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This award-nominated actress Diane Ladd left us 89 years old.

The actress, with credits featured Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, passed away at home in California’s Ojai. This announcement was shared through a message shared by her daughter, award-winning actress Laura Dern.

Her daughter, who starred with Diane Ladd in various films like Rambling Rose, referred to her as “my incredible hero plus my precious gift being my mom”, stating that she was at her bedside when she passed.

“She was the most wonderful daughter, mother, grandmother, performer, creative as well as caring individual that felt like a dream come true,” she wrote. “We were fortunate to know her. Her spirit soars with angels.”

Initial Roles and Major Success

The start of her career featured small roles in television programs including The Fugitive whereas the seventies had her appearing alongside Jack Nicholson in the film Chinatown.

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

Later Decades

Throughout the 1980s, she was seen in crime thriller the movie Black Widow plus funny follow-up National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation and also took part in the show Alice, a television series based on the film Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore.

In the subsequent decade, she earned a further supporting actress nomination for her part in the David Lynch film the movie Wild at Heart in which she portrayed the parent of her biological child the character played by Dern. The following year she received an additional nod for her acting in Rambling Rose, another movie which also starred Laura Dern.

“This was the film that the late Princess Diana chose as her absolutely favorite, and she brought me and Laura to the UK for a premiere and an event for us,” Ladd shared about the film Rambling Rose. “She positioned herself between us, taking our hands, and crying, watching us perform.”

The 1990s included parts in the comedy The Cemetery Club reuniting her with Ellen Burstyn, the movie Primary Colors, a comedy about politics, with John Travolta and Alexander Payne’s Citizen Ruth, a dark comedy where she acted as the mother of Dern again. The decade also saw her score Emmy nominations for roles in Dr Quinn, Medicine Woman, the show Grace Under Fire plus Touched by an Angel.

Collaborations with Daughter

She continued to star alongside her daughter in dramatic comedies Daddy and Them, Lynch’s Inland Empire and White’s comedy-drama series Enlightened, a TV series. She was also seen alongside Sandra Bullock, a star in 28 Days, Anthony Hopkins in The World’s Fastest Indian and with Jennifer Lawrence in Joy, a biographical drama.

Her later TV roles consisted of Ray Donovan, a drama and Young Sheldon, a comedy.

Behind the Camera

Ladd also wrote and directed the humorous movie Mrs Munck featuring her and former husband actor Bruce Dern. “Bruce is an excellent performer,” she said. “It was a privilege to guide him on a project. Indeed, I am the sole female in recorded history who directed her former husband. I often joke: ‘I advise females, if you want revenge, helm a movie with your ex.’ However, I’m joking.”

Family Ties

Ladd was also a relative of the great Tennessee Williams, who she referred to as “a great influence in my life”.

In 2018, doctors misdiagnosed Ladd with a respiratory illness and advised she had just six months to live but made a full recovery when her daughter moved her to a different hospital.

“If you can take your pain and not let it back up similar to a wound, instead use it to explore, to clarify the journey for you and those around, then you are succeeding,” Ladd expressed.