Acclaimed Actress Diane Ladd, Famed For Her Performance in Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, Passes Away at 89 Years Old.
This Oscar-nominated actress Diane Ladd, a Hollywood veteran has died 89 years old.
This star, whose roles featured Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, left this world in her residence in Ojai, California. This announcement was revealed through a message from her daughter, award-winning actress Laura Dern, her daughter.
Dern, who performed alongside her mother in several movies including Wild at Heart and Rambling Rose, described her as “my amazing hero as well as my precious gift as a mother”, writing that she was at her bedside when she passed.
“She was an exceptional mother, daughter, grandmother, performer, creative along with caring individual that felt like a dream come true,” she wrote. “We were blessed to have her. She is flying with her angels now.”
Initial Roles and Breakthrough
The start of her career saw minor parts in television programs such as Perry Mason whereas the seventies featured her performing next to the legendary Jack Nicholson in the classic Chinatown.
That very year, 1974, she appeared alongside Ellen Burstyn in Martin Scorsese’s acclaimed comedy drama Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, a classic. The performance landed Ladd her initial Oscar nod for best supporting actress.
Subsequent Years
In the 1980s, she starred in the thriller Black Widow, a suspense story and funny follow-up National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation and also took part in the sitcom Alice, a sitcom based on Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore.
In the subsequent decade, she earned a further Oscar nomination for supporting actress nomination for her performance in David Lynch’s the movie Wild at Heart where she played the parent of her biological child the character played by Dern. The next year she was awarded a further nomination for her performance in Rambling Rose which included Dern.
“This was the picture that the late Princess Diana selected as her very favorite, and she invited us to the UK for a premiere and a party for us,” Ladd recalled of Rambling Rose. “She positioned herself between us, grasping our hands, and weeping, watching us perform.”
The 1990s featured performances in humorous films Cemetery Club bringing her back with Ellen Burstyn, Primary Colors, a political comedy, starring John Travolta and Alexander Payne’s the movie Citizen Ruth where she played Laura Dern’s mom another time. The decade also earned her TV award nominations for performances in Dr Quinn, Medicine Woman, Grace Under Fire, a sitcom plus Touched by an Angel.
Collaborations with Daughter
She continued to star alongside her daughter in comedy drama the film Daddy and Them, the David Lynch project Inland Empire, a surreal film and White’s comedy-drama series Enlightened, a TV series. She was also seen alongside Sandra Bullock, a star in 28 Days, a movie, Sir Anthony Hopkins in that movie plus Jennifer Lawrence in Joy.
Her later TV roles featured Ray Donovan, a drama plus Young Sheldon.
Behind the Camera
She also authored and helmed the comedy the movie Mrs Munck that included her and former husband actor Bruce Dern. “Bruce is a talented star,” she noted. “It was a privilege to guide him in a film. Indeed, I’m the only woman in recorded history to direct her ex-husband. I often joke: ‘I tell women, should you desire retribution, helm a movie with your ex.’ However, I’m joking.”
Personal Life
She was additionally a family member of Tennessee Williams, who she referred to as “a major inspiration on my life”.
Back in 2018, doctors misdiagnosed Ladd with lung disease and told her life expectancy was six months but made a full recovery once her daughter transferred her to another medical facility.
“If you can take your pain and prevent it from festering like a sore or something, instead apply it to explore, to illuminate the way for personal and collective growth, then you are triumphing,” Ladd said.
