🔗 Share this article

This award-nominated actress Diane Ladd left us at the age of 89.

This actor, whose filmography featured Chinatown, passed away at home in Ojai, California. This announcement was shared through a message shared by her child, Academy Award-winning star Laura Dern, her daughter.

Dern, who appeared with Diane Ladd in a number of films such as Rambling Rose, called her “my incredible hero and my profound gift being my mom”, writing that she was present as she died.

“She was an exceptional mother, daughter, grandmother, performer, creative as well as empathetic spirit that only dreams could have seemingly created,” she expressed. “We were lucky to have her. She is now with the angels.”

Beginnings and Rise to Fame

The start of her career featured minor parts on television series like The Fugitive whereas the 1970s featured her performing with actor Jack Nicholson in the classic Chinatown.

During that year, the year 1974, she performed alongside Ellen Burstyn in Martin Scorsese’s celebrated film Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore. The performance brought Ladd an Academy Award nomination for best supporting actress.

Subsequent Years

Throughout the 1980s, she was seen in crime thriller Black Widow as well as comedy sequel National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation while also joining Alice, a comedy program derived from her earlier movie.

In the following decade, she earned a further supporting actress nomination for her part in David Lynch’s the movie Wild at Heart where she played the mother of her actual daughter Laura Dern’s role. The following year she received another nomination for her performance in Rambling Rose, another movie which also starred Dern.

“This movie that the late Princess Diana chose as her absolutely favorite, and she brought us to the UK for a special screening and an event in our honor,” Ladd shared about the film Rambling Rose. “And she sat between us, holding both our hands, with tears, viewing our performance.”

That decade also saw roles in the comedy The Cemetery Club joining her again with Ellen Burstyn, the movie Primary Colors, a comedy about politics, featuring John Travolta and Payne’s Citizen Ruth, a dark comedy where she acted as Dern’s mother another time. That period also saw her score TV award nominations for work in the series Dr Quinn, Medicine Woman, Grace Under Fire, a sitcom and Touched by an Angel.

Partnerships with Her Daughter

She persisted in performing with her daughter in dramatic comedies the film Daddy and Them, Lynch’s Inland Empire, a surreal film and the series by Mike White dark comedy series Enlightened. She additionally starred next to Sandra Bullock, a star in 28 Days, a movie, Anthony Hopkins, a legend in The World’s Fastest Indian, a film plus Jennifer Lawrence in Joy, a biographical drama.

Her later TV roles included Ray Donovan, a drama and Young Sheldon, a comedy.

Filmmaking Ventures

She also authored and helmed the comedy Mrs Munck, a film featuring Diane Ladd and former husband Bruce Dern, an actor. “Bruce is a great actor,” she said. “I’m privileged to have directed him in a film. Actually, I’m the only woman in recorded history to direct her ex-husband. I humorously say: ‘I say ladies, should you desire retribution, guide your former spouse.’ However, I’m joking.”

Personal Connections

She happened to be a relative of Tennessee Williams, who she referred to as “a great influence on my life”.

In 2018, Ladd was misdiagnosed with a pulmonary condition and advised she only had half a year left but she regained full health when her daughter moved her to another medical facility.

“Should you harness your suffering and not let it back up similar to a wound, rather utilize it to discover, to make the path clearer for you and those around, then you are winning,” Ladd remarked.