Oscar-Nominated Star Diane Ladd, Famed For Her Performance in Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, Passes Away at the Age of 89.
This Oscar-nominated performer Diane Ladd has died at the age of 89.
The star, whose credits included Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, left this world in her residence at her Ojai, California home. Her passing was shared via an announcement from her daughter, Oscar-winning actor Laura Dern, her daughter.
Her daughter, who starred with her mother in various films like Rambling Rose, called her “my wonderful hero and my profound gift as a mother”, stating that she was by her side as she died.
“She was the most wonderful daughter, mother, grandmother, actress, artist as well as empathetic spirit that only dreams could have seemingly created,” she wrote. “We were blessed to have her. She is flying with her angels now.”
Early Career and Rise to Fame
Her initial acting years included supporting roles in TV shows including Gunsmoke whereas the seventies featured her performing alongside actor Jack Nicholson in the film Chinatown.
In the same year, the year 1974, she appeared alongside Ellen Burstyn in the Martin Scorsese celebrated film Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore. Her role brought Ladd an Academy Award nomination as best supporting actress.
Subsequent Years
In the 1980s, she starred in the thriller the movie Black Widow and funny follow-up National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation and also took part in the sitcom Alice, a sitcom inspired by the film Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore.
In the subsequent decade, she earned another Oscar nomination for supporting actress Academy Award nomination for her part in the David Lynch film Wild at Heart where she played the mother of her actual daughter Dern’s character. The next year she was awarded another nomination for her acting in Rambling Rose that also featured Laura Dern.
“This was the picture that the late Princess Diana selected as her very favorite, and she invited me and Laura to London for a royal premiere and a party in our honor,” Ladd recalled of Rambling Rose. “And she sat between us, taking our hands, and weeping, seeing us act.”
The nineties included parts in the comedy Cemetery Club, a film joining her again with her co-star Burstyn, Primary Colors, a satirical film, with John Travolta and Alexander Payne’s the movie Citizen Ruth in which she portrayed Laura Dern’s mom another time. That period also brought her Emmy nominations for performances in Dr Quinn, Medicine Woman, Grace Under Fire and Touched by an Angel.
Working with Laura Dern
She continued to star with Laura Dern in comedy drama Daddy and Them, a movie, Lynch’s Inland Empire, a surreal film and White’s comedy-drama series the program Enlightened. She also appeared next to actress Sandra Bullock in 28 Days, a movie, Sir Anthony Hopkins in that movie plus Jennifer Lawrence in the film Joy.
Her later TV roles consisted of Ray Donovan and Young Sheldon.
Filmmaking Ventures
She also authored and oversaw the comedy the movie Mrs Munck which starred Diane Ladd and previous spouse actor Bruce Dern. “Bruce is a talented star,” she said. “I was honored to direct him on a project. Indeed, I am the sole female in history who directed her former husband. I make a joke: ‘I say ladies, if you want revenge, guide your former spouse.’ But I’m only kidding.”
Personal Life
She happened to be a relative of the great Tennessee Williams, who she called “a significant impact throughout my life”.
In 2018, she received an incorrect diagnosis with a respiratory illness and advised her life expectancy was six months but she regained full health once her daughter shifted her to another medical facility.
“When you use your pain and avoid letting it accumulate similar to a wound, instead use it to discover, to illuminate the way for yourself and others, then you are triumphing,” Ladd said.
