Diane Ladd, Famed For Her Role in Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, Dies at the Age of 89.
This award-nominated performer Diane Ladd, a Hollywood veteran has died aged 89.
This star, with filmography included Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, passed away at home in California’s Ojai. The news was revealed via an announcement shared by her daughter, award-winning actress Laura Dern.
Laura Dern, who appeared with her mother in various films such as Wild at Heart, described her as “my wonderful hero as well as my profound gift of a mother”, noting that she was by her side as she died.
“She was the most wonderful daughter, mother, grandmother, performer, creative as well as compassionate soul that felt like a dream come true,” she wrote. “We were lucky to have her. Her spirit soars with angels.”
Beginnings and Breakthrough
Her initial acting years featured small roles in TV shows including Perry Mason and the seventies featured her performing with Jack Nicholson in the film Chinatown.
That very year, 1974, she shared the screen alongside Ellen Burstyn in Scorsese’s celebrated dramatic comedy Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, a classic. Her role earned Ladd her first Oscar nomination for best supporting actress.
Later Decades
During the eighties, she appeared in the thriller Black Widow, a suspense story plus funny follow-up Christmas Vacation and appeared on Alice, a sitcom inspired by the film Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore.
In the following decade, she was given another supporting actress Academy Award nomination for her role in Lynch’s the movie Wild at Heart in which she portrayed the mom of her biological child the character played by Dern. The next year she received a further nomination for her role in Rambling Rose, another movie which also starred Laura Dern.
“This movie that the late Princess Diana chose as her absolutely favorite, and she invited us to England for a royal premiere and an event dedicated to us,” Ladd said regarding Rambling Rose. “She positioned herself between us, taking our hands, with tears, watching us perform.”
That decade featured performances in the comedy The Cemetery Club reuniting her with Ellen Burstyn, Primary Colors, a political story, a comedy about politics, starring John Travolta and Alexander Payne’s Citizen Ruth, a dark comedy in which she portrayed the mother of Dern once more. The decade also earned her Emmy nominations for work in the series Dr Quinn, Medicine Woman, Grace Under Fire and Touched by an Angel, a drama.
Working with Laura Dern
She continued to star with her daughter in films blending humor and drama Daddy and Them, a movie, Lynch’s Inland Empire, a surreal film and Mike White’s dark comedy series Enlightened. She was also seen next to actress Sandra Bullock in 28 Days, Sir Anthony Hopkins in The World’s Fastest Indian, a film plus Jennifer Lawrence in Joy.
Her later TV roles featured Ray Donovan, a drama and Young Sheldon.
Filmmaking Ventures
She also authored and oversaw the comedy Mrs Munck, a film featuring Diane Ladd and former husband actor Bruce Dern. “Bruce is an excellent performer,” she said. “I’m privileged to have directed him in a film. Indeed, I’m the only woman in history to direct her ex-husband. I humorously say: ‘I tell women, if you seek payback, helm a movie with your ex.’ But I’m only kidding.”
Family Ties
Ladd was also a relative of the great Tennessee Williams, who she called “a major inspiration throughout my life”.
In 2018, doctors misdiagnosed Ladd with a pulmonary condition and advised her life expectancy was six months yet she recovered completely when her daughter shifted her to a different hospital.
“When you use your pain and not let it back up like a sore or something, rather utilize it to explore, to illuminate the way for yourself and others, then you are triumphing,” Ladd remarked.