Oscar-Nominated Star Diane Ladd, Famed For Her Performance in Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, Passes Away at Age 89.
This Academy Award-nominated actress Diane Ladd passed away 89 years old.
The star, whose filmography featured Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, left this world in her residence in California’s Ojai. Her passing was revealed in a statement shared by her daughter, award-winning actress her daughter Laura Dern.
Dern, who starred with Diane Ladd in various films such as Rambling Rose, described her as “my wonderful hero as well as my profound gift being my mom”, noting that she was at her bedside when she passed.
“She was the greatest daughter, mother, grandmother, star, artist along with compassionate soul that seemed almost dreamlike,” she wrote. “We were blessed to have her. She is flying with her angels now.”
Initial Roles and Breakthrough
Her initial acting years included small roles on television series including Gunsmoke and that decade had her appearing with Jack Nicholson in the film Chinatown.
That very year, 1974, she shared the screen with Ellen Burstyn in the Martin Scorsese acclaimed comedy drama Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore. Her acting landed Ladd an Academy Award nomination as best supporting actress.
Later Decades
In the 1980s, she starred in crime thriller Black Widow as well as funny follow-up National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation and appeared on Alice, a sitcom derived from Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore.
During the next ten years, she earned a further best supporting actress Academy Award nomination for her performance in Lynch’s Wild at Heart, a cult classic where she played the mom of her real-life daughter Laura Dern’s role. The next year she received an additional nod for her role in Rambling Rose, another movie that also featured Laura Dern.
“This was the picture which Princess Diana picked as her top choice, and she brought me and Laura to London for a premiere and a party dedicated to us,” Ladd said about the film Rambling Rose. “And she sat between us, taking our hands, and weeping, seeing us act.”
That decade also saw roles in comedy Cemetery Club bringing her back with her co-star Burstyn, Primary Colors, a political story, a satirical film, with John Travolta and Alexander Payne’s Citizen Ruth where she played Laura Dern’s mom another time. Those years also saw her score TV award nominations for roles in Dr Quinn, Medicine Woman, Grace Under Fire and Touched by an Angel.
Partnerships with Her Daughter
She continued to star alongside her daughter in dramatic comedies Daddy and Them, a movie, David Lynch’s the movie Inland Empire and the series by Mike White satirical show the program Enlightened. She additionally starred next to Sandra Bullock, a star in 28 Days, a movie, Sir Anthony Hopkins in The World’s Fastest Indian plus Jennifer Lawrence in Joy.
Subsequent TV appearances featured Ray Donovan and Young Sheldon.
Behind the Camera
She additionally penned and directed the comedy the movie Mrs Munck that included herself and former husband Bruce Dern, an actor. “Bruce is a great actor,” she noted. “It was a privilege to guide him on a project. Indeed, I’m the only woman ever 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
She was additionally a relative of the great Tennessee Williams, whom she described as “a great influence throughout my life”.
During 2018, Ladd was misdiagnosed with a respiratory illness and advised she had just six months to live but made a full recovery once her daughter shifted her to another medical facility.
“If you can take your pain and prevent it from festering like a sore or something, instead apply it to discover, to make the path clearer for you and those around, then you are triumphing,” Ladd expressed.
