Oscar-Nominated Star Diane Ladd, Known For Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, Passes Away at 89 Years Old.
The Academy Award-nominated actress the celebrated Diane Ladd has died 89 years old.
The actor, with filmography spanned National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, passed away at home in California’s Ojai. Her passing was announced through a message shared by her daughter, Oscar-winning actor Laura Dern.
Dern, who appeared with her mom in a number of films such as Wild at Heart, referred to her as “my incredible hero as well as my precious gift as a mother”, noting that she was at her bedside when she passed.
“She was an exceptional mother, daughter, grandmother, performer, creative and compassionate soul that seemed almost dreamlike,” she expressed. “We were fortunate to know her. Her spirit soars with angels.”
Early Career and Rise to Fame
The start of her career featured minor parts in TV shows including Gunsmoke while that decade featured her performing with the legendary Jack Nicholson in the film Chinatown.
In the same year, the year 1974, she shared the screen with actress Ellen Burstyn in Scorsese’s acclaimed comedy drama Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, a classic. Her acting earned Ladd an Academy Award nomination as best supporting actress.
Later Decades
Throughout the 1980s, she starred in crime thriller Black Widow and funny follow-up National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation while also joining the sitcom Alice, a sitcom based on Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore.
During the next ten years, she received an additional supporting actress nomination for her role in Lynch’s Wild at Heart, a cult classic in which she portrayed the mother of her actual daughter Laura Dern’s role. The following year she received another nomination for her role in Rambling Rose, another movie which included her daughter.
“This movie that the late Princess Diana picked as her top choice, and she flew us to the UK for a premiere and a party dedicated to us,” Ladd said about the film Rambling Rose. “She sat with us, grasping our hands, and crying, seeing us act.”
The nineties featured performances in the comedy The Cemetery Club reuniting her with Burstyn, the movie Primary Colors, a political comedy, starring John Travolta and Payne’s Citizen Ruth, a dark comedy in which she portrayed the mother of Dern another time. That period also brought her nominations for Emmy Awards for performances in Dr Quinn, Medicine Woman, Grace Under Fire plus Touched by an Angel.
Partnerships with Her Daughter
She kept appearing with Laura Dern in dramatic comedies the film Daddy and Them, Lynch’s Inland Empire, a surreal film and White’s satirical show Enlightened, a TV series. She also appeared alongside actress Sandra Bullock in 28 Days, a movie, Sir Anthony Hopkins in that movie plus Jennifer Lawrence in Joy.
Her later TV roles included Ray Donovan, a drama and Young Sheldon.
Filmmaking Ventures
She also authored and helmed the humorous movie the movie Mrs Munck featuring herself and previous spouse Bruce Dern, an actor. “Bruce is a great actor,” she said. “It was a privilege to guide him in a movie. Indeed, I’m the only woman in recorded history to direct her ex-husband. I often joke: ‘I tell women, if you want revenge, helm a movie with your ex.’ However, I’m joking.”
Personal Connections
Ladd was also a family member of Tennessee Williams, who she called “a great influence on my life”.
In 2018, doctors misdiagnosed Ladd with a respiratory illness and advised her life expectancy was six months but made a full recovery when her daughter shifted her to a different hospital.
“If you can take your pain and avoid letting it accumulate like an injury, instead use it to investigate, to make the path clearer for yourself and others, then you are winning,” Ladd remarked.