Acclaimed Actress Diane Ladd, Known For Her Role in Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, Has Died at 89 Years Old.
This award-nominated performer Diane Ladd, a Hollywood veteran left us aged 89.
The star, with filmography spanned National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, left this world in her residence in California’s Ojai. The news was shared via an announcement from her daughter, Oscar-winning actor Laura Dern, her daughter.
Laura Dern, who performed alongside her mom in a number of films including Wild at Heart and Rambling Rose, called her “my amazing hero as well as my profound gift of a mother”, writing that she was present during her final moments.
“She was the greatest grandmother, mother, daughter, performer, creative as well as compassionate soul that seemed almost dreamlike,” she stated. “We were blessed to have her. She is flying with her angels now.”
Beginnings and Breakthrough
Her initial acting years featured supporting roles in TV shows such as Perry Mason whereas the seventies featured her performing with actor Jack Nicholson in Chinatown.
During that year, 1974, she shared the screen with Ellen Burstyn in the Martin Scorsese celebrated dramatic comedy Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, a classic. The performance landed Ladd her initial Oscar nod as best supporting actress.
1980s and Beyond
In the 1980s, she was seen in the thriller Black Widow and humorous film Christmas Vacation and also took part in the sitcom Alice, a comedy program based on the film Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore.
In the following decade, she was given a further supporting actress Oscar nomination for her role in David Lynch’s the movie Wild at Heart in which she portrayed the mom of her biological child the character played by Dern. The next year she was awarded a further nomination for her acting in the film Rambling Rose that also featured her daughter.
“This movie that Princess Diana picked as her top choice, and she flew Laura and I to London for a special screening and a celebration in our honor,” Ladd said of Rambling Rose. “And she sat between us, holding both our hands, and crying, viewing our performance.”
The nineties also saw roles in humorous films Cemetery Club, a film bringing her back with Burstyn, Primary Colors, a political comedy, starring John Travolta and Alexander Payne’s Citizen Ruth, a dark comedy in which she portrayed the mother of Dern again. The decade also earned her TV award nominations for roles on Dr Quinn, the show Grace Under Fire and Touched by an Angel, a drama.
Collaborations with Daughter
She continued to star with her daughter in films blending humor and drama Daddy and Them, a movie, Lynch’s the movie Inland Empire and Mike White’s comedy-drama series Enlightened, a TV series. She also appeared alongside 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 Joy.
Her more recent television parts included Ray Donovan, a drama and Young Sheldon, a comedy.
Writing and Directing
She additionally penned and oversaw the comedy film the movie Mrs Munck that included Diane Ladd and previous spouse 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 recorded history who directed her former husband. I humorously say: ‘I tell women, if you seek payback, guide your former spouse.’ However, I’m joking.”
Family Ties
She happened to be the third cousin of the great Tennessee Williams, who she referred to as “a significant impact in my life”.
Back in 2018, doctors misdiagnosed Ladd with a respiratory illness and advised she had just six months to live but made a full recovery after her daughter moved her to a new hospital.
“If you can take your pain and avoid letting it accumulate like a sore or something, instead use it to explore, to clarify the journey for you and those around, then you are succeeding,” Ladd expressed.
