Acclaimed Actress Diane Ladd, Known For Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, Dies at Age 89.
This award-nominated performer Diane Ladd has died aged 89.
The star, whose credits spanned Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, passed away at home in California’s Ojai. Her passing was shared in a statement shared by her daughter, Academy Award-winning star Laura Dern, her daughter.
Her daughter, who performed alongside Diane Ladd in a number of films like Wild at Heart, referred to her as “my wonderful hero as well as my precious gift as a mother”, stating that she was present when she passed.
“She was an exceptional daughter, mother, grandmother, star, artist and empathetic spirit that felt like a dream come true,” she stated. “We were blessed to have her. Her spirit soars with angels.”
Initial Roles and Rise to Fame
Her initial acting years saw small roles in TV shows such as Perry Mason while the seventies saw her starring alongside the legendary Jack Nicholson in the classic Chinatown.
That very year, 1974, she shared the screen with Ellen Burstyn in Scorsese’s praised film the movie Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore. Her acting brought Ladd her first Oscar nomination for best supporting actress.
Subsequent Years
During the eighties, she starred in the thriller the movie Black Widow and comedy sequel Christmas Vacation while also joining the show Alice, a television series based on her earlier movie.
In the following decade, she received an additional best supporting actress nomination for her role in David Lynch’s Wild at Heart in which she portrayed the mom of her biological child the character played by Dern. The next year she received another nomination for her performance in Rambling Rose that also featured Laura Dern.
“This was the picture that Princess Diana picked as her top choice, and she invited me and Laura to the UK for a royal premiere and an event dedicated to us,” Ladd recalled of Rambling Rose. “She sat with us, taking our hands, and crying, seeing us act.”
The 1990s included parts in humorous films The Cemetery Club bringing her back with Ellen Burstyn, Primary Colors, a political story, a political comedy, with John Travolta and Alexander Payne’s Citizen Ruth, a dark comedy where she acted as Laura Dern’s mom once more. The decade also brought her nominations for Emmy Awards for roles in the series Dr Quinn, Medicine Woman, Grace Under Fire and Touched by an Angel, a drama.
Collaborations with Daughter
She persisted in performing with Laura Dern in comedy drama Daddy and Them, a movie, the David Lynch project Inland Empire and Mike White’s comedy-drama series the program Enlightened. She additionally starred with actress Sandra Bullock in the film 28 Days, Anthony Hopkins in The World’s Fastest Indian, a film and Jennifer Lawrence in the film Joy.
Subsequent TV appearances featured the series Ray Donovan and Young Sheldon, a comedy.
Writing and Directing
She additionally penned and helmed the comedy Mrs Munck featuring her and previous spouse Bruce Dern, an actor. “Bruce is a great actor,” she mentioned. “I’m privileged to have directed him on a project. Actually, I am the sole female in recorded history who directed her former husband. I make a joke: ‘I advise females, if you seek payback, helm a movie with your ex.’ Though I’m just teasing.”
Personal Life
She happened to be the third cousin of Tennessee Williams, who she called “a significant impact throughout my life”.
Back in 2018, she received an incorrect diagnosis with a respiratory illness and advised her life expectancy was six months but she regained full health when her daughter moved her to another medical facility.
“When you use your pain and avoid letting it accumulate like a sore or something, instead use it to investigate, to illuminate the way for you and those around, then you are succeeding,” Ladd remarked.
