Acclaimed Actress Diane Ladd, Known For Her Role in Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, Passes Away at Age 89.
This Academy Award-nominated actor Diane Ladd left us 89 years old.
The actress, with roles featured Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, left this world in her residence at her Ojai, California home. The news was announced via an announcement by her child, award-winning actress Laura Dern, her daughter.
Laura Dern, who appeared with her mom in several movies including Wild at Heart and Rambling Rose, called her “my incredible hero and my profound gift as a mother”, noting that she was at her bedside when she passed.
“She was the most wonderful mother, daughter, grandmother, star, artist and empathetic spirit that felt like a dream come true,” she wrote. “We were fortunate to know her. She is flying with her angels now.”
Initial Roles and Rise to Fame
The start of her career included small roles in TV shows like The Fugitive whereas the 1970s featured her performing next to actor Jack Nicholson in Chinatown.
That very year, the year 1974, she appeared alongside Ellen Burstyn in Scorsese’s acclaimed dramatic comedy the movie Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore. The performance landed Ladd an Academy Award nomination as best supporting actress.
Subsequent Years
During the eighties, she appeared in crime thriller Black Widow, a suspense story and comedy sequel Christmas Vacation while also joining Alice, a sitcom based on the film Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore.
In the following decade, she received an additional supporting actress nomination for her performance in Lynch’s the movie Wild at Heart in which she portrayed the mother of her actual daughter Dern’s character. The next year she was awarded another nomination for her performance in Rambling Rose, another movie which included Laura Dern.
“This movie that Princess Diana selected as her very favorite, and she flew Laura and I to London for a royal premiere and an event for us,” Ladd shared of Rambling Rose. “And she sat between us, holding both our hands, with tears, viewing our performance.”
The 1990s included parts in comedy Cemetery Club reuniting her with Ellen Burstyn, Primary Colors, a political story, a satirical film, with John Travolta and Payne’s Citizen Ruth, a dark comedy where she played Laura Dern’s mom another time. That period also brought her nominations for Emmy Awards for work in Dr Quinn, Medicine Woman, Grace Under Fire and Touched by an Angel.
Working with Laura Dern
She persisted in performing with Laura Dern in comedy drama Daddy and Them, a movie, the David Lynch project the movie Inland Empire and White’s satirical show Enlightened. She also appeared next to Sandra Bullock, a star in the film 28 Days, Anthony Hopkins in The World’s Fastest Indian, a film and with Jennifer Lawrence in Joy, a biographical drama.
Her later TV roles included the series Ray Donovan and Young Sheldon.
Writing and Directing
Ladd also wrote and directed the comedy film Mrs Munck, a film featuring her and previous spouse actor Bruce Dern. “Bruce is a great actor,” she said. “I was honored to direct him in a film. Indeed, I am the sole female ever who directed her former husband. I make a joke: ‘I say ladies, 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 referred to as “a significant impact on my life”.
Back in 2018, she received an incorrect diagnosis with a pulmonary condition and told she had just six months to live but she regained full health after her daughter shifted her to a new hospital.
“If you can take your pain and not let it back up like an injury, instead apply it to discover, to make the path clearer for yourself and others, then you are winning,” Ladd expressed.