🔗 Share this article

The award-nominated actress the celebrated Diane Ladd left us aged 89.

The actor, whose filmography featured Chinatown, died at her home at her Ojai, California home. This announcement was revealed in a statement from her child, Academy Award-winning star her daughter Laura Dern.

Laura Dern, who performed alongside her mother in several movies such as Wild at Heart and Rambling Rose, referred to her as “my wonderful hero plus my profound gift of a mother”, noting that she was present during her final moments.

“She was the most wonderful grandmother, mother, daughter, star, artist along with compassionate soul that felt like a dream come true,” she wrote. “We were fortunate to know her. She is flying with her angels now.”

Initial Roles and Major Success

Ladd’s early career featured minor parts on television series such as Perry Mason whereas the 1970s saw her starring with actor Jack Nicholson in Chinatown.

In the same year, 1974, she performed with actress Ellen Burstyn in Scorsese’s acclaimed comedy drama Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore. The performance landed Ladd her first Oscar nomination as best supporting actress.

1980s and Beyond

Throughout the 1980s, she appeared in crime thriller Black Widow, a suspense story and funny follow-up Christmas Vacation and also took part in Alice, a comedy program inspired by Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore.

In the following decade, she was given another supporting actress Academy Award nomination for her role in Lynch’s the movie Wild at Heart where she acted as the mother of her biological child Dern’s character. The following year she received another nomination for her performance in Rambling Rose, another movie that also featured Dern.

“This was the film that Princess Diana selected as her very favorite, and she brought me and Laura to the UK for a premiere and a party in our honor,” Ladd shared regarding Rambling Rose. “And she sat between us, grasping our hands, and crying, watching us perform.”

That decade included parts in the comedy The Cemetery Club reuniting her with her co-star Burstyn, Primary Colors, a political story, a satirical film, starring John Travolta and the film by Alexander Payne Citizen Ruth, a dark comedy where she played Laura Dern’s mom again. Those years also earned her TV award nominations for roles in the series Dr Quinn, Medicine Woman, the show Grace Under Fire plus Touched by an Angel.

Partnerships with Her Daughter

She continued to star with Laura Dern in comedy drama Daddy and Them, a movie, Lynch’s Inland Empire, a surreal film and the series by Mike White comedy-drama series the program Enlightened. She also appeared with Sandra Bullock in the film 28 Days, Sir Anthony Hopkins in that movie plus Jennifer Lawrence in the film Joy.

Her more recent television parts consisted of the series Ray Donovan and Young Sheldon.

Writing and Directing

She also authored and directed the humorous movie Mrs Munck which starred herself and former husband Bruce Dern. “Bruce is an excellent performer,” she mentioned. “It was a privilege to guide him in a film. Actually, I’m the only woman ever who directed her former husband. I often joke: ‘I advise females, if you seek payback, direct your ex-husband.’ However, I’m joking.”

Family Ties

She happened to be the third cousin of the great Tennessee Williams, whom she described as “a great influence in my life”.

During 2018, doctors misdiagnosed Ladd with lung disease and told she only had half a year left but she regained full health after her daughter shifted her to a different hospital.

“When you use your pain and not let it back up like a sore or something, instead use it to explore, to illuminate the way for yourself and others, then you are triumphing,” Ladd remarked.