Acclaimed Actress Diane Ladd, Famed For Her Performance in Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, Has Died at Age 89.
This award-nominated performer Diane Ladd has died aged 89.
This actor, with filmography featured National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, died at her home at her Ojai, California home. The news was announced through a message from her child, award-winning actress her daughter Laura Dern.
Her daughter, who starred with Diane Ladd in a number of films like Rambling Rose, described her as “my wonderful hero as well as my special gift of a mother”, writing that she was present during her final moments.
“She was an exceptional grandmother, mother, daughter, actress, artist as well as caring individual that seemed almost dreamlike,” she expressed. “We were blessed to have her. She is flying with her angels now.”
Beginnings and Breakthrough
The start of her career featured minor parts in TV shows such as The Fugitive and that decade featured her performing with Jack Nicholson in the film Chinatown.
That very year, 1974, she shared the screen alongside Ellen Burstyn in the Martin Scorsese celebrated dramatic comedy Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, a classic. The performance brought Ladd an Academy Award nomination as best supporting actress.
1980s and Beyond
In the 1980s, she was seen in the thriller the movie Black Widow plus funny follow-up National Lampoon’s holiday comedy and appeared on the show Alice, a comedy program based on the film Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore.
During the next ten years, she was given an additional Oscar nomination for supporting actress nomination for her role in the David Lynch film the movie Wild at Heart where she played the parent of her biological child Laura Dern’s role. The next year she received an additional nod for her performance in Rambling Rose which included Dern.
“This was the picture that the late Princess Diana chose as her absolutely favorite, and she flew Laura and I to London for a royal premiere and an event dedicated to us,” Ladd shared of Rambling Rose. “And she sat between us, taking our hands, and weeping, watching us perform.”
That decade featured performances in comedy Cemetery Club reuniting her with her co-star Burstyn, Primary Colors, a political story, a satirical film, with John Travolta and the film by Alexander Payne Citizen Ruth, a dark comedy where she played the mother of Dern again. Those years also brought her Emmy nominations for work in the series Dr Quinn, Medicine Woman, Grace Under Fire, a sitcom and Touched by an Angel, a drama.
Working with Laura Dern
She kept appearing alongside her daughter in films blending humor and drama Daddy and Them, a movie, David Lynch’s Inland Empire and Mike White’s dark comedy series Enlightened, a TV series. She was also seen with Sandra Bullock, a star in the film 28 Days, Sir Anthony Hopkins in The World’s Fastest Indian and with Jennifer Lawrence in Joy.
Her more recent television parts included Ray Donovan and Young Sheldon.
Writing and Directing
Ladd also wrote and directed the comedy the movie Mrs Munck which starred Diane Ladd and former husband actor Bruce Dern. “Bruce is an excellent performer,” she mentioned. “It was a privilege to guide him on a project. Indeed, I’m the only woman in history to helm a film with her ex. I make a joke: ‘I advise females, if you seek payback, direct your ex-husband.’ However, I’m joking.”
Personal Connections
She was additionally the third cousin of playwright Tennessee Williams, whom she described as “a significant impact on my life”.
During 2018, Ladd was misdiagnosed with lung disease and told her life expectancy was six months but she regained full health once her daughter shifted her to a new hospital.
“Should you harness your suffering and not let it back up like an injury, instead use it to investigate, to illuminate the way for you and those around, then you are winning,” Ladd expressed.
