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This Academy Award-nominated actor the celebrated Diane Ladd has died 89 years old.

The actor, whose credits included Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, left this world in her residence at her Ojai, California home. This announcement was announced through a message from her daughter, Academy Award-winning star Laura Dern, her daughter.

Her daughter, who performed alongside her mom in several movies like Wild at Heart and Rambling Rose, called her “my wonderful hero and my special gift being my mom”, stating that she was at her bedside as she died.

“She was the most wonderful grandmother, mother, daughter, star, artist along with empathetic spirit that only dreams could have seemingly created,” she expressed. “We were fortunate to know her. She is now with the angels.”

Beginnings and Major Success

Ladd’s early career saw small roles on television series like The Fugitive while the 1970s saw her starring with Jack Nicholson in Chinatown.

That very year, 1974, she performed with Ellen Burstyn in the Martin Scorsese acclaimed dramatic comedy Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, a classic. The performance earned Ladd her first Oscar nomination for best supporting actress.

Later Decades

Throughout the 1980s, she starred in crime thriller Black Widow as well as comedy sequel Christmas Vacation while also joining Alice, a television series inspired by Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore.

In the following decade, she was given an additional best supporting actress nomination for her role in the David Lynch film the movie Wild at Heart where she played the mom of her real-life daughter the character played by Dern. The next year she received a further nomination for her acting in the film Rambling Rose which included Dern.

“This movie that the late Princess Diana selected as her very favorite, and she flew Laura and I to the UK for a premiere and an event dedicated to us,” Ladd recalled of Rambling Rose. “And she sat between us, taking our hands, and crying, watching us perform.”

The nineties included parts in the comedy Cemetery Club bringing her back with Ellen Burstyn, Primary Colors, a political story, a political comedy, starring John Travolta and Alexander Payne’s Citizen Ruth, a dark comedy where she played Laura Dern’s mom again. That period also earned her Emmy nominations for performances in the series Dr Quinn, Medicine Woman, the show Grace Under Fire and Touched by an Angel, a drama.

Working with Laura Dern

She persisted in performing alongside her daughter in comedy drama Daddy and Them, the David Lynch project the movie Inland Empire and White’s comedy-drama series Enlightened, a TV series. She was also seen next to actress Sandra Bullock in the film 28 Days, Anthony Hopkins, a legend in The World’s Fastest Indian, a film plus Jennifer Lawrence in the film Joy.

Subsequent TV appearances featured Ray Donovan plus Young Sheldon.

Filmmaking Ventures

She additionally penned and directed the humorous movie Mrs Munck which starred Diane Ladd and previous spouse Bruce Dern. “Bruce is a talented star,” she noted. “I’m privileged to have directed him on a project. Actually, I’m the only woman ever who directed her former husband. I humorously say: ‘I say ladies, should you desire retribution, direct your ex-husband.’ Though I’m just teasing.”

Family Ties

Ladd was also a relative of the great Tennessee Williams, who she called “a significant impact on my life”.

Back in 2018, doctors misdiagnosed Ladd with a respiratory illness and told she only had half a year left but made a full recovery after her daughter moved her to a different hospital.

“When you use your pain and not let it back up similar to a wound, rather utilize it to investigate, to illuminate the way for yourself and others, then you are winning,” Ladd expressed.