Diane Ladd, Oscar-Nominated Actress and Mother of Laura Dern, Dies at 89
According to CinemaDrame News Agency, Diane Ladd — the Oscar-nominated actress known for Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore and Wild at Heart, and the mother of Laura Dern — has passed away at the age of 89. The Mississippi-born actress, whose career spanned six decades, died Monday in California. Laura Dern confirmed her mother’s passing in a statement, though the cause of death has not yet been disclosed.
Ladd played a Southern waitress in Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, directed by Martin Scorsese in 1974; a seductive woman who hires a hitman to kill her daughter’s boyfriend in Wild at Heart, directed by David Lynch in 1990; and a housewife in Rambling Rose (1991). Ladd and Dern became the first mother-daughter duo in history to receive Oscar nominations for the same film.
Her other notable credits include Chinatown (1974), Ghosts of Mississippi (1996), Primary Colors (1998), and Joy (2015).
Ladd’s first television appearances came in the late 1950s, as a guest star on shows such as The Walter Winchell File and The Naked City. She made her Broadway debut in 1959 with Orpheus Descending, earning praise from The New York Times as “a bright young blonde lady.”
Throughout her career, Ladd was outspoken about the greed of Hollywood studios and film and theatre producers. In a 1976 interview with The New York Times, she remarked that some producers’ behavior was “worse than the way they treat their own children.” She also authored several books, including a short story collection titled A Bad Afternoon for a Piece of Cake (2016).
Ladd was married to Bruce Dern from 1960 to 1969, and their daughter Laura Dern was born five years before their separation. In 2016, she offered advice to young actors:
“Nothing is handed to you. You have to fight like a dirty, sick dog.”
