Acclaimed Actress Diane Ladd, Famed For Her Performance in Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, Has Died at 89 Years Old.
The Oscar-nominated actor Diane Ladd, a Hollywood veteran has died aged 89.
The actress, with filmography included National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, died at her home at her Ojai, California home. This announcement was announced through a message shared by her daughter, Oscar-winning actor Laura Dern, her daughter.
Her daughter, who performed alongside her mother in a number of films including Wild at Heart, referred to her as “my amazing hero as well as my special gift of a mother”, stating that she was at her bedside as she died.
“She was the greatest grandmother, mother, daughter, performer, creative as well as compassionate soul that felt like a dream come true,” she stated. “We were fortunate to know her. She is now with the angels.”
Early Career and Major Success
Her initial acting years saw small roles in television programs like Perry Mason while that decade featured her performing next to Jack Nicholson in the film Chinatown.
During that year, the year 1974, she appeared with actress Ellen Burstyn in the Martin Scorsese acclaimed dramatic comedy Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, a classic. Her role landed Ladd an Academy Award nomination as best supporting actress.
1980s and Beyond
Throughout the 1980s, she appeared in the thriller Black Widow plus humorous film National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation while also joining the show Alice, a sitcom based on the film Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore.
In the following decade, she received a further Oscar nomination for supporting actress Academy Award nomination for her part in David Lynch’s Wild at Heart in which she portrayed the mom of her biological child the character played by Dern. The next year she obtained a further nomination for her acting in Rambling Rose which also starred Laura Dern.
“This movie which Princess Diana chose as her absolutely favorite, and she flew me and Laura to England for a royal premiere and a celebration in our honor,” Ladd said about the film Rambling Rose. “And she sat between us, taking our hands, with tears, watching us perform.”
The 1990s included parts in the comedy The Cemetery Club reuniting her with Ellen Burstyn, the movie Primary Colors, a satirical film, starring John Travolta and Payne’s Citizen Ruth where she played Dern’s mother another time. That period also saw her score TV award nominations for work in the series Dr Quinn, Medicine Woman, Grace Under Fire and Touched by an Angel, a drama.
Collaborations with Daughter
She persisted in performing alongside her daughter in films blending humor and drama Daddy and Them, a movie, the David Lynch project Inland Empire, a surreal film and White’s dark comedy series Enlightened, a TV series. She was also seen alongside Sandra Bullock, a star in the film 28 Days, Anthony Hopkins, a legend in The World’s Fastest Indian, a film and with Jennifer Lawrence in Joy.
Her more recent television parts featured Ray Donovan and Young Sheldon, a comedy.
Filmmaking Ventures
Ladd also wrote and directed the comedy the movie Mrs Munck that included Diane Ladd and ex-husband Bruce Dern. “Bruce is a great actor,” she said. “I’m privileged to have directed him in a film. Indeed, I’m the only woman in history to helm a film with her ex. I often joke: ‘I advise females, if you want revenge, guide your former spouse.’ However, I’m joking.”
Family Ties
Ladd was also the third cousin of the great Tennessee Williams, whom she described as “a major inspiration throughout my life”.
Back in 2018, she received an incorrect diagnosis with a respiratory illness and advised her life expectancy was six months but made a full recovery when her daughter transferred her to a new hospital.
“When you use your pain and prevent it from festering similar to a wound, rather utilize it to investigate, to clarify the journey for you and those around, then you are triumphing,” Ladd said.
