Diane Ladd, Famed For Her Performance in Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, Passes Away at the Age of 89.

This Academy Award-nominated performer Diane Ladd, a Hollywood veteran left us 89 years old.

The actress, whose credits featured Chinatown, left this world in her residence in California’s Ojai. The news was shared through a message shared by her offspring, Oscar-winning actor Laura Dern.

Laura Dern, who performed alongside her mother in several movies such as Rambling Rose, described her as “my wonderful hero and my profound gift of a mother”, noting that she was present during her final moments.

“She was an exceptional grandmother, mother, daughter, actress, artist as well as empathetic spirit that seemed almost dreamlike,” she wrote. “We were lucky to have her. Her spirit soars with angels.”

Initial Roles and Breakthrough

The start of her career featured minor parts in television programs including The Fugitive whereas the seventies saw her starring alongside the legendary Jack Nicholson in the classic Chinatown.

During that year, 1974, she shared the screen with Ellen Burstyn in the Martin Scorsese acclaimed film Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore. Her acting earned Ladd her first Oscar nomination as best supporting actress.

Subsequent Years

Throughout the 1980s, she was seen in the thriller Black Widow, a suspense story and comedy sequel National Lampoon’s holiday comedy and appeared on the sitcom Alice, a television series based on Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore.

In the following decade, she earned a further Oscar nomination for supporting actress Academy Award nomination for her role in the David Lynch film the movie Wild at Heart where she played the mother of her real-life daughter Dern’s character. A year later she obtained a further nomination for her role in Rambling Rose that also featured Dern.

“This movie that the late Princess Diana selected as her very favorite, and she brought Laura and I to the UK for a special screening and a party for us,” Ladd said of Rambling Rose. “She sat with us, taking our hands, and crying, viewing our performance.”

That decade also saw roles in the comedy The Cemetery Club reuniting her with Ellen Burstyn, the movie Primary Colors, a political comedy, starring John Travolta and Alexander Payne’s the movie Citizen Ruth where she acted as the mother of Dern again. Those years also saw her score TV award nominations for work in the series Dr Quinn, Medicine Woman, the show Grace Under Fire and Touched by an Angel.

Partnerships with Her Daughter

She continued to star with Laura Dern in films blending humor and drama Daddy and Them, a movie, David Lynch’s Inland Empire and Mike White’s satirical show the program Enlightened. She also appeared alongside Sandra Bullock in 28 Days, Anthony Hopkins, a legend in The World’s Fastest Indian, a film and Jennifer Lawrence in Joy.

Her more recent television parts included the series Ray Donovan and Young Sheldon, a comedy.

Behind the Camera

Ladd also wrote and helmed the comedy film the movie Mrs Munck that included her and previous spouse actor Bruce Dern. “Bruce is a great actor,” she noted. “It was a privilege to guide him in a film. Indeed, I stand as the only woman in history who directed her former husband. I humorously say: ‘I say ladies, should you desire retribution, helm a movie with your ex.’ However, I’m joking.”

Personal Life

Ladd was also a family member of Tennessee Williams, who she called “a significant impact throughout my life”.

In 2018, Ladd was misdiagnosed with a pulmonary condition and informed she only had half a year left but made a full recovery when her daughter transferred her to another medical facility.

“If you can take your pain and prevent it from festering similar to a wound, instead use it to discover, to illuminate the way for you and those around, then you are triumphing,” Ladd expressed.