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This Oscar-nominated actor Diane Ladd left us aged 89.

This actor, whose filmography featured Chinatown, left this world in her residence in Ojai, California. This announcement was announced in a statement shared by her offspring, Academy Award-winning star Laura Dern.

Dern, who appeared with Diane Ladd in various films including Wild at Heart and Rambling Rose, described her as “my wonderful hero as well as my precious gift as a mother”, writing that she was at her bedside when she passed.

“She was an exceptional grandmother, mother, daughter, performer, creative and compassionate soul that seemed almost dreamlike,” she wrote. “We were lucky to have her. She is now with the angels.”

Initial Roles and Major Success

The start of her career included minor parts on television series such as Gunsmoke while that decade saw her starring with the legendary Jack Nicholson in Chinatown.

That very year, 1974, she performed alongside Ellen Burstyn in Martin Scorsese’s celebrated dramatic comedy Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore. The performance brought Ladd her first Oscar nomination as best supporting actress.

Subsequent Years

Throughout the 1980s, she starred in crime thriller Black Widow, a suspense story plus funny follow-up Christmas Vacation and appeared on the sitcom Alice, a television series based on Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore.

During the next ten years, she was given a further best supporting actress Oscar nomination for her part in the David Lynch film the movie Wild at Heart where she played the mother of her real-life daughter the character played by Dern. A year later she obtained a further nomination for her performance in the film Rambling Rose that also featured Dern.

“This was the film that the late Princess Diana selected as her very favorite, and she flew Laura and I to London for a royal premiere and a party in our honor,” Ladd said about the film Rambling Rose. “And she sat between us, grasping our hands, and weeping, seeing us act.”

The 1990s featured performances in humorous films Cemetery Club, a film reuniting her with her co-star Burstyn, Primary Colors, a political story, a political comedy, starring John Travolta and Alexander Payne’s Citizen Ruth where she played Dern’s mother once more. Those years also brought her Emmy nominations for work in Dr Quinn, Medicine Woman, Grace Under Fire, a sitcom and Touched by an Angel, a drama.

Collaborations with Daughter

She continued to star alongside her daughter in films blending humor and drama Daddy and Them, David Lynch’s Inland Empire and White’s satirical show Enlightened. She was also seen alongside Sandra Bullock in 28 Days, a movie, Sir Anthony Hopkins in The World’s Fastest Indian and with Jennifer Lawrence in Joy.

Her more recent television parts featured Ray Donovan, a drama and Young Sheldon, a comedy.

Behind the Camera

Ladd also wrote and directed the humorous movie Mrs Munck, a film that included her and ex-husband actor Bruce Dern. “Bruce is a talented star,” she said. “I was honored to direct him in a film. In fact, I am the sole female in history to direct her ex-husband. I humorously say: ‘I tell women, should you desire retribution, helm a movie with your ex.’ Though I’m just teasing.”

Family Ties

She happened to be a family member of Tennessee Williams, whom she described as “a major inspiration in my life”.

In 2018, doctors misdiagnosed Ladd with a respiratory illness and told her life expectancy was six months but she regained full health after her daughter transferred her to a new hospital.

“If you can take your pain and not let it back up like a sore or something, instead apply it to explore, to illuminate the way for you and those around, then you are winning,” Ladd expressed.