Acclaimed Actress Diane Ladd, Celebrated For Her Role in Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, Has Died at Age 89.
This award-nominated actress Diane Ladd passed away 89 years old.
This actress, whose credits featured National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, passed away at home at her Ojai, California home. The news was revealed via an announcement by her child, Academy Award-winning star Laura Dern, her daughter.
Dern, who starred with her mom in various films like Wild at Heart and Rambling Rose, described her as “my amazing hero plus my special gift as a mother”, writing that she was present during her final moments.
“She was the greatest grandmother, mother, daughter, actress, artist along with empathetic spirit that only dreams could have seemingly created,” she expressed. “We were blessed to have her. Her spirit soars with angels.”
Early Career and Breakthrough
Her initial acting years featured supporting roles in TV shows such as Gunsmoke whereas that decade featured her performing next to actor Jack Nicholson in Chinatown.
During that year, the year 1974, she appeared with Ellen Burstyn in the Martin Scorsese acclaimed film the movie Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore. Her acting brought Ladd her first Oscar nomination as best supporting actress.
1980s and Beyond
Throughout the 1980s, she appeared in crime thriller Black Widow, a suspense story and funny follow-up Christmas Vacation and appeared on Alice, a comedy program inspired by Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore.
During the next ten years, she received a further supporting actress Academy Award nomination for her role in the David Lynch film Wild at Heart, a cult classic where she acted as the mom of her real-life daughter Dern’s character. The next year she was awarded an additional nod for her acting in Rambling Rose, another movie which also starred Dern.
“This movie that Princess Diana selected as her very favorite, and she brought us to England for a premiere and an event for us,” Ladd said about the film Rambling Rose. “She sat with us, grasping our hands, and crying, seeing us act.”
The nineties featured performances in humorous films The Cemetery Club reuniting her with Burstyn, Primary Colors, a satirical film, with John Travolta and Alexander Payne’s the movie Citizen Ruth where she played Dern’s mother again. That period also saw her score nominations for Emmy Awards for performances in the series Dr Quinn, Medicine Woman, Grace Under Fire, a sitcom and Touched by an Angel.
Collaborations with Daughter
She continued to star with Laura Dern in comedy drama Daddy and Them, a movie, Lynch’s Inland Empire and the series by Mike White satirical show Enlightened, a TV series. She also appeared alongside actress Sandra Bullock in the film 28 Days, Sir Anthony Hopkins in The World’s Fastest Indian and Jennifer Lawrence in Joy.
Her more recent television parts featured Ray Donovan, a drama and Young Sheldon, a comedy.
Behind the Camera
She additionally penned and helmed the comedy Mrs Munck, a film which starred Diane Ladd and ex-husband actor Bruce Dern. “Bruce is an excellent performer,” she said. “It was a privilege to guide him on a project. Indeed, I am the sole female in history to direct her ex-husband. I humorously say: ‘I tell women, if you want revenge, helm a movie with your ex.’ Though I’m just teasing.”
Personal Life
Ladd was also the third cousin of Tennessee Williams, who she called “a major inspiration throughout my life”.
During 2018, Ladd was misdiagnosed with a respiratory illness and told she only had half a year left but made a full recovery once her daughter shifted her to a new hospital.
“When you use your pain and avoid letting it accumulate similar to a wound, instead apply it to investigate, to make the path clearer for personal and collective growth, then you are triumphing,” Ladd expressed.
