Diane Ladd, the triple Oscar-nominated actress who received praise for her work in films such as “Rambling Rose,” “Wild at Heart” and “Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore,” has died. She was 89 years old.
Oscar winner Laura Dern, Ladd's daughter with Oscar-nominated actor Bruce Dern, announced her mother's death in a statement shared Monday. “My incredible hero and profound gift of a mother, Diane Ladd, spent time with me this morning at her home in Ojai,” Dern wrote. The cause of death was not revealed.
“She was the best daughter, mother, grandmother, actress, artist and empathetic spirit that only dreams could have created,” Dern, 58, said in her statement. “We were lucky to have her.”
A Mississippi native, Ladd was a versatile and enduring talent whose film career included more than 200 film and television credits from the 1960s to the 2020s and multiple Emmy and Oscar nominations. She famously appeared in director Martin Scorsese and writer Robert Getchell's 1974 feature film, “Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore,” as sarcastic roadhouse waitress Florence Jean “Flo” Castleberry.
She elevated her supporting character to so much more, earning a supporting actress Oscar nomination for the role and inspiring versions of the witty waitress in the television adaptations “Alice” and its spinoff, “Flo,” starring Polly Holliday. She appeared in the first as Isabelle “Belle” Dupree.
Ladd often thrived in supporting roles, earning Oscar nominations in that category for her work in “Wild at Heart” and “Rambling Rose,” in 1991 and 1992, respectively. Although she was no stranger to stealing the spotlight, she also had a knack for sharing it with her daughter Laura Dern in several films.
Ladd and her daughter, who was born in 1967, co-starred in “Rambling Rose,” “Citizen Ruth” and “Wild at Heart” and the late filmmaker David Lynch’s “Inland Empire.” The mother-daughter duo also appeared on HBO's “Enlightened.”
Dern has openly embraced her family's Hollywood lineage. At the Palm Springs International Film Festival in 2020, the “Blue Velvet” star told attendees that Ladd and her ex-husband Bruce Dern, who were married from 1960 to 1969, conceived her in the nearby mountain town of Idyllwild during the production of Roger Corman's 1966 biker movie “The Wild Angels,” Ladd's breakout film.
Throughout his career, Ladd collaborated with notable filmmakers, including Roman Polanski, on “Chinatown”; Rob Reiner, for “Ghosts of Mississippi”; and David O. Russell, on “Joy.” His film credits include “National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation,” “Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me,” and “Cemetery Club,” among others. She directed Bruce Dern in her directorial debut, “Mrs. Munck,” in 1995.
Ladd enjoyed a long film career, but his television career was much more expansive, with roles in shows as varied as “Gunsmoke,” “Alice,” “ER,” “Ray Donovan” and “Young Sheldon.” In 1980 she won a Golden Globe for her work in “Alice,” and from 1993 to 1997 she earned three Primetime 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 father and a homemaker mother. She began acting as a child and sang with the French Quarter band Dixie Hi De Ho Jo while attending school in New Orleans, according to her website. After turning down a scholarship to study law at Louisiana State University, he turned to entertainment and performed with a company created by John Carradine, father of “Kill Bill” star David Carradine.
Ladd performed at New York's Copacabana and took on roles in several theater productions, including “Noisy Passengers” with Robert De Niro and “Woman Speak” with Jane Fonda, according to her website.
After her marriage to Bruce Dern ended, Ladd married William A. Shea Jr. They divorced in 1977. She married a third time in 1999 to Robert Hunter, who died earlier this year. In addition to the “Little Women” and “Big Little Lies” star, Dern, Ladd and Bruce Dern were parents to a second daughter. Diane Elizabeth was born in 1961 but died at 18 months in a drowning incident.
Of her mother, Laura Dern said Monday: “She is now flying with her angels.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
