Acclaimed Actress Diane Ladd, Known For Her Performance in Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, Dies at the Age of 89.
The Oscar-nominated actor Diane Ladd, a Hollywood veteran has died at the age of 89.
The actress, with filmography featured National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, left this world in her residence in Ojai, California. The news was revealed through a message shared by her child, Academy Award-winning star Laura Dern, her daughter.
Laura Dern, who appeared with her mom in a number of films including Rambling Rose, referred to her as “my incredible hero plus my profound gift of a mother”, noting that she was at her bedside as she died.
“She was the most wonderful grandmother, mother, daughter, star, artist as well as empathetic spirit that seemed almost dreamlike,” she stated. “We were lucky to have her. She is flying with her angels now.”
Initial Roles and Major Success
The start of her career saw supporting roles in TV shows like Gunsmoke and the seventies had her appearing with Jack Nicholson in the classic Chinatown.
During that year, 1974, she performed with Ellen Burstyn in the Martin Scorsese praised comedy drama Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore. Her role earned Ladd an Academy Award nomination for best supporting actress.
1980s and Beyond
Throughout the 1980s, she appeared in the dramatic film the movie Black Widow and comedy sequel Christmas Vacation while also joining the show Alice, a comedy program based on Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore.
In the subsequent decade, she received a further best supporting actress Academy Award nomination for her role in Lynch’s the movie Wild at Heart where she played the mother of her actual daughter Dern’s character. A year later she obtained a further nomination for her performance in Rambling Rose which included Dern.
“This movie that Princess Diana picked as her top choice, and she invited Laura and I to the UK for a special screening and an event in our honor,” Ladd recalled regarding Rambling Rose. “And she sat between us, holding both our hands, and crying, watching us perform.”
The 1990s included parts in comedy Cemetery Club joining her again with Ellen Burstyn, Primary Colors, a comedy about politics, featuring John Travolta and Alexander Payne’s the movie Citizen Ruth where she played Dern’s mother again. That period also brought her TV award nominations for performances on Dr Quinn, Grace Under Fire, a sitcom plus Touched by an Angel.
Working with Laura Dern
She kept appearing alongside her daughter in comedy drama Daddy and Them, a movie, David Lynch’s Inland Empire and Mike White’s comedy-drama series Enlightened. She also appeared with Sandra Bullock, a star in 28 Days, Anthony Hopkins, a legend in The World’s Fastest Indian, a film and with Jennifer Lawrence in the film Joy.
Her later TV roles included the series Ray Donovan and Young Sheldon.
Filmmaking Ventures
Ladd also wrote and helmed the comedy Mrs Munck that included herself and former husband actor Bruce Dern. “Bruce is a talented star,” she mentioned. “I’m privileged to have directed him in a film. Actually, I’m the only woman ever who directed her former husband. I humorously say: ‘I advise females, if you want revenge, guide your former spouse.’ But I’m only kidding.”
Family Ties
Ladd was also a relative of playwright Tennessee Williams, who she referred to as “a major inspiration on my life”.
During 2018, doctors misdiagnosed Ladd with a respiratory illness and told she only had half a year left but made a full recovery once her daughter transferred her to a different hospital.
“Should you harness your suffering and avoid letting it accumulate like an injury, instead apply it to explore, to make the path clearer for personal and collective growth, then you are succeeding,” Ladd remarked.
