🔗 Share this article

This Academy Award-nominated actor Diane Ladd, a Hollywood veteran left us aged 89.

The actor, whose filmography included National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, died at her home in California’s Ojai. This announcement was shared via an announcement by her offspring, Academy Award-winning star Laura Dern, her daughter.

Laura Dern, who performed alongside her mother in various films such as Rambling Rose, referred to her as “my incredible hero as well as my special gift being my mom”, writing that she was by her side as she died.

“She was an exceptional grandmother, mother, daughter, performer, creative as well as empathetic spirit that seemed almost dreamlike,” she expressed. “We were blessed to have her. She is flying with her angels now.”

Beginnings and Breakthrough

Her initial acting years saw supporting roles in television programs such as Perry Mason while the 1970s saw her starring next to the legendary Jack Nicholson in Chinatown.

In the same year, 1974, she appeared with actress Ellen Burstyn in Martin Scorsese’s praised comedy drama Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore. Her acting brought Ladd her first Oscar nomination in the supporting actress category.

1980s and Beyond

In the 1980s, she appeared in the dramatic film Black Widow, a suspense story as well as funny follow-up National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation while also joining the show Alice, a comedy program inspired by Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore.

In the subsequent decade, she earned a further best supporting actress Academy Award nomination for her role in Lynch’s the movie Wild at Heart where she acted as the mother of her biological child the character played by Dern. The following year she received a further nomination for her performance in the film Rambling Rose which also starred Dern.

“This movie that Princess Diana chose as her absolutely favorite, and she brought me and Laura to the UK for a special screening and an event dedicated to us,” Ladd recalled about the film Rambling Rose. “And she sat between us, taking our hands, and weeping, watching us perform.”

The nineties featured performances in comedy The Cemetery Club reuniting her with her co-star Burstyn, Primary Colors, a political story, a satirical film, with John Travolta and Alexander Payne’s the movie Citizen Ruth where she acted as Dern’s mother another time. Those years also saw her score TV award nominations for roles in Dr Quinn, Medicine Woman, Grace Under Fire, a sitcom plus Touched by an Angel.

Working with Laura Dern

She kept appearing alongside her daughter in dramatic comedies the film Daddy and Them, David Lynch’s the movie Inland Empire and Mike White’s dark comedy series Enlightened. She was also seen alongside actress Sandra Bullock in the film 28 Days, Sir Anthony Hopkins in that movie and with Jennifer Lawrence in the film Joy.

Her later TV roles included Ray Donovan plus Young Sheldon.

Writing and Directing

Ladd also wrote and oversaw the comedy Mrs Munck, a film that included her and former husband Bruce Dern, an actor. “Bruce is a great actor,” she noted. “I’m privileged to have directed him on a project. Indeed, I am the sole female in history who directed her former husband. I humorously say: ‘I tell women, if you seek payback, guide your former spouse.’ But I’m only kidding.”

Personal Connections

She happened to be a family member of playwright Tennessee Williams, whom she described as “a major inspiration in my life”.

During 2018, she received an incorrect diagnosis with a respiratory illness and told she had just six months to live but she regained full health once her daughter shifted her to a new hospital.

“Should you harness your suffering and not let it back up similar to a wound, rather utilize it to explore, to illuminate the way for personal and collective growth, then you are succeeding,” Ladd said.