Acclaimed Actress Diane Ladd, Famed For Her Performance in Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, Has Died at Age 89.
The award-nominated performer Diane Ladd, a Hollywood veteran passed away 89 years old.
The actor, with filmography included Chinatown, died at her home in California’s Ojai. The news was shared through a message from her offspring, Academy Award-winning star her daughter Laura Dern.
Dern, who performed alongside her mom in several movies like Rambling Rose, referred to her as “my incredible hero plus my precious gift as a mother”, noting that she was present as she died.
“She was an exceptional daughter, mother, grandmother, actress, artist along with compassionate soul that only dreams could have seemingly created,” she stated. “We were blessed to have her. She is now with the angels.”
Initial Roles and Major Success
The start of her career saw supporting roles in TV shows like Gunsmoke whereas the 1970s saw her starring next to actor Jack Nicholson in Chinatown.
That very year, 1974, she performed with actress Ellen Burstyn in the Martin Scorsese praised film Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore. The performance earned Ladd an Academy Award nomination as best supporting actress.
1980s and Beyond
In the 1980s, she starred in crime thriller the movie Black Widow plus humorous film National Lampoon’s holiday comedy and appeared on the sitcom Alice, a television series derived from Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore.
In the subsequent decade, she received a further supporting actress nomination for her role in David Lynch’s Wild at Heart, a cult classic in which she portrayed the mother of her biological child the character played by Dern. The following year she was awarded a further nomination for her acting in Rambling Rose, another movie that also featured Dern.
“This was the film which Princess Diana picked as her top choice, and she brought Laura and I to the UK for a special screening and a celebration in our honor,” Ladd shared of Rambling Rose. “She positioned herself between us, holding both our hands, and weeping, seeing us act.”
That decade included parts in the comedy Cemetery Club bringing her back with Ellen Burstyn, the movie Primary Colors, a satirical film, featuring John Travolta and Alexander Payne’s Citizen Ruth, a dark comedy in which she portrayed the mother of Dern another time. Those years also brought her Emmy nominations for performances in Dr Quinn, Medicine Woman, Grace Under Fire plus Touched by an Angel.
Collaborations with Daughter
She kept appearing with Laura Dern in comedy drama the film Daddy and Them, the David Lynch project Inland Empire and Mike White’s comedy-drama series Enlightened, a TV series. She was also seen alongside actress Sandra Bullock in 28 Days, a movie, Sir Anthony Hopkins in The World’s Fastest Indian and with Jennifer Lawrence in Joy, a biographical drama.
Her more recent television parts consisted of Ray Donovan, a drama plus Young Sheldon.
Behind the Camera
Ladd also wrote and directed the comedy film Mrs Munck, a film featuring Diane Ladd and previous spouse Bruce Dern. “Bruce is a great actor,” she said. “I’m privileged to have directed him on a project. In fact, I stand as the only woman ever to helm a film with her ex. I humorously say: ‘I tell women, if you seek payback, guide your former spouse.’ However, I’m joking.”
Personal Life
Ladd was also a family member of the great Tennessee Williams, who she called “a major inspiration throughout my life”.
During 2018, doctors misdiagnosed Ladd with lung disease and advised she only had half a year left but she regained full health once her daughter shifted her to a different hospital.
“When you use your pain and not let it back up like an injury, rather utilize it to investigate, to clarify the journey for yourself and others, then you are succeeding,” Ladd expressed.
