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The Oscar-nominated performer Diane Ladd left us 89 years old.

This actor, whose filmography included Chinatown, passed away at home at her Ojai, California home. The news was revealed through a message from her child, Oscar-winning actor Laura Dern, her daughter.

Laura Dern, who performed alongside Diane Ladd in a number of films like Wild at Heart, described her as “my incredible hero and my precious gift of a mother”, writing that she was at her bedside when she passed.

“She was the most wonderful daughter, mother, grandmother, star, artist as well as empathetic spirit that felt like a dream come true,” she wrote. “We were blessed to have her. She is flying with her angels now.”

Early Career and Rise to Fame

Her initial acting years saw minor parts in TV shows such as Perry Mason and the 1970s featured her performing with actor Jack Nicholson in the film Chinatown.

That very year, 1974, she shared the screen alongside Ellen Burstyn in the Martin Scorsese acclaimed comedy drama Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, a classic. Her acting landed Ladd an Academy Award nomination in the supporting actress category.

Subsequent Years

During the eighties, she starred in the dramatic film Black Widow as well as funny follow-up National Lampoon’s holiday comedy and also took part in Alice, a television series derived from the film Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore.

In the subsequent decade, she earned another supporting actress Academy Award nomination for her role in David Lynch’s Wild at Heart where she acted as the parent of her real-life daughter the character played by Dern. A year later she received an additional nod for her performance in Rambling Rose which also starred Dern.

“This was the film which Princess Diana chose as her absolutely favorite, and she invited Laura and I to the UK for a premiere and an event for us,” Ladd said about the film Rambling Rose. “She sat with us, taking our hands, and weeping, viewing our performance.”

The nineties also saw roles in the comedy The Cemetery Club reuniting her with her co-star Burstyn, the movie Primary Colors, a political comedy, with John Travolta and the film by Alexander Payne Citizen Ruth, a dark comedy where she played Dern’s mother another time. Those years also earned her nominations for Emmy Awards for performances in Dr Quinn, Medicine Woman, Grace Under Fire plus Touched by an Angel.

Collaborations with Daughter

She kept appearing with Laura Dern in comedy drama Daddy and Them, a movie, the David Lynch project Inland Empire and White’s satirical show Enlightened, a TV series. She was also seen with Sandra Bullock, a star in 28 Days, Sir Anthony Hopkins in The World’s Fastest Indian, a film and Jennifer Lawrence in the film Joy.

Her later TV roles consisted of Ray Donovan, a drama and Young Sheldon, a comedy.

Filmmaking Ventures

She also authored and directed the humorous movie Mrs Munck, a film which starred Diane Ladd and ex-husband Bruce Dern. “Bruce is a great actor,” she said. “I was honored to direct him in a movie. Actually, I am the sole female in recorded history who directed her former husband. I make a joke: ‘I advise females, if you seek payback, direct your ex-husband.’ Though I’m just teasing.”

Family Ties

Ladd was also a family member of Tennessee Williams, who she called “a significant impact in my life”.

Back in 2018, she received an incorrect diagnosis with a respiratory illness and advised she only had half a year left but she regained full health when her daughter shifted her to another medical facility.

“Should you harness your suffering and not let it back up similar to a wound, instead apply it to investigate, to illuminate the way for personal and collective growth, then you are winning,” Ladd remarked.