Diane Ladd, Known For Her Role in Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, Passes Away at Age 89.
The Academy Award-nominated performer Diane Ladd has died at the age of 89.
This actor, with credits spanned National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, passed away at home in California’s Ojai. This announcement was announced through a message shared by her child, Oscar-winning actor Laura Dern, her daughter.
Laura Dern, who starred with her mother in a number of films like Rambling Rose, described her as “my incredible hero as well as my precious gift as a mother”, noting that she was by her side as she died.
“She was an exceptional daughter, mother, grandmother, actress, artist as well as empathetic spirit that seemed almost dreamlike,” she stated. “We were lucky to have her. She is now with the angels.”
Beginnings and Major Success
Ladd’s early career featured supporting roles on television series like Perry Mason and the seventies featured her performing with actor Jack Nicholson in the classic Chinatown.
That very year, 1974, she appeared with Ellen Burstyn in the Martin Scorsese acclaimed dramatic comedy Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore. The performance brought Ladd her initial Oscar nod as best supporting actress.
Subsequent Years
During the eighties, she starred in the dramatic film Black Widow, a suspense story and funny follow-up Christmas Vacation while also joining the show Alice, a comedy program based on Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore.
During the next ten years, she was given another best supporting actress nomination for her performance in David Lynch’s Wild at Heart where she acted as the mom of her biological child Laura Dern’s role. The following year she was awarded a further nomination for her acting in Rambling Rose, another movie which also starred her daughter.
“This movie that the late Princess Diana chose as her absolutely favorite, and she flew Laura and I to London for a royal premiere and a celebration in our honor,” Ladd recalled regarding Rambling Rose. “And she sat between us, taking our hands, and weeping, seeing us act.”
The nineties featured performances in comedy Cemetery Club, a film joining her again with Burstyn, Primary Colors, a comedy about politics, starring John Travolta and the film by Alexander Payne the movie Citizen Ruth where she played Dern’s mother another time. That period also earned her TV award nominations for work in Dr Quinn, Medicine Woman, Grace Under Fire, a sitcom and Touched by an Angel, a drama.
Collaborations with Daughter
She persisted in performing with her daughter in dramatic comedies Daddy and Them, David Lynch’s Inland Empire and White’s comedy-drama series the program Enlightened. She additionally starred next to actress Sandra Bullock in the film 28 Days, Anthony Hopkins in The World’s Fastest Indian, a film and Jennifer Lawrence in the film Joy.
Her later TV roles consisted of Ray Donovan, a drama and Young Sheldon, a comedy.
Filmmaking Ventures
She also authored and helmed the comedy Mrs Munck that included herself and previous spouse Bruce Dern. “Bruce is a talented star,” she mentioned. “I was honored to direct him in a film. Indeed, I’m the only woman in recorded history to direct her ex-husband. I make a joke: ‘I say ladies, should you desire retribution, direct your ex-husband.’ But I’m only kidding.”
Personal Connections
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 a pulmonary condition and advised her life expectancy was six months but made a full recovery when her daughter shifted her to a different hospital.
“When you use your pain and not let it back up similar to a wound, instead apply it to discover, to clarify the journey for personal and collective growth, then you are winning,” Ladd said.