Acclaimed Actress Diane Ladd: Three-Time Oscar Nominee and Hollywood Legend Dies at 89

Laura Dern confirmed that Ladd passed away at her California home.

Diane Ladd, the acclaimed American actress who received three Academy Award nominations for her supporting performances in "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore," "Wild at Heart," and "Rambling Rose," has died at 89, according to her daughter Laura Dern on Monday.

The actress passed away peacefully at her home in California. Laura Dern, who followed her mother and father Bruce Dern into acting, shared the news with profound sadness.

Throughout her distinguished seven-decade career that began on stage in the 1950s, Ladd was renowned for portraying strong, intelligent, and multidimensional women—from a spirited waitress to a controlling, mentally ill mother and an eccentric 1930s housewife.

The tall blonde actress starred in numerous notable films including "White Lightning" (1973), David Lynch's crime drama "Wild at Heart" (1990), the black comedy "Citizen Ruth" (1996), "Daddy and Them" (2001), and HBO's series "Enlightened" (2011), frequently appearing alongside her daughter. The two often portrayed mother-daughter pairs on screen.

Ladd and Dern made history when both received Academy Award nominations for the 1991 drama "Rambling Rose," becoming the first and only mother-daughter duo to be nominated for Oscars for the same film in the same year.

"She is just the greatest actress, ever. You don't even use the word brave because she just shows up like that in life. She doesn't care what anybody thinks," Dern said of her mother.

"She leads with a boundarylessness," she added during a 2019 appearance on "Inside the Actors Studio."

Their collaborative talents extended beyond acting. In 2023, they published a joint memoir titled "Honey, Baby, Mine: A Mother and Daughter Talk Life, Death, Love." The book emerged from conversations during their daily walks together after Ladd received a dire diagnosis of lung disease with only months to live. Her physician had recommended walking to strengthen her lungs.

"The more we talked and the deeper and more complicated of subjects we shared, my mother got better and better and better," Dern revealed in a 2023 National Public Radio interview. "It's been a great gift."

SOUTHERN BELLE

Born Rose Diane Lanier on November 29, 1935, in the small town of Meridian, Mississippi, Diane Ladd was the only child of a country veterinarian and an actress-turned-housewife.

The precocious child, who completed her education at 16, knew from an early age that acting was her calling.

"Somehow in my soul, even as a child, I felt I was going to be an actress," Ladd recalled with her characteristic southern accent during a 2022 talk at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures.

Despite being offered a college scholarship, she chose to pursue her acting dreams in New York, where she worked as a model and Copacabana dancer while joining the Actor's Studio, famous for its method acting approach.

Ladd made her New York stage debut in 1952 in Tennessee Williams' off-Broadway production "Orpheus Descending." Williams was her third cousin, and the production also introduced her to her first husband, Bruce Dern.

Before landing her breakthrough film roles, Ladd appeared in classic 1960s television dramas including "Perry Mason," "77 Sunset Strip," and "The Fugitive." Her film career gained momentum with Roger Corman's 1966 motorcycle saga "The Wild Angels," starring alongside her husband Bruce Dern, Peter Fonda, and Nancy Sinatra.

In 1968, Ladd made her Broadway debut in "Carry Me Back to Morningside Heights."

Her prolific career encompassed more than 120 television and film credits, including Roman Polanski's "Chinatown" (1974) and David O. Russell's comedy-drama "Joy" (2015). She earned three Emmy nominations in the 1990s for guest appearances in "Touched by an Angel," "Grace Under Fire," and "Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman."

A true Renaissance woman, Ladd also wrote short stories and screenplays, and both directed and starred in the 1995 comedy "Mrs. Munck" alongside Bruce Dern.

In a remarkable tribute to their family legacy, Ladd, Bruce Dern, and their daughter Laura were each honored with adjacent stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame during a special triple ceremony in 2010.

"Diane is a Renaissance woman," film producer Barbara Boyle remarked during the ceremony. "She has uncanny perception and insight into people that informs her acting and directing."

In her 2006 memoir "Spiraling Through the School of Life," Ladd openly discussed both the triumphs and tragedies of her life, including the devastating loss of her first daughter in a tragic accident in 1962 when the child was just a toddler.

Deeply spiritual and an advocate for complementary and alternative medicine, Ladd defied medical predictions that she would never have another child when her second daughter, Laura, was born five years after the tragedy.

Married three times throughout her life, Ladd continued her acting career well into her eighties.

"Art is just a mirror, and that's why we go see movies: to learn who we are," she thoughtfully expressed in a 2023 New York Times interview.