Diane Ladd, Celebrated For Her Role in Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, Has Died at the Age of 89.

The Academy Award-nominated actress the celebrated Diane Ladd has died 89 years old.

This star, whose roles featured Chinatown, passed away at home in Ojai, California. The news was announced in a statement from her child, Oscar-winning actor Laura Dern, her daughter.

Laura Dern, who performed alongside Diane Ladd in several movies including Wild at Heart and Rambling Rose, called her “my amazing hero and my special gift being my mom”, stating that she was by her side during her final moments.

“She was the greatest grandmother, mother, daughter, performer, creative as well as caring individual that felt like a dream come true,” she wrote. “We were lucky to have her. Her spirit soars with angels.”

Early Career and Major Success

Ladd’s early career included supporting roles in television programs including Gunsmoke whereas that decade had her appearing with actor Jack Nicholson in Chinatown.

That very year, the year 1974, she appeared with Ellen Burstyn in the Martin Scorsese 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 starred in the dramatic film Black Widow plus funny follow-up National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation 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 a further best supporting actress Oscar nomination for her role in Lynch’s Wild at Heart where she acted as the mom of her biological child Dern’s character. A year later she received an additional nod for her acting in the film Rambling Rose which included her daughter.

“This was the picture which Princess Diana picked as her top choice, and she invited us to England for a premiere and a party dedicated to us,” Ladd shared about the film Rambling Rose. “And she sat between us, taking our hands, and weeping, viewing our performance.”

The 1990s included parts in humorous films Cemetery Club reuniting her with Burstyn, Primary Colors, a comedy about politics, featuring John Travolta and the film by Alexander Payne Citizen Ruth in which she portrayed Dern’s mother again. That period 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 persisted in performing with her daughter in films blending humor and drama Daddy and Them, David Lynch’s Inland Empire and White’s comedy-drama series Enlightened. She also appeared alongside Sandra Bullock in the film 28 Days, Sir Anthony Hopkins in The World’s Fastest Indian, a film plus Jennifer Lawrence in the film Joy.

Her more recent television parts consisted of the series Ray Donovan plus Young Sheldon.

Filmmaking Ventures

She also authored and directed the comedy film Mrs Munck, a film which starred her and ex-husband Bruce Dern. “Bruce is a great actor,” she noted. “I was honored to direct him in a movie. Actually, I’m the only woman in recorded history who directed her former husband. I often joke: ‘I tell women, if you seek payback, direct your ex-husband.’ Though I’m just teasing.”

Family Ties

She was additionally a relative of playwright Tennessee Williams, whom she described as “a significant impact in my life”.

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 shifted her to a new hospital.

“Should you harness your suffering and prevent it from festering like an injury, instead apply it to investigate, to clarify the journey for yourself and others, then you are triumphing,” Ladd said.