🔗 Share this article Oscar-Nominated Star Diane Ladd, Known For Her Role in Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, Passes Away at the Age of 89. The Academy Award-nominated performer Diane Ladd passed away 89 years old. The actor, whose roles spanned National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, passed away at home in California’s Ojai. This announcement was shared via an announcement from her child, Academy Award-winning star Laura Dern, her daughter. Dern, who starred with her mom in a number of films like Wild at Heart, called her “my incredible hero plus my special gift being my mom”, noting that she was present as she died. “She was the greatest grandmother, mother, daughter, star, artist along with compassionate soul that seemed almost dreamlike,” she wrote. “We were lucky to have her. She is flying with her angels now.” Beginnings and Breakthrough Her initial acting years included small roles on television series including The Fugitive and the seventies saw her starring with actor Jack Nicholson in Chinatown. During that year, the year 1974, she appeared alongside Ellen Burstyn in the Martin Scorsese praised film Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore. The performance landed Ladd her first Oscar nomination in the supporting actress category. Subsequent Years In the 1980s, she was seen in crime thriller the movie Black Widow as well as funny follow-up Christmas Vacation and appeared on the show Alice, a television series inspired by her earlier movie. In the subsequent decade, she earned an additional best supporting actress Oscar nomination for her part in David Lynch’s Wild at Heart in which she portrayed the mother of her biological child the character played by Dern. A year later she received an additional nod for her role in Rambling Rose that also featured her daughter. “This movie which Princess Diana selected as her very favorite, and she brought us to London for a premiere and an event dedicated to us,” Ladd recalled of Rambling Rose. “And she sat between us, grasping our hands, and weeping, watching us perform.” The 1990s also saw roles in comedy Cemetery Club bringing her back with Ellen Burstyn, Primary Colors, a political story, a comedy about politics, with John Travolta and Alexander Payne’s Citizen Ruth, a dark comedy in which she portrayed Dern’s mother another time. The decade also earned her TV award nominations for work in Dr Quinn, Medicine Woman, Grace Under Fire plus Touched by an Angel. Working with Laura Dern She kept appearing with her daughter in dramatic comedies Daddy and Them, a movie, Lynch’s Inland Empire, a surreal film and the series by Mike White satirical show Enlightened, a TV series. She was also seen next to Sandra Bullock in 28 Days, Sir Anthony Hopkins in that movie and with Jennifer Lawrence in Joy. Her more recent television parts consisted of the series Ray Donovan and Young Sheldon, a comedy. Behind the Camera Ladd also wrote and helmed the comedy film Mrs Munck, a film that included herself and previous spouse actor Bruce Dern. “Bruce is a talented star,” she noted. “It was a privilege to guide him in a film. Actually, I am the sole female ever to helm a film with her ex. I humorously say: ‘I tell women, if you want revenge, guide your former spouse.’ But I’m only kidding.” Personal Connections Ladd was also the third cousin of the great Tennessee Williams, who she called “a significant impact throughout my life”. In 2018, she received an incorrect diagnosis with lung disease and told her life expectancy was six months yet she recovered completely after her daughter shifted her to a new hospital. “Should you harness your suffering and avoid letting it accumulate like a sore or something, instead use it to investigate, to clarify the journey for personal and collective growth, then you are triumphing,” Ladd said.