Iconic Hollywood actress Diane Ladd, who has appeared in more than 200 movies and TV shows, has died aged 89.
Ladd was also the mother of Academy Award-winning star Laura Dern, 58.
Perhaps best known for her role in 1974’s Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore and its subsequent sitcom, Ladd was also nominated for three Oscars and three Emmys during her career.
Announcing her death, Jurassic Park star Dern said in a heartfelt statement: ‘My amazing hero and my profound gift of a mother, Diane Ladd, passed with me beside her this morning, at her home in Ojai, Calif.’
She added to People: ‘She was the greatest daughter, mother, grandmother, actress, artist and empathetic spirit that only dreams could have seemingly created.
‘We were blessed to have her. She is flying with her angels now.’
Ladd’s other acting credits include Wild at Heart (1990) and Rambling Rose (1991). She received Oscar nominations for these projects, as well as for her portrayal of Florence Jean (‘Flo’) Castleberry in Martin Scorsese’s romantic drama Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore.
Then, in 1981, she earned a best supporting actress in a TV series Golden Globe for CBS spin-off Alice. Her stellar career saw her nominated for three additional Golden Globes.
Ladd’s further silver screen appearances include Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983), Ghosts of Mississippi (1996), 28 Days (2000), Charlie’s War (2003), Joy (2015), and Gigi & Nate (2022).
TV-wise, she had a recurring role on Stephen King’s 2004 series Kingdom Hospital and played matriarch Nell O’Brien in Chesapeake Shores.
Her glittering career also saw her act alongside Dern on several occasions, including in her offspring’s very first film role, 1973’s White Lightning.
Speaking previously about her relationship with her mother, Dern told People in 2018 that her mother had tried to discourage her from becoming an actress.
‘I think the quote of my mother’s was, “Be a lawyer, be a doctor, be a leper missionary, but don’t be an actress!”,’ she recalled.
With regard to her personal life, in 2018, Ladd was given six months to a year to live when she was misdiagnosed with pneumonia after inhaling ‘poison spray’ from farms near her home, restricting her breathing. She made a full recovery after Dern moved her to a different hospital.
Ladd was married three times. Firstly, to Bruce Dern from 1960 to 1969, then to William Shea Jr. from 1969 to 1977.
Her third husband, Robert Charles Hunter, died in July this year, aged 77. They married in 1999.
As well as her daughter Dern, Ladd is survived by her grandchildren, Ellery and Jaya.
She also had a daughter named Diane Elizabeth with her first husband, but she tragically died at just 18 months old in a drowning accident.
After news of Ladd’s death broke, tributes quickly piled in from fans of her work, with @AwardsConnect on X describing her as ‘never anything less than brilliant’.
‘RIP Diane Ladd! Such a dynamic performer, jumping between warm mama bears and earnest, fragile women with that dose of theatricality I always loved’, wrote @Kevin_Jacobsen.
‘I just rewatched Alice Doens’t Live Here Anymore a few days ago. Diane Ladd is remarkable in it, as she was in everything. But I think Alice and Wild at Heart stand out to me most’, penned @mi4d0lan.
‘Diane Ladd was truly one of a kind’, added @awards_watch.
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