Diane Ladd, Oscar-nominated actor of Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, dies aged 89 | Movies
Oscar-nominated actor Diane Ladd has passed away at the age of 89.
The actor, whose credits include Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, Chinatown and National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, passed away at his home in Ojai, California. The news was announced in a statement shared by her daughter, Oscar-winning actor Laura Dern.
Dern, who starred with her mother in many films such as Wild at Heart and Rambling Rose, called her “my amazing hero and my profound gift of a mother” and wrote that she was at her bedside as she died.
“She was the most amazing daughter, mother, grandmother, actress, artist and empathetic soul that only dreams could create,” he wrote. We were lucky to have him. “He is now flying with his angels,” he said.
In the early years of Ladd’s career, he had small roles in TV shows such as Perry Mason, The Fugitive and Gunsmoke, while in the 1970s he starred opposite Jack Nicholson in Chinatown.
That same year, in 1974, he shared the screen with Ellen Burstyn in Martin Scorsese’s acclaimed comedy-drama Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore. The performance earned Ladd her first Oscar nomination for best supporting actress.
In the 1980s, she starred in the crime thriller Black Widow and its comedy sequel National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, and also joined Alice, a sitcom based on Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore.
Over the next decade, she received another best supporting actress Oscar nomination for her role as the mother of his real-life daughter Dern’s character in David Lynch’s Wild at Heart. The following year, she received another nomination for her role in Rambling Rose, which also starred Dern.
“This was the painting that the late Princess Diana chose as her favorite painting, and she flew Laura and me to London for the royal premiere and a party in our honour,” Ladd said of Rambling Rose. an interview later. “And he sat between us, held both our hands, and watched us perform, crying.”
The 1990s also saw roles in the comedy Cemetery Club, which reunited her with Burstyn, as well as the political comedy Primary Colors, John Travolta and Alexander Payne’s Citizen Ruth, in which she again played Dern’s mother. The decade also saw Emmy nominations for business. Dr Quinn, Medicine WomanGrace Under Fire and Touched by an Angel.
She went on to star alongside her daughter in the comedy drama Daddy and Them, David Lynch’s Inland Empire, and Mike White’s dark comedy series Enlightened. He also starred opposite Sandra Bullock in 28 Days, Anthony Hopkins in The World’s Fastest Indian, and Jennifer Lawrence in Joy.
Later TV roles included Ray Donovan and Young Sheldon.
Ladd also wrote and directed the comedy Mrs Munck, starring herself and her ex-husband Bruce Dern. “Bruce is a great actor” he said in an interview. “I have the privilege of having directed him in a movie. In fact, I am the only woman in history to have directed an ex-husband. I joke: ‘Ladies, if you want revenge, I say direct your ex-husband.’ But I’m just kidding.”
Ladd was also a third cousin of Tennessee Williams and said he had a “huge impact on my life.”
In 2018, Ladd was misdiagnosed with lung disease and told he only had six months to live, but made a full recovery after his daughter transferred him to a different hospital.
“If you take your pain and don’t let it reemerge like a wound, but instead use it to explore, to make the path clearer for yourself and others, then you are winning.” Ladd said in 2023.
