Acclaimed Actress Diane Ladd, Famed For Her Performance in Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, Has Died at 89 Years Old.
This award-nominated actress Diane Ladd, a Hollywood veteran left us at the age of 89.
The actress, with credits featured Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, passed away at home in California’s Ojai. The news was revealed in a statement from her daughter, Oscar-winning actor Laura Dern, her daughter.
Her daughter, who appeared with her mom in various films including Wild at Heart, called her “my amazing hero and my special gift being my mom”, stating that she was present during her final moments.
“She was the greatest daughter, mother, grandmother, performer, creative along with empathetic spirit that felt like a dream come true,” she expressed. “We were lucky to have her. Her spirit soars with angels.”
Early Career and Major Success
Her initial acting years featured small roles on television series like The Fugitive and the seventies featured her performing alongside the legendary Jack Nicholson in the film Chinatown.
In the same year, 1974, she shared the screen with Ellen Burstyn in Martin Scorsese’s celebrated film Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore. Her role brought Ladd her first Oscar nomination as best supporting actress.
1980s and Beyond
In the 1980s, she starred in crime thriller Black Widow as well as humorous film National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation while also joining Alice, a comedy program derived from the film Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore.
In the following decade, she was given another supporting actress Academy Award nomination for her part in the David Lynch film the movie Wild at Heart in which she portrayed the mother of her actual daughter Laura Dern’s role. The next year she was awarded another nomination for her acting in Rambling Rose that also featured her daughter.
“This movie that the late Princess Diana picked as her top choice, and she flew Laura and I to London for a premiere and a party in our honor,” Ladd recalled regarding Rambling Rose. “And she sat between us, taking our hands, and weeping, seeing us act.”
That decade also saw roles in humorous films Cemetery Club, a film bringing her back with her co-star Burstyn, Primary Colors, a political comedy, starring John Travolta and the film by Alexander Payne Citizen Ruth, a dark comedy where she acted as Dern’s mother once more. Those years also earned her TV award nominations for work in Dr Quinn, Medicine Woman, Grace Under Fire, a sitcom plus Touched by an Angel.
Collaborations with Daughter
She persisted in performing alongside her daughter in comedy drama the film Daddy and Them, the David Lynch project Inland Empire, a surreal film and Mike White’s dark comedy series Enlightened. She also appeared alongside Sandra Bullock, a star in 28 Days, a movie, Anthony Hopkins in The World’s Fastest Indian, a film and with Jennifer Lawrence in Joy, a biographical drama.
Her more recent television parts consisted of Ray Donovan and Young Sheldon.
Behind the Camera
She additionally penned and directed the humorous movie the movie Mrs Munck which starred her and ex-husband actor Bruce Dern. “Bruce is a talented star,” she noted. “I’m privileged to have directed him in a movie. Indeed, I stand as the only woman in history who directed her former husband. I humorously say: ‘I advise females, should you desire retribution, helm a movie with your ex.’ But I’m only kidding.”
Personal Life
Ladd was also the third cousin of playwright Tennessee Williams, who she called “a great influence in my life”.
In 2018, doctors misdiagnosed Ladd with a respiratory illness and advised her life expectancy was six months but made a full recovery when her daughter shifted her to a new hospital.
“Should you harness your suffering and avoid letting it accumulate similar to a wound, instead apply it to explore, to clarify the journey for yourself and others, then you are succeeding,” Ladd expressed.
