Diane Ladd, the Oscar-nominated actress and mother to Laura Dern, has died. She was 89.
Dern announced the news in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter. She revealed that her mom died in California on Monday, Nov. 3. No cause of death was given.
“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.,” the “Jurassic Park” star, 58, shared.
“We were blessed to have her,” the “Blue Velvet” actress concluded. “She is flying with her angels now.”
Ladd’s many movie and TV credits included the 1974 rom-com “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore,” the 1990 black comedy “Wild at Heart” and 1991’s “Rambling Rose.”
She was nominated for three Oscars and three Emmys during her more than six-decade acting career.
Born Diane Ladner in Laurel, Mississippi, on Nov. 29, 1935, Ladd began acting at a young age.
After moving to Hollywood and shortening her last name, Ladd went on to appear in TV shows like “Naked City” and “Perry Mason” throughout the ‘50s and ‘60s.
But it wasn’t until 1966, when she was cast as Gaysh in Roger Corman’s crime drama “The Wild Angels” with Nancy Sinatra, Bruce Dern and Peter Fonda, that Ladd earned her first official film credit.
“I remember when we were filming ‘Wild Angels,’ my very first film, we were practically children back then,” the late actress told People in a 2019 interview.
“It was a foggy night, and some bikers came up the mountain and threatened to tie Peter and another crew member to a generator,” she recalled. “Peter and Bruce Dern protected us and led us all to safety. His courage always shined through like that.”
Eight years after “The Wild Angels,” Ladd was cast as sharp-tongued waitress Flo in Martin Scorsese’s “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore.”
The role earned her her first Academy Award nomination for best supporting actress, and she later received a Golden Globe nomination in the same category for the film’s TV spinoff, “Alice,” in 1981.
Ladd went on to receive two more Oscar nominations for best supporting actress during her storied career, including “Wild at Heart” and “Rambling Rose.”
Her final role before her death was as Mama Blanche in the 2022 coming-of-age drama “Gigi & Nate.”
As for her personal life, Ladd was married three times. She tied the knot with her “Wild Angels” co-star, Bruce Dern, in 1960.
The pair welcomed daughters Diane and Laura before their 1969 divorce. Diane tragically died in a swimming pool accident at only 18 months old.
“She hit her head and knocked herself out. And it all happened instantly. And she died, and you will never get over that,” Ladd told CBS News in 2023.
“I don’t care what you say to yourself. I don’t care who says what,” she added. “The child is not supposed to die before the parent.”
Ladd revealed that her daughter’s death led to her and Bruce’s divorce after nine years of marriage.
“We suffered the tragedy of our daughter’s death together and thought another child would help us, but we were so bruised,” she shared with Parade in 1992.
“I was terrified, being on my own with Laura,” Ladd continued. “I had to force myself not to be overly protective because I had lost one child. The result was that it worked the other way. I allowed her to be a free thinker, and that helped her become her own person.”
Ladd and her youngest daughter would go on to appear in several films together throughout their respective Hollywood careers.
Following a short appearance as an extra in “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore” at 7 years old, Dern starred alongside her mom in David Lynch’s “Wild at Heart.”
The mother-daughter pair would go on to appear together in seven more projects, including “Rambling Rose,” “The Siege at Ruby Ridge,” “Citizen Ruth,” “Daddy & Them,” “Damaged Care,” “Inland Empire” and the HBO series “Enlightened.”
Dern honored both her parents when she won her first-ever Academy Award for “Marriage Story” in 2020.
“Some say never meet your heroes,” she said while accepting the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. “I say if you’re really blessed, you get them as your parents.”
“I share this with my acting hero my legends, Diane Ladd and Bruce Dern,” she added. “You got game. I love you.”
Dern and her mother later teamed up once more in 2023 for their joint memoir “Honey, Baby, Mine: A Mother and Daughter Talk Life, Death, Love (and Banana Pudding).”The book was said to be inspired by conversations following Ladd’s diagnosis with the lung disease idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis in 2018.
