Diane Ladd, Famed For Her Role in Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, Dies at Age 89.

This Academy Award-nominated actress Diane Ladd has died 89 years old.

This actress, whose filmography included Chinatown, died at her home in California’s Ojai. The news was shared via an announcement shared by her daughter, Oscar-winning actor Laura Dern, her daughter.

Laura Dern, who performed alongside Diane Ladd in several movies including Wild at Heart, referred to her as “my incredible hero and my profound gift of a mother”, stating that she was at her bedside as she died.

“She was an exceptional mother, daughter, grandmother, performer, creative as well as caring individual that only dreams could have seemingly created,” she expressed. “We were lucky to have her. She is now with the angels.”

Early Career and Rise to Fame

The start of her career included minor parts in TV shows including Gunsmoke whereas the 1970s featured her performing next to the legendary Jack Nicholson in the film Chinatown.

That very year, 1974, she shared the screen with actress Ellen Burstyn in the Martin Scorsese acclaimed film Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore. The performance landed Ladd her first Oscar nomination for best supporting actress.

Subsequent Years

Throughout the 1980s, she was seen in the thriller Black Widow, a suspense story and humorous film National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation and appeared on the show Alice, a comedy program derived from her earlier movie.

In the subsequent decade, she received an additional best supporting actress nomination for her role in David Lynch’s the movie Wild at Heart in which she portrayed the mom of her real-life daughter Dern’s character. The following year she was awarded another nomination for her acting in the film Rambling Rose which included Dern.

“This was the film which Princess Diana selected as her very favorite, and she brought us to England for a royal premiere and a party dedicated to us,” Ladd said of Rambling Rose. “She sat with us, grasping our hands, and weeping, seeing us act.”

That decade included parts in the comedy Cemetery Club reuniting her with Ellen Burstyn, the movie Primary Colors, a political comedy, starring John Travolta and Alexander Payne’s Citizen Ruth, a dark comedy where she played Laura Dern’s mom again. Those years also saw her score TV award nominations for work in Dr Quinn, Medicine Woman, Grace Under Fire, a sitcom and Touched by an Angel, a drama.

Collaborations with Daughter

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

Her more recent television parts included Ray Donovan and Young Sheldon.

Behind the Camera

Ladd also wrote and helmed the humorous movie the movie Mrs Munck which starred her and previous spouse actor Bruce Dern. “Bruce is an excellent performer,” she noted. “I was honored to direct him in a film. Indeed, I am the sole female in history to helm a film with her ex. I humorously say: ‘I say ladies, if you seek payback, direct your ex-husband.’ But I’m only kidding.”

Personal Life

She was additionally a family member of playwright Tennessee Williams, who she called “a significant impact on my life”.

Back in 2018, doctors misdiagnosed Ladd with a pulmonary condition and advised her life expectancy was six months but she regained full health when her daughter shifted her to a different hospital.

“If you can take your pain and avoid letting it accumulate like a sore or something, instead apply it to discover, to make the path clearer for you and those around, then you are succeeding,” Ladd said.