Acclaimed Actress Diane Ladd, Famed For Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, Passes Away at 89 Years Old.
The Oscar-nominated performer Diane Ladd passed away at the age of 89.
The star, whose credits featured Chinatown, left this world in her residence in Ojai, California. The news was shared through a message shared by her offspring, Oscar-winning actor Laura Dern, her daughter.
Dern, who starred with her mother in a number of films including Rambling Rose, called her “my amazing hero and my special gift being my mom”, writing that she was at her bedside when she passed.
“She was an exceptional mother, daughter, grandmother, star, artist as well as caring individual that only dreams could have seemingly created,” she wrote. “We were fortunate to know her. She is flying with her angels now.”
Early Career and Rise to Fame
Ladd’s early career included small roles in TV shows including Gunsmoke and the 1970s featured her performing next to Jack Nicholson in the film Chinatown.
During that year, 1974, she performed alongside Ellen Burstyn in Scorsese’s celebrated dramatic comedy the movie Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore. The performance landed Ladd her first Oscar nomination for best supporting actress.
Subsequent Years
During the eighties, she starred in the thriller the movie Black Widow as well as comedy sequel National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation and also took part in the show Alice, a television series derived from Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore.
In the following decade, she earned an additional Oscar nomination for supporting actress Oscar nomination for her role in David Lynch’s the movie Wild at Heart in which she portrayed the mom of her actual daughter the character played by Dern. The next year she received another nomination for her role in the film Rambling Rose which included Laura Dern.
“This was the film that the late Princess Diana chose as her absolutely favorite, and she flew me and Laura to London for a premiere and an event in our honor,” Ladd shared regarding Rambling Rose. “And she sat between us, holding both our hands, and crying, seeing us act.”
The 1990s featured performances in humorous films Cemetery Club, a film joining her again with Ellen Burstyn, the movie Primary Colors, a political comedy, starring John Travolta and Alexander Payne’s Citizen Ruth, a dark comedy where she acted as Dern’s mother once more. The decade also saw her score nominations for Emmy Awards for performances in the series Dr Quinn, Medicine Woman, Grace Under Fire, a sitcom plus Touched by an Angel.
Working with Laura Dern
She persisted in performing alongside her daughter in films blending humor and drama the film Daddy and Them, David Lynch’s Inland Empire and the series by Mike White dark comedy series Enlightened, a TV series. She also appeared alongside Sandra Bullock in the film 28 Days, Sir Anthony Hopkins in The World’s Fastest Indian, a film plus Jennifer Lawrence in Joy, a biographical drama.
Her more recent television parts featured Ray Donovan, a drama and Young Sheldon, a comedy.
Filmmaking Ventures
She also authored and directed the comedy film the movie Mrs Munck featuring Diane Ladd and former husband Bruce Dern, an actor. “Bruce is a talented star,” she said. “It was a privilege to guide him in a film. Indeed, I’m the only woman in history who directed her former husband. I humorously say: ‘I tell women, if you want revenge, helm a movie with your ex.’ But I’m only kidding.”
Family Ties
She happened to be a relative of the great Tennessee Williams, who she referred to as “a great influence on my life”.
Back in 2018, doctors misdiagnosed Ladd with lung disease and told she had just six months to live but she regained full health when her daughter shifted her to a different hospital.
“Should you harness your suffering and prevent it from festering similar to a wound, rather utilize it to explore, to clarify the journey for personal and collective growth, then you are winning,” Ladd expressed.
