Diane Ladd, the versatile and prolific actress whose six-decade career included Oscar-nominated performances in “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore” and “Wild at Heart,” has died. She was 89.
Ladd’s death was confirmed Monday by her daughter, Laura Dern, in a statement to TheWrap. No cause was immediately disclosed.
“My amazing hero and my profound gift of a mother, Diane Ladd, passed with me beside her this morning, at her home in Ojai, California,” Dern wrote. “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.”
Bruce Dern, Ladd’s first husband, paid tribute to his e-wife in the aftermath of her passing. “Diane was a tremendous actress and I feel like, a bit of a ‘hidden treasure’ until she ran into David Lynch,” he noted in a statement to TheWrap. “When he cast her as Laura‘s mom in ‘Wild at Heart’ it felt like the world then really understood her brilliance. She was a great value as a decades long board member of SAG, giving a real actress’ point of view.”
He continued: “She lived a good life. She saw everything the way it was. She was a great teammate to her fellow actors. She was funny, clever, gracious. But most importantly to me, she was a wonderful mother to our incredible wunderkind daughter. And for that I will be forever grateful to her.”
Martin Scorsese, who directed Ladd in “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore,” remembered the actress as “a truly remarkable artist, and I wish we could have worked together again.”
“I have so many good memories of making ‘Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore,’ and my experiences with Diane are among the best,” he said in a statement.
Born Rose Diane Ladner in 1935, Ladd appeared in over 200 films and TV shows, receiving three Academy Award nominations for “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore” (for which she won a BAFTA) in 1974, “Wild at Heart” in 1990 and “Rambling Rose” in 1991. She was also nominated for three Emmy Awards and four Golden Globes, winning one for her role in the sitcom “Alice.”
Ladd starred in innumerable popular and critically acclaimed films over decades, including “Chinatown,” “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation,” “Ghosts of Mississippi” and “Joy.”
Ladd was married to actor Dern from 1960 to 1969, and the couple had two children – Diane, who died at 18 months in a drowning accident, and Laura, who went on to co-star with her mother in “Wild at Heart,” “Rambling Rose,” “Citizen Ruth” and “Inland Empire.” They also shared a bill in the HBO series “Enlightened.” Laura Dern also made uncredited appearances in “White Lightning” and “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore.”
Ladd began acting on the CBS soap opera “The Secret Storm” in 1971, but her big break was a supporting role in Roman Polanski’s 1974 opus “Chinatown,” a film that still makes the top of critics’ all-time best movies lists. In the TV series “Alice,” inspired by her film (co-starring Kris Kristofferson) “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore,” she took on the role of Belle Dupree when Polly Holiday left the show.
Laura Dern also earned an Oscar nomination for “Rambling Rose” – for Best Actress as the title character – making them the first mother-daughter pair to be recognized by the Academy in the same film, or the same year. Ladd, Laura Dern and Bruce Dern received adjoining stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2010, the first family members to jointly share the honor.
Ladd was married to William Shea Jr. from 1969 to 1977, and to Robert Charles Hunter from 1999 until his death earlier this year.
