Oscar-Nominated Star Diane Ladd, Known For Her Role in Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, Dies at the Age of 89.

The award-nominated actor the celebrated Diane Ladd passed away 89 years old.

This actor, whose roles included Chinatown, left this world in her residence at her Ojai, California home. Her passing was revealed through a message from her child, Oscar-winning actor Laura Dern, her daughter.

Her daughter, who starred with Diane Ladd in several movies like Wild at Heart, called her “my amazing hero as well as my special gift as a mother”, stating that she was by her side as she died.

“She was an exceptional grandmother, mother, daughter, star, artist along with caring individual that only dreams could have seemingly created,” she expressed. “We were lucky to have her. She is flying with her angels now.”

Initial Roles and Major Success

Ladd’s early career included minor parts in television programs like The Fugitive whereas that decade featured her performing next to actor Jack Nicholson in Chinatown.

During that year, the year 1974, she performed with Ellen Burstyn in Scorsese’s celebrated film Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore. Her role earned Ladd her initial Oscar nod as best supporting actress.

Later Decades

Throughout the 1980s, she starred in crime thriller Black Widow, a suspense story plus comedy sequel National Lampoon’s holiday comedy while also joining the show Alice, a comedy program derived from Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore.

During the next ten years, she earned another best supporting actress Academy Award nomination for her role in David Lynch’s the movie Wild at Heart in which she portrayed the mother of her actual daughter the character played by Dern. The following year she received an additional nod for her role in Rambling Rose, another movie that also featured Dern.

“This was the picture that the late Princess Diana picked as her top choice, and she invited me and Laura to London for a premiere and a party in our honor,” Ladd shared regarding Rambling Rose. “She sat with us, holding both our hands, with tears, seeing us act.”

The nineties also saw roles in humorous films The Cemetery Club bringing her back with Burstyn, the movie Primary Colors, a satirical film, with John Travolta and Payne’s Citizen Ruth where she played Dern’s mother another time. The decade also saw her score nominations for Emmy Awards for work in Dr Quinn, Medicine Woman, the show Grace Under Fire and Touched by an Angel, a drama.

Partnerships with Her Daughter

She kept appearing with her daughter in films blending humor and drama Daddy and Them, a movie, the David Lynch project Inland Empire and Mike White’s satirical show Enlightened. She was also seen next to Sandra Bullock, a star in the film 28 Days, Sir Anthony Hopkins in that movie and Jennifer Lawrence in Joy, a biographical drama.

Her more recent television parts featured Ray Donovan, a drama and Young Sheldon.

Behind the Camera

She additionally penned and directed the humorous movie Mrs Munck which starred her and former husband actor Bruce Dern. “Bruce is a great actor,” she noted. “I’m privileged to have directed him on a project. Actually, I’m the only woman in history to helm a film with her ex. I humorously say: ‘I advise females, if you want revenge, direct your ex-husband.’ However, I’m joking.”

Personal Connections

Ladd was also a relative of Tennessee Williams, who she called “a significant impact in my life”.

During 2018, she received an incorrect diagnosis with a respiratory illness and advised she only had half a year left but she regained full health after her daughter moved her to a different hospital.

“Should you harness your suffering and avoid letting it accumulate similar to a wound, instead use it to discover, to clarify the journey for personal and collective growth, then you are succeeding,” Ladd expressed.