🔗 Share this article

This award-nominated actress Diane Ladd, a Hollywood veteran has died 89 years old.

The actress, whose credits featured Chinatown, died at her home in Ojai, California. Her passing was shared through a message shared by her daughter, Academy Award-winning star Laura Dern.

Laura Dern, who performed alongside Diane Ladd in a number of films including Rambling Rose, called her “my incredible hero and my profound gift of a mother”, stating that she was present as she died.

“She was the most wonderful mother, daughter, grandmother, star, artist along with compassionate soul that seemed almost dreamlike,” she stated. “We were fortunate to know her. Her spirit soars with angels.”

Early Career and Breakthrough

Ladd’s early career included small roles in television programs including The Fugitive and the 1970s saw her starring alongside Jack Nicholson in Chinatown.

That very year, the year 1974, she shared the screen with actress Ellen Burstyn in Scorsese’s celebrated comedy drama Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, a classic. Her role brought Ladd her first Oscar nomination for best supporting actress.

Later Decades

In the 1980s, she appeared in the thriller the movie Black Widow as well as funny follow-up National Lampoon’s holiday comedy and appeared on the sitcom Alice, a television series inspired by the film Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore.

In the following decade, she earned a further supporting actress Academy Award nomination for her performance in Lynch’s Wild at Heart, a cult classic in which she portrayed the mom of her biological child the character played by Dern. A year later she was awarded an additional nod for her role in Rambling Rose which also starred Laura Dern.

“This was the film that Princess Diana picked as her top choice, and she invited me and Laura to London for a special screening and a celebration dedicated to us,” Ladd said regarding Rambling Rose. “She sat with us, grasping our hands, and weeping, viewing our performance.”

The 1990s included parts in humorous films Cemetery Club, a film joining her again with Ellen Burstyn, Primary Colors, a political story, a satirical film, starring John Travolta and Payne’s the movie Citizen Ruth where she played Dern’s mother another time. That period also earned her Emmy nominations for performances in the series Dr Quinn, Medicine Woman, the show Grace Under Fire plus Touched by an Angel.

Working with Laura Dern

She continued to star with her daughter in films blending humor and drama Daddy and Them, a movie, David Lynch’s Inland Empire, a surreal film and Mike White’s comedy-drama series the program Enlightened. She additionally starred next to actress Sandra Bullock in 28 Days, a movie, Anthony Hopkins in The World’s Fastest Indian plus Jennifer Lawrence in the film Joy.

Her later TV roles featured Ray Donovan, a drama and Young Sheldon.

Filmmaking Ventures

Ladd also wrote and helmed the humorous movie Mrs Munck, a film which starred her and ex-husband Bruce Dern. “Bruce is a great actor,” she noted. “It was a privilege to guide him in a film. Actually, I’m the only woman in recorded history to direct her ex-husband. I make a joke: ‘I advise females, if you seek payback, guide your former spouse.’ But I’m only kidding.”

Family Ties

She happened to be a relative of Tennessee Williams, who she called “a great influence on my life”.

In 2018, she received an incorrect diagnosis with lung disease and informed her life expectancy was six months but she regained full health when her daughter transferred her to a different hospital.

“If you can take your pain and not let it back up similar to a wound, instead apply it to explore, to illuminate the way for you and those around, then you are succeeding,” Ladd expressed.