Acclaimed Actress Diane Ladd, Famed For Her Performance in Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, Passes Away at 89 Years Old.
This Academy Award-nominated actor Diane Ladd, a Hollywood veteran has died at the age of 89.
This actress, whose credits included Chinatown, passed away at home in California’s Ojai. This announcement was shared through a message by her offspring, award-winning actress Laura Dern.
Laura Dern, who performed alongside her mother in various films like Wild at Heart, called her “my amazing hero as well as my special gift as a mother”, stating that she was present as she died.
“She was the most wonderful daughter, mother, grandmother, performer, creative and empathetic spirit that felt like a dream come true,” she stated. “We were lucky to have her. Her spirit soars with angels.”
Early Career and Major Success
Ladd’s early career featured small roles on television series like Perry Mason while that decade saw her starring with actor Jack Nicholson in the classic Chinatown.
That very year, 1974, she shared the screen with Ellen Burstyn in Scorsese’s acclaimed film the movie Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore. Her role earned Ladd an Academy Award nomination for best supporting actress.
Subsequent Years
Throughout the 1980s, she starred in crime thriller the movie Black Widow plus funny follow-up National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation while also joining Alice, a comedy program based on the film Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore.
In the following decade, she earned another Oscar nomination for supporting actress Oscar nomination for her part in the David Lynch film Wild at Heart, a cult classic where she played the parent of her real-life daughter Dern’s character. The next year she obtained an additional nod for her acting in Rambling Rose, another movie which included her daughter.
“This was the film that the late Princess Diana picked as her top choice, and she flew me and Laura to London for a royal premiere and a celebration dedicated to us,” Ladd said regarding Rambling Rose. “She sat with us, grasping our hands, and weeping, seeing us act.”
The 1990s also saw roles in comedy The Cemetery Club joining her again with Burstyn, Primary Colors, a political story, a political comedy, featuring John Travolta and Alexander Payne’s Citizen Ruth, a dark comedy in which she portrayed Dern’s mother once more. That period also earned her nominations for Emmy Awards for work in the series Dr Quinn, Medicine Woman, Grace Under Fire, a sitcom and Touched by an Angel, a drama.
Partnerships with Her Daughter
She continued to star with her daughter in dramatic comedies the film Daddy and Them, the David Lynch project Inland Empire and White’s comedy-drama series Enlightened. She also appeared next to Sandra Bullock, a star in 28 Days, Sir Anthony Hopkins in that movie and Jennifer Lawrence in the film Joy.
Her later TV roles included the series Ray Donovan plus Young Sheldon.
Behind the Camera
Ladd also wrote and oversaw the humorous movie Mrs Munck that included Diane Ladd and former husband actor Bruce Dern. “Bruce is a great actor,” she mentioned. “I was honored to direct him on a project. Actually, I stand as the only woman in recorded history who directed her former husband. I make a joke: ‘I advise females, if you seek payback, helm a movie with your ex.’ Though I’m just teasing.”
Personal Life
Ladd was also the third cousin of the great Tennessee Williams, who she referred to as “a significant impact in my life”.
Back in 2018, she received an incorrect diagnosis with a pulmonary condition and informed she had just six months to live yet she recovered completely after her daughter moved her to a new hospital.
“If you can take your pain and not let it back up like an injury, rather utilize it to discover, to illuminate the way for yourself and others, then you are succeeding,” Ladd expressed.