Oscar-Nominated Star Diane Ladd, Famed For Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, Dies at Age 89.
The Oscar-nominated actor Diane Ladd, a Hollywood veteran passed away aged 89.
The actor, with roles featured National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, passed away at home at her Ojai, California home. The news was announced in a statement by her offspring, Academy Award-winning star Laura Dern, her daughter.
Dern, who starred with her mother in various films including Wild at Heart, referred to her as “my amazing hero and my special gift of a mother”, stating that she was by her side when she passed.
“She was an exceptional daughter, mother, grandmother, performer, creative along with compassionate soul that only dreams could have seemingly created,” she stated. “We were lucky to have her. She is now with the angels.”
Initial Roles and Breakthrough
Ladd’s early career saw supporting roles on television series including The Fugitive whereas the seventies featured her performing with Jack Nicholson in the film Chinatown.
In the same year, 1974, she performed with Ellen Burstyn in Martin Scorsese’s celebrated comedy drama Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, a classic. Her acting earned Ladd her initial Oscar nod in the supporting actress category.
1980s and Beyond
Throughout the 1980s, she was seen in crime thriller the movie Black Widow and funny follow-up National Lampoon’s holiday comedy and appeared on the sitcom Alice, a television series inspired by Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore.
In the subsequent decade, she earned another Oscar nomination for supporting actress nomination for her part in Lynch’s Wild at Heart where she acted as the mother of her real-life daughter the character played by Dern. The next year she was awarded an additional nod for her role in Rambling Rose that also featured Dern.
“This was the film that the late Princess Diana selected as her very favorite, and she brought me and Laura to England for a premiere and an event in our honor,” Ladd recalled regarding Rambling Rose. “And she sat between us, taking our hands, and crying, seeing us act.”
That decade included parts in humorous films The Cemetery Club reuniting her with Ellen Burstyn, Primary Colors, a political story, a comedy about politics, with John Travolta and Payne’s Citizen Ruth in which she portrayed Laura Dern’s mom another time. The decade also saw her score TV award nominations for work on Dr Quinn, Grace Under Fire, a sitcom and Touched by an Angel.
Working with Laura Dern
She continued to star alongside her daughter in films blending humor and drama Daddy and Them, a movie, Lynch’s Inland Empire, a surreal film and White’s comedy-drama series Enlightened. She also appeared next to actress Sandra Bullock in 28 Days, a movie, Sir Anthony Hopkins in The World’s Fastest Indian and with Jennifer Lawrence in the film Joy.
Subsequent TV appearances included Ray Donovan plus Young Sheldon.
Behind the Camera
She also authored and oversaw the comedy the movie Mrs Munck featuring herself and ex-husband actor Bruce Dern. “Bruce is a great actor,” she noted. “I’m privileged to have directed him in a movie. In fact, I am the sole female in history to helm a film with her ex. I humorously say: ‘I advise females, if you seek payback, guide your former spouse.’ But I’m only kidding.”
Personal Connections
Ladd was also the third cousin of playwright Tennessee Williams, whom she described as “a significant impact in my life”.
In 2018, doctors misdiagnosed Ladd with a pulmonary condition and told her life expectancy was six months but made a full recovery once her daughter shifted her to a new hospital.
“When you use your pain and not let it back up like an injury, instead use it to explore, to illuminate the way for you and those around, then you are winning,” Ladd expressed.
