Diane Ladd, Famed For Her Performance in Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, Has Died at Age 89.
This Academy Award-nominated actor Diane Ladd, a Hollywood veteran passed away 89 years old.
This actress, with roles spanned Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, died at her home in California’s Ojai. Her passing was announced through a message shared by her child, Oscar-winning actor Laura Dern, her daughter.
Laura Dern, who performed alongside Diane Ladd in a number of films including Wild at Heart and Rambling Rose, described her as “my incredible hero as well as my special gift of a mother”, noting that she was at her bedside when she passed.
“She was the most wonderful daughter, mother, grandmother, star, artist along with compassionate soul that seemed almost dreamlike,” she expressed. “We were fortunate to know her. She is flying with her angels now.”
Early Career and Rise to Fame
The start of her career featured small roles in television programs such as The Fugitive while that decade featured her performing with actor Jack Nicholson in Chinatown.
During that year, the year 1974, she appeared with Ellen Burstyn in Martin Scorsese’s celebrated comedy drama Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, a classic. Her role earned Ladd an Academy Award nomination for best supporting actress.
1980s and Beyond
Throughout the 1980s, she starred in the thriller Black Widow and funny follow-up Christmas Vacation while also joining Alice, a comedy program based on her earlier movie.
During the next ten years, she received a further 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 real-life daughter Dern’s character. A year later she obtained a further nomination for her role in Rambling Rose, another movie which also starred Dern.
“This movie that Princess Diana selected as her very favorite, and she invited me and Laura to London for a premiere and an event in our honor,” Ladd shared about the film Rambling Rose. “She sat with us, holding both our hands, with tears, viewing our performance.”
The 1990s featured performances in humorous films The Cemetery Club reuniting her with Burstyn, Primary Colors, a political story, a satirical film, with John Travolta and Alexander Payne’s Citizen Ruth, a dark comedy in which she portrayed Laura Dern’s mom once more. Those years also earned her TV award nominations for roles in Dr Quinn, Medicine Woman, the show Grace Under Fire and Touched by an Angel.
Partnerships with Her Daughter
She kept appearing with her daughter in dramatic comedies Daddy and Them, David Lynch’s the movie Inland Empire and the series by Mike White comedy-drama series the program Enlightened. She additionally starred with actress Sandra Bullock in the film 28 Days, Anthony Hopkins, a legend in that movie plus Jennifer Lawrence in Joy, a biographical drama.
Subsequent TV appearances featured Ray Donovan, a drama plus Young Sheldon.
Filmmaking Ventures
She additionally penned and directed the comedy film Mrs Munck featuring her and former husband Bruce Dern, an actor. “Bruce is a great actor,” she said. “I was honored to direct him on a project. Actually, I stand as the only woman in history who directed her former husband. I humorously say: ‘I say ladies, if you seek payback, guide your former spouse.’ Though I’m just teasing.”
Family Ties
She happened to be a relative of playwright Tennessee Williams, whom she described as “a major inspiration on my life”.
During 2018, Ladd was misdiagnosed with lung disease and informed she had just six months to live but made a full recovery when her daughter moved her to another medical facility.
“Should you harness your suffering and not let it back up like a sore or something, instead use it to discover, to illuminate the way for personal and collective growth, then you are triumphing,” Ladd remarked.
