Diane Ladd, a three-time Oscar-nominated actress who was recognized for her work in such films as “Wandering Rose,” “Wild at Heart” and “Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore,” has died. She was 89.
Oscar winner Laura Dern, daughter of Ladd and Oscar-nominated actor Bruce Dern, announced her mother's death in a statement released Monday. “My amazing hero and my deep gift as a mother, Diane Ladd, walked by my side this morning at her home in Ojai,” Dern wrote. The cause of death has not been announced.
“She was the greatest daughter, mother, grandmother, actress, artist and gentle spirit that seemingly only dreams could create,” “Marriage Story” star Dern, 58, said in a statement. “We're lucky to have her.”
A Mississippi native, Ladd was a versatile and enduring talent whose screen career included more than 200 roles in films and films spanning from the 1960s to the 2020s, resulting in multiple Emmy and Oscar nominations. She famously appeared in director Martin Scorsese and writer Robert Getchell's 1974 film Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore as the sarcastic roadhouse waitress Florence Jean “Flo” Castleberry.
She took her supporting character to a much higher level, earning her a supporting actress Oscar nomination and inspiring new versions of the wisecracking waitress in the TV adaptation of Alice and its spin-off, Flo, starring Polly Holliday. In the first, she appeared as Isabelle “Belle” Dupree.
Ladd often excelled in supporting roles, receiving additional Oscar nominations in this category for her work in Wild at Heart and Stray Rose in 1991 and 1992, respectively. While she was no stranger to the limelight, she was also adept at sharing it with daughter Laura Dern in several films.
Ladd and her daughter, born in 1967, starred in the films “Wandering Rose,” “Citizen Ruth” and “Citizen Ruth.” late director David Lynch “Wild at Heart” and “Inland Empire”. The mother-daughter duo also appeared in the HBO series Enlightened.
Dern has openly embraced her family's Hollywood heritage. At the 2020 Palm Springs International Film Festival, the Blue Velvet star told attendees that Ladd and ex-husband Bruce Dern, who were married from 1960 to 1969, conceived her in the nearby mountain town of Idyllwild while filming Roger Corman's 1966 biker film Wild Angels, Ladd's breakout film.
Throughout her career, Ladd has collaborated with acclaimed directors, including Roman Polanski on Chinatown, Rob Reiner's Ghosts of Mississippi, and David O. Russell's Joy. Her film credits include National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, and The Graveyard Club, among others. In 1995, she directed Bruce Dern in her directorial debut, Mrs. Munch.
Ladd had a long film career, but her television career was much more extensive, with touted roles in projects ranging from Gunsmoke and Alice to ER, Ray Donovan and Young Sheldon. In 1980, she won a Golden Globe Award for her work in Alice, and from 1993 to 1997, she received three Emmy Award nominations as a guest actress for Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, Grace Under Fire and Touched by an Angel.
Rose Diane Lanier was born on November 29, 1935, to a veterinarian and a stay-at-home mother. She began performing as a child, she said, and sang with the French Quarter group Dixie Hi De Ho Jo while she was in high school in New Orleans. website. After turning down a scholarship to study law at Louisiana State University, she turned to entertainment, performing with a troupe created by John Carradine, father of Kill Bill star David Carradine.
Ladd continued to perform at New York's Copacabana Theater and appeared in various productions, including “Noisy Passengers” with Robert De Niro and “A Woman Speaks” with Jane Fonda, according to her website.
After her marriage to Bruce Dern ended, Ladd married William A. Shea Jr. They divorced in 1977. In 1999, she married for the third time to Robert Hunter, who died earlier this year. In addition to Little Women and Big Little Lies star Dern, Ladd and Bruce Dern have a second daughter. Diane Elizabeth was born in 1961 but died at the age of 18 months from drowning.
Of her mother, Laura Dern said Monday: “She's flying with her angels now.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
