Oscar-Nominated Star Diane Ladd, Celebrated For Her Performance in Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, Has Died at the Age of 89.
The Academy Award-nominated actor Diane Ladd left us at the age of 89.
The actor, whose filmography included Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, passed away at home in California’s Ojai. The news was shared through a message shared by her daughter, award-winning actress Laura Dern.
Dern, who appeared with her mother in various films such as Wild at Heart and Rambling Rose, referred to her as “my incredible hero plus my profound gift of a mother”, stating that she was at her bedside when she passed.
“She was an exceptional daughter, mother, grandmother, performer, creative and compassionate soul that seemed almost dreamlike,” she wrote. “We were lucky to have her. She is flying with her angels now.”
Early Career and Rise to Fame
Ladd’s early career featured minor parts on television series such as Perry Mason whereas the seventies had her appearing with Jack Nicholson in Chinatown.
That very year, 1974, she shared the screen with Ellen Burstyn in the Martin Scorsese acclaimed dramatic comedy Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, a classic. The performance landed Ladd her first Oscar nomination for best supporting actress.
Subsequent Years
In the 1980s, she starred in the dramatic film the movie Black Widow and humorous film National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation and also took part in Alice, a comedy program based on Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore.
During the next ten years, she received another best supporting actress Oscar nomination for her role in the David Lynch film Wild at Heart in which she portrayed the mother of her actual daughter Laura Dern’s role. A year later she received an additional nod for her performance in Rambling Rose that also featured Laura Dern.
“This movie which Princess Diana chose as her absolutely favorite, and she flew Laura and I to London for a special screening and a celebration for us,” Ladd said about the film Rambling Rose. “She sat with us, grasping our hands, and crying, viewing our performance.”
The nineties also saw roles in humorous films Cemetery Club, a film reuniting her with her co-star Burstyn, the movie Primary Colors, a comedy about politics, featuring John Travolta and Payne’s Citizen Ruth, a dark comedy where she acted as the mother of Dern again. The decade also saw her score TV award nominations for work in the series Dr Quinn, Medicine Woman, Grace Under Fire, a sitcom and Touched by an Angel, a drama.
Working with Laura Dern
She persisted in performing with Laura Dern in films blending humor and drama the film Daddy and Them, David Lynch’s the movie Inland Empire and the series by Mike White comedy-drama series Enlightened, a TV series. She also appeared with actress Sandra Bullock in 28 Days, a movie, Sir Anthony Hopkins in The World’s Fastest Indian, a film plus Jennifer Lawrence in Joy.
Her more recent television parts featured the series Ray Donovan plus Young Sheldon.
Filmmaking Ventures
Ladd also wrote and oversaw the comedy film Mrs Munck that included Diane Ladd and previous spouse Bruce Dern. “Bruce is a talented star,” she said. “I was honored to direct him in a movie. Actually, I am the sole female in recorded history who directed her former husband. I make a joke: ‘I advise females, if you want revenge, guide your former spouse.’ However, I’m joking.”
Personal Life
She was additionally the third cousin of Tennessee Williams, who she referred to as “a great influence on my life”.
In 2018, Ladd was misdiagnosed with lung disease and advised her life expectancy was six months but made a full recovery when her daughter shifted her to a different hospital.
“Should you harness your suffering and not let it back up like a sore or something, instead apply it to discover, to make the path clearer for yourself and others, then you are triumphing,” Ladd said.
