Acclaimed Actress Diane Ladd, Celebrated For Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, Passes Away at Age 89.
This award-nominated performer the celebrated Diane Ladd has died 89 years old.
The actress, with filmography featured Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, left this world in her residence in California’s Ojai. The news was shared via an announcement by her child, Academy Award-winning star her daughter Laura Dern.
Dern, who starred with her mom in various films including Wild at Heart and Rambling Rose, called her “my wonderful hero plus my precious gift as a mother”, writing that she was present when she passed.
“She was the most wonderful daughter, mother, grandmother, performer, creative along with empathetic spirit that felt like a dream come true,” she expressed. “We were blessed to have her. She is flying with her angels now.”
Initial Roles and Rise to Fame
The start of her career featured small roles in television programs including Perry Mason while that decade saw her starring alongside actor Jack Nicholson in the classic Chinatown.
In the same year, 1974, she shared the screen with actress Ellen Burstyn in the Martin Scorsese acclaimed film Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore. The performance earned Ladd an Academy Award nomination in the supporting actress category.
1980s and Beyond
Throughout the 1980s, she appeared in crime thriller Black Widow, a suspense story as well as funny follow-up National Lampoon’s holiday comedy and also took part in the show Alice, a television series inspired by the film Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore.
In the subsequent decade, she received an additional Oscar nomination for supporting actress Academy Award nomination for her part in Lynch’s the movie Wild at Heart where she played the parent of her actual daughter Laura Dern’s role. A year later she was awarded a further nomination for her performance in Rambling Rose, another movie which also starred Laura Dern.
“This movie which Princess Diana chose as her absolutely favorite, and she brought Laura and I to England for a premiere and a party dedicated to us,” Ladd shared of Rambling Rose. “She positioned herself between us, grasping our hands, with tears, watching us perform.”
The nineties featured performances in humorous films Cemetery Club, a film joining her again with Burstyn, Primary Colors, a satirical film, starring John Travolta and the film by Alexander Payne the movie Citizen Ruth where she acted as the mother of Dern once more. Those years also brought her TV award nominations for work on Dr Quinn, Grace Under Fire plus Touched by an Angel.
Collaborations with Daughter
She persisted in performing with her daughter in films blending humor and drama Daddy and Them, the David Lynch project the movie Inland Empire and White’s satirical show Enlightened. She was also seen next to Sandra Bullock, a star in the film 28 Days, Anthony Hopkins in that movie and with Jennifer Lawrence in the film Joy.
Her later TV roles included the series Ray Donovan plus Young Sheldon.
Writing and Directing
She also authored and directed the humorous movie Mrs Munck featuring Diane Ladd and ex-husband actor Bruce Dern. “Bruce is a great actor,” she noted. “It was a privilege to guide him on a project. Actually, I’m the only woman in recorded history to helm a film with her ex. I humorously say: ‘I tell women, if you want revenge, direct your ex-husband.’ However, I’m joking.”
Family Ties
She happened to be a relative of Tennessee Williams, who she referred to as “a great influence throughout my life”.
Back in 2018, she received an incorrect diagnosis with a respiratory illness and informed her life expectancy was six months but made a full recovery after her daughter moved her to another medical facility.
“If you can take your pain and not let it back up like an injury, instead use it to investigate, to illuminate the way for you and those around, then you are triumphing,” Ladd expressed.