series derived from Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore.
In the subsequent decade, she was given another supporting actress Oscar nomination for her role in the David Lynch film the movie Wild at Heart in which she portrayed the parent of her actual daughter Laura Dern’s role. The following year she was awarded an additional nod for her performance in Rambling Rose, another movie that also featured her daughter.
“This was the film that Princess Diana picked as her top choice, and she brought me and Laura to London for a special screening and an event dedicated to us,” Ladd shared regarding Rambling Rose. “She positioned herself between us, taking our hands, and crying, viewing our performance.”
The nineties included parts in comedy Cemetery Club reuniting her with her co-star Burstyn, Primary Colors, a comedy about politics, starring John Travolta and the film by Alexander Payne the movie Citizen Ruth where she played Laura Dern’s mom another time. That period also brought her Emmy nominations for work in Dr Quinn, Medicine Woman, the show Grace Under Fire plus Touched by an Angel.
She continued to star with Laura Dern in comedy drama Daddy and Them, the David Lynch project Inland Empire, a surreal film and Mike White’s dark comedy series Enlightened, a TV series. She additionally starred alongside Sandra Bullock in the film 28 Days, Sir Anthony Hopkins in The World’s Fastest Indian and with Jennifer Lawrence in the film Joy.
Her more recent television parts consisted of Ray Donovan plus Young Sheldon.
She also authored and directed the humorous movie the movie Mrs Munck which starred Diane Ladd and former husband actor Bruce Dern. “Bruce is a great actor,” she mentioned. “I was honored to direct him in a film. In fact, I stand as the only woman in recorded history who directed her former husband. I humorously say: ‘I advise females, if you want revenge, guide your former spouse.’ However, I’m joking.”
Ladd was also a family member of the great Tennessee Williams, who she called “a significant impact in my life”.
Back in 2018, doctors misdiagnosed Ladd with lung disease and informed she had just six months to live but she regained full health after her daughter transferred her to a new hospital.
“If you can take your pain and not let it back up like a sore or something, instead use it to discover, to make the path clearer for personal and collective growth, then you are triumphing,” Ladd expressed.
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