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Diane Ladd, the Oscar-nominated actor whose daughter is acclaimed fellow actor Laura Dern, has died. She was 89.
She was nominated for an Academy Award three times, for her performances in Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974), Wild at Heart (1990), and Rambling Rose (1991).
In a statement shared with The Independent, Dern said: “My amazing hero and my profound gift of a mother, Diane Ladd, passed with me beside her this morning, at her home in Ojai, Ca.
“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.”
Ladd was born Rose Diane Ladner in Laurel, Mississippi, on November 29, 1935. She shortened her surname to Ladd when she began her acting career, which started in theater and television.
In the 1950s, she appeared on shows including Naked City, Perry Mason and Mr. Novak. In 1959, while appearing in an off-Broadway production of Tennessee Williams’ Orpheus Descending, she met and fell in love with her co-star Bruce Dern. They married the following year.
The couple’s first daughter, Diane Elizabeth Dern, was born in November 1960 but tragically died by drowning aged just 18 months. Their second daughter, Laura, was born in 1967.
Ladd made her film debut with an uncredited part in the 1961 neo-noir Something Wild. She earned her first formal credit in 1966’s outlaw biker drama The Wild Angels, which co-starred Bruce Dern and Peter Fonda.
Ladd’s breakout role came playing Flo, a sassy waitress in Martin Scorsese’s 1974 drama Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore who delivered memorable lines such as “Kiss me where the sun don’t shine”. The performance earned her a first Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress.
In 1989, Ladd played Clark Griswold’s mother Nora in the festive favorite National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation.
The following year, Ladd was nominated for the Best Supporting Actress Oscar again for her performance in David Lynch’s Wild at Heart, playing Marietta, the mother of Laura Dern’s character Lula.
In 2019, Dern recalled Lynch telling her son Ellery not to watch the film until he turned 30.
“And Ellery goes, ‘Is it because my mom’s kind of sassy in the movie?,’” Dern recounted, “and David goes, ‘No, it’s not you seeing your mother I’m worried about, it’s seeing your grandmother!’”
In 1991, Ladd and Dern once again played mother and daughter on screen in Martha Coolidge’s Rambling Rose. They were both nominated for Academy Awards for their performances, becoming the first mother and daughter ever to be nominated for an Oscar for the same film or in the same year.
Her final film appearance came in 2022’s Gigi & Nate.
Ladd divorced Bruce Dern in 1969. She was married twice more, to businessman William Shea Jr. from 1973 to 1976 and to Robert Charles Hunter, a former PepsiCo executive, from 1999 until his death in July.
Ladd is survived by her daughter, Laura, and by her grandchildren, Ellery and Jaya.
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