Diane Ladd, the triple Oscar-nominated actor who received acclaim for her work in films including \u201cRambling Rose,\u201d \u201cWild at Heart\u201d and \u201cAlice Doesn\u2019t Live Here Anymore,\u201d has died. She was 89. <\/p>\n
Oscar winner Laura Dern, Ladd\u2019s daughter with Oscar-nominated actor Bruce Dern, announced her mother\u2019s death in a statement shared Monday. \u201cMy amazing hero and my profound gift of a mother, Diane Ladd, passed with me beside her this morning, at her home in Ojai,\u201d Dern wrote. A cause of death was not revealed. <\/p>\n
\u201cShe was the greatest daughter, mother, grandmother, actress, artist and empathetic spirit that only dreams could have seemingly created,\u201d Dern, 58, said in her statement. \u201cWe were blessed to have her.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mississippi native Ladd was a versatile and enduring talent whose screen career included more than 200 movie and TV credits from the 1960s to the 2020s and multiple Emmy and Oscar nominations. Famously, she appeared in director Martin Scorsese and writer Robert Getchell\u2019s 1974 feature \u201cAlice Doesn\u2019t Live Here Anymore\u201d as snarky roadside-diner waitress Florence Jean \u201cFlo\u201d Castleberry. <\/p>\n
She elevated her side character into so much more, earning a supporting actress Oscar nomination for the role and inspiring iterations of the witty waitress in TV adaptations \u201cAlice\u201d and its spinoff, \u201cFlo,\u201d starring Polly Holliday. She appeared in the former as Isabelle \u201cBelle\u201d Dupree.<\/p>\n
Ladd often thrived in supporting roles, earning Oscar nominations in that category for her work in \u201cWild at Heart\u201d and \u201cRambling Rose,\u201d in 1991 and 1992, respectively. Though she was no stranger to stealing the spotlight, she also had a knack for sharing it with daughter Laura Dern in several films. <\/p>\n
Ladd and her daughter, who was born in 1967, co-starred in \u201cRambling Rose,\u201d \u201cCitizen Ruth\u201d and late filmmaker David Lynch\u2019s<\/a> \u201cWild at Heart\u201d and \u201cInland Empire.\u201d The mother-daughter duo also appeared in HBO\u2019s \u201cEnlightened.\u201d <\/p>\n Bruce Dern<\/a>, 89 and the first of Ladd\u2019s three husbands, said in a statement that she was a \u201ctremendous\u201d actor but had been a \u201ca bit of a \u2018hidden treasure\u2019\u201d until she starred alongside her daughter in Lynch\u2019s \u201cWild at Heart\u201d as her mother. \u201cIt felt like the world then really understood her brilliance,\u201d the elder Dern said. <\/p>\n \u201cShe was a great value as a decades-long board member of SAG, giving a real actress\u2019 point of view,\u201d he continued. \u201cShe lived a good life. She saw everything the way it was. She was a great teammate to her fellow actors. She was funny, clever, gracious.<\/p>\n \u201cBut most importantly to me, she was a wonderful mother to our incredible wunderkind daughter. And for that I will be forever grateful to her.\u201d<\/p>\n Laura Dern has openly embraced her family\u2019s Hollywood lineage. At the Palm Springs International Film Festival in 2020, the \u201cBlue Velvet\u201d star told attendees that her father and Ladd \u2014 who were married from 1960 to 1969 \u2014 conceived her in the nearby mountain town of Idyllwild during production of the 1966 Roger Corman biker movie \u201cThe Wild Angels,\u201d Ladd\u2019s breakout film.<\/p>\n Throughout her career, Ladd collaborated with notable filmmakers, among them Roman Polanski, on \u201cChinatown\u201d; Rob Reiner, for \u201cGhosts of Mississippi\u201d; and David O. Russell, on \u201cJoy.\u201d Her film credits include \u201cNational Lampoon\u2019s Christmas Vacation,\u201d \u201cHold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me\u201d and \u201cCemetery Club,\u201d among others. She directed Bruce Dern in her directorial debut, \u201cMrs. Munck,\u201d in 1995. <\/p>\n Ladd enjoyed a lengthy film career, but her television career was far more expansive, with roles in shows as varied as \u201cGunsmoke,\u201d \u201cAlice,\u201d \u201cER,\u201d \u201cRay Donovan\u201d and \u201cYoung Sheldon.\u201d In 1980, she earned a Golden Globe Award for her work in \u201cAlice,\u201d and from 1993 to 1997, she earned three guest actress Primetime Emmy nominations for \u201cDr. Quinn, Medicine Woman,\u201d \u201cGrace Under Fire\u201d and \u201cTouched by an Angel.\u201d<\/p>\n Rose Diane Lanier was born Nov. 29, 1935, to a veterinarian father and housewife mother. She began performing as a child and sang with French Quarter band Dixie Hi De Ho Jo while attending a finishing school in New Orleans, according to her website<\/a>. After turning down a scholarship to study law at Louisiana State University, she pursued entertainment, performing with a troupe created by John Carradine, father of \u201cKill Bill\u201d star David Carradine.<\/p>\n Ladd went on to perform at New York\u2019s Copacabana and took roles in various stage productions, including \u201cNoisy Passengers\u201d with Robert De Niro and \u201cWoman Speak\u201d with Jane Fonda, according to her website. <\/p>\n SAG-AFTRA on Monday honored Ladd for her decades of service to the performers union, including her turn on the SAG National Board. She joined SAG and AFTRA in 1956, well before the two guilds merged in 2012. The actor received the Ralph Morgan Award for her service in 2025. <\/p>\n \u201cI had the privilege of serving with her on our National Board, and I\u2019m grateful for the time, insight and dedication she brought to every discussion and initiative,\u201d SAG-AFTRA President Sean Astin<\/a> said in a statement. \u201cHer legacy endures through her extraordinary body of work and through the countless ways she strengthened our union and the industry for generations to come.\u201d<\/p>\n After her marriage to Bruce Dern ended, Ladd married William A. Shea Jr. They divorced in 1977. She got married for a third time in 1999 to Robert Hunter, who died earlier this year<\/a>. In addition to \u201cLittle Women\u201d and \u201cBig Little Lies\u201d star Dern, Ladd and Bruce Dern were parents to a second daughter, Diane Elizabeth, who was born in 1961 but died at 18 months in a drowning incident. <\/p>\n Of her mother, Laura Dern said Monday: \u201cShe is flying with her angels now.\u201d<\/p>\n The Associated Press contributed to this report. <\/p>\n