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

This star, with credits featured Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, passed away at home at her Ojai, California home. This announcement was revealed via an announcement from her daughter, Oscar-winning actor Laura Dern, her daughter.

Laura Dern, who starred with her mom in various films including Wild at Heart, described her as “my incredible hero and my profound gift being my mom”, writing that she was at her bedside during her final moments.

“She was an exceptional daughter, mother, grandmother, performer, creative as well as empathetic spirit that only dreams could have seemingly created,” she wrote. “We were blessed to have her. She is flying with her angels now.”

Beginnings and Breakthrough

Ladd’s early career included minor parts in television programs like Perry Mason and the seventies featured her performing alongside the legendary Jack Nicholson in Chinatown.

That very year, the year 1974, she performed alongside Ellen Burstyn in Martin Scorsese’s celebrated film Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore. Her acting brought Ladd her first Oscar nomination for best supporting actress.

Later Decades

Throughout the 1980s, she appeared in the dramatic film Black Widow, a suspense story and humorous film Christmas Vacation and appeared on the sitcom Alice, a sitcom inspired by her earlier movie.

In the following decade, she earned another best supporting actress Academy Award nomination for her part in Lynch’s Wild at Heart where she played the mom of her real-life daughter Laura Dern’s role. A year later she obtained a further nomination for her performance in Rambling Rose which also starred Dern.

“This was the picture that the late Princess Diana picked as her top choice, and she flew me and Laura to London for a premiere and a party dedicated to us,” Ladd shared about the film Rambling Rose. “And she sat between us, holding both our hands, and crying, seeing us act.”

That decade included parts in the comedy The Cemetery Club joining her again with Burstyn, Primary Colors, a political comedy, starring John Travolta and Payne’s Citizen Ruth in which she portrayed Dern’s mother another time. That period also brought her TV award nominations for work in Dr Quinn, Medicine Woman, Grace Under Fire and Touched by an Angel.

Working with Laura Dern

She continued to star with Laura Dern in films blending humor and drama the film Daddy and Them, David Lynch’s the movie Inland Empire and White’s comedy-drama series the program Enlightened. She also appeared alongside actress Sandra Bullock in the film 28 Days, Anthony Hopkins, a legend in The World’s Fastest Indian, a film and with Jennifer Lawrence in Joy.

Her later TV roles included the series Ray Donovan and Young Sheldon, a comedy.

Behind the Camera

Ladd also wrote and directed the comedy Mrs Munck, a film featuring her and former husband Bruce Dern, an actor. “Bruce is an excellent performer,” she said. “I’m privileged to have directed him on a project. In fact, I stand as the only woman in history to direct her ex-husband. I often joke: ‘I advise females, should you desire retribution, guide your former spouse.’ However, I’m joking.”

Personal Life

She was additionally a relative of playwright Tennessee Williams, who she called “a major inspiration throughout my life”.

In 2018, she received an incorrect diagnosis with a pulmonary condition and advised she only had half a year left but made a full recovery after her daughter moved her to a new hospital.

“When you use your pain and not let it back up like a sore or something, instead use it to explore, to clarify the journey for yourself and others, then you are triumphing,” Ladd remarked.