Diane Ladd, Famed For Her Performance in Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, Has Died at 89 Years Old.
The award-nominated performer the celebrated Diane Ladd has died 89 years old.
This star, whose filmography featured National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, left this world in her residence in Ojai, California. The news was revealed via an announcement from her daughter, Academy Award-winning star her daughter Laura Dern.
Laura Dern, who starred with Diane Ladd in several movies including Wild at Heart and Rambling Rose, described her as “my wonderful hero and my special gift of a mother”, writing that she was by her side as she died.
“She was the most wonderful daughter, mother, grandmother, star, artist and compassionate soul that felt like a dream come true,” she stated. “We were blessed to have her. She is flying with her angels now.”
Early Career and Rise to Fame
Ladd’s early career featured small roles in television programs including Gunsmoke and the 1970s featured her performing alongside actor Jack Nicholson in the film Chinatown.
In the same year, 1974, she performed alongside Ellen Burstyn in Scorsese’s celebrated dramatic comedy the movie Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore. Her role landed Ladd her initial Oscar nod as best supporting actress.
Later Decades
Throughout the 1980s, she appeared in the dramatic film Black Widow as well as humorous film National Lampoon’s holiday comedy and appeared on the show Alice, a comedy program derived from Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore.
In the following decade, she was given a further Oscar nomination for supporting actress Academy Award nomination for her performance in David Lynch’s Wild at Heart where she played the mother of her biological child the character played by Dern. The following year she received another nomination for her acting in Rambling Rose that also featured her daughter.
“This movie that the late Princess Diana chose as her absolutely favorite, and she invited Laura and I to the UK for a premiere and a celebration for us,” Ladd said about the film Rambling Rose. “She sat with us, taking our hands, and weeping, seeing us act.”
The 1990s included parts in comedy Cemetery Club, a film joining her again with Burstyn, Primary Colors, a comedy about politics, with John Travolta and the film by Alexander Payne Citizen Ruth where she played Dern’s mother another time. The decade also brought her TV award nominations for roles in Dr Quinn, Medicine Woman, Grace Under Fire, a sitcom and Touched by an Angel.
Partnerships with Her Daughter
She continued to star with her daughter in comedy drama Daddy and Them, the David Lynch project Inland Empire, a surreal film and the series by Mike White comedy-drama series Enlightened, a TV series. She also appeared next to Sandra Bullock in 28 Days, Sir Anthony Hopkins in The World’s Fastest Indian, a film plus Jennifer Lawrence in Joy.
Her more recent television parts featured the series Ray Donovan plus Young Sheldon.
Behind the Camera
She additionally penned and directed the humorous movie the movie Mrs Munck featuring Diane Ladd and ex-husband Bruce Dern. “Bruce is a great actor,” she said. “It was a privilege to guide him in a film. In fact, I am the sole female ever 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.”
Family Ties
Ladd was also a family member of playwright Tennessee Williams, who she called “a great influence on my life”.
Back in 2018, she received an incorrect diagnosis with lung disease and informed she had just six months to live yet she recovered completely after her daughter shifted her to another medical facility.
“If you can take your pain and prevent it from festering similar to a wound, instead apply it to investigate, to illuminate the way for personal and collective growth, then you are triumphing,” Ladd said.
