Diane Ladd, Famed For Her Role in Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, Has Died at Age 89.
The Academy Award-nominated performer the celebrated Diane Ladd passed away at the age of 89.
This actress, with roles featured Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, passed away at home at her Ojai, California home. This announcement was shared through a message from her offspring, award-winning actress Laura Dern, her daughter.
Laura Dern, who starred with Diane Ladd in several movies like Wild at Heart and Rambling Rose, described her as “my amazing hero and my profound gift of a mother”, stating that she was at her bedside as she died.
“She was the greatest mother, daughter, grandmother, actress, artist and empathetic spirit that felt like a dream come true,” she wrote. “We were fortunate to know her. She is now with the angels.”
Early Career and Rise to Fame
Her initial acting years featured supporting roles in TV shows including Gunsmoke and the 1970s saw her starring with actor Jack Nicholson in Chinatown.
During that year, 1974, she shared the screen alongside Ellen Burstyn in Martin Scorsese’s celebrated dramatic comedy Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore. The performance brought Ladd her initial Oscar nod for best supporting actress.
Subsequent Years
Throughout the 1980s, she starred in the dramatic film the movie Black Widow as well as comedy sequel National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation and also took part in Alice, a television series inspired by the film Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore.
In the subsequent decade, she was given another supporting actress Academy Award nomination for her role in David Lynch’s Wild at Heart where she acted as the mother of her biological child the character played by Dern. The following year she obtained another nomination for her performance in Rambling Rose which included her daughter.
“This movie which Princess Diana chose as her absolutely favorite, and she invited Laura and I to the UK for a special screening and an event for us,” Ladd said regarding Rambling Rose. “She sat with us, grasping our hands, and crying, viewing our performance.”
The 1990s also saw roles in the comedy The Cemetery Club joining her again with Burstyn, Primary Colors, a political story, a comedy about politics, starring John Travolta and Payne’s the movie Citizen Ruth in which she portrayed the mother of Dern again. That period also saw her score nominations for Emmy Awards for work 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 dramatic comedies Daddy and Them, David Lynch’s Inland Empire and Mike White’s comedy-drama series Enlightened, a TV series. She was also seen alongside Sandra Bullock, a star in 28 Days, a movie, Anthony Hopkins in The World’s Fastest Indian, a film and Jennifer Lawrence in Joy.
Her more recent television parts featured the series Ray Donovan and Young Sheldon.
Behind the Camera
She also authored and helmed the comedy Mrs Munck, a film featuring her and former husband actor Bruce Dern. “Bruce is a great actor,” she mentioned. “I was honored to direct him in a movie. Indeed, I stand as the only woman ever to helm a film with her ex. I make a joke: ‘I tell women, should you desire retribution, direct your ex-husband.’ However, I’m joking.”
Personal Connections
She was additionally a relative of Tennessee Williams, who she referred to as “a great influence throughout my life”.
During 2018, she received an incorrect diagnosis with a respiratory illness and told her life expectancy was six months but she regained full health after her daughter shifted her to a new hospital.
“Should you harness your suffering and not let it back up similar to a wound, instead apply it to investigate, to illuminate the way for personal and collective growth, then you are triumphing,” Ladd remarked.
