Oscar-Nominated Star Diane Ladd, Known For Her Role in Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, Has Died at the Age of 89.
This Academy Award-nominated performer Diane Ladd, a Hollywood veteran left us aged 89.
The actress, with roles featured National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, passed away at home at her Ojai, California home. This announcement was revealed through a message by her offspring, Oscar-winning actor Laura Dern, her daughter.
Her daughter, who appeared with Diane Ladd in various films like Wild at Heart, referred to her as “my wonderful hero and my special gift being my mom”, stating that she was present as she died.
“She was an exceptional grandmother, mother, daughter, star, artist along with empathetic spirit that felt like a dream come true,” she expressed. “We were blessed to have her. Her spirit soars with angels.”
Early Career and Rise to Fame
Ladd’s early career featured supporting roles in television programs such as Gunsmoke while the seventies saw her starring next to actor Jack Nicholson in Chinatown.
That very year, 1974, she performed alongside Ellen Burstyn in Martin Scorsese’s acclaimed dramatic comedy Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, a classic. Her acting earned Ladd her initial Oscar nod as best supporting actress.
Subsequent Years
Throughout the 1980s, she appeared in the dramatic film Black Widow plus funny follow-up National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation and appeared on the sitcom Alice, a sitcom derived from the film Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore.
In the subsequent decade, she received a further best supporting actress Oscar nomination for her performance in Lynch’s the movie Wild at Heart where she played the parent of her biological child Dern’s character. The following year she obtained an additional nod for her role in the film Rambling Rose which also starred her daughter.
“This was the picture which Princess Diana chose as her absolutely favorite, and she flew me and Laura to London for a premiere and an event dedicated to us,” Ladd said about the film Rambling Rose. “And she sat between us, grasping our hands, and crying, watching us perform.”
The 1990s featured performances in the comedy The Cemetery Club joining her again with Burstyn, Primary Colors, a political story, a political comedy, featuring John Travolta and the film by Alexander Payne Citizen Ruth, a dark comedy where she acted as Laura Dern’s mom another time. That period also saw her score nominations for Emmy Awards for work on Dr Quinn, the show Grace Under Fire and Touched by an Angel.
Collaborations with Daughter
She kept appearing alongside her daughter in comedy drama Daddy and Them, Lynch’s Inland Empire and White’s dark comedy series Enlightened, a TV series. She additionally starred with actress Sandra Bullock in 28 Days, a movie, Sir Anthony Hopkins in The World’s Fastest Indian, a film and Jennifer Lawrence in Joy, a biographical drama.
Her later TV roles featured Ray Donovan, a drama and Young Sheldon.
Behind the Camera
She also authored and oversaw the comedy film the movie Mrs Munck that included herself and ex-husband Bruce Dern. “Bruce is a great actor,” she said. “I was honored to direct him in a movie. Indeed, I am the sole female in history who directed her former husband. I make a joke: ‘I tell women, if you want revenge, helm a movie with your ex.’ But I’m only kidding.”
Personal Connections
She was additionally the third cousin of playwright Tennessee Williams, who she referred to as “a significant impact on my life”.
In 2018, she received an incorrect diagnosis with a respiratory illness and informed she only had half a year left but she regained full health when her daughter shifted her to a new hospital.
“Should you harness your suffering and not let it back up like an injury, rather utilize it to discover, to make the path clearer for personal and collective growth, then you are triumphing,” Ladd remarked.