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This Academy Award-nominated performer the celebrated Diane Ladd left us aged 89.

The actor, with roles spanned Chinatown, died at her home in California’s Ojai. Her passing was shared in a statement by her child, Oscar-winning actor her daughter Laura Dern.

Laura Dern, who appeared with her mother in a number of films including Wild at Heart, called her “my wonderful hero plus my precious gift being my mom”, writing that she was by her side as she died.

“She was an exceptional mother, daughter, grandmother, actress, artist and compassionate soul that felt like a dream come true,” she expressed. “We were lucky to have her. She is now with the angels.”

Beginnings and Rise to Fame

Her initial acting years featured small roles on television series including Perry Mason while the seventies featured her performing alongside Jack Nicholson in Chinatown.

In the same year, the year 1974, she shared the screen alongside Ellen Burstyn in the Martin Scorsese acclaimed dramatic comedy Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore. The performance landed Ladd an Academy Award nomination for best supporting actress.

1980s and Beyond

In the 1980s, she appeared in crime thriller the movie Black Widow and comedy sequel Christmas Vacation and appeared on the sitcom Alice, a television series based on the film Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore.

During the next ten years, she received another best supporting actress nomination for her role in David Lynch’s Wild at Heart where she played the mother of her biological child the character played by Dern. A year later she was awarded a further nomination for her role in Rambling Rose, another movie that also featured Laura Dern.

“This was the film that Princess Diana picked as her top choice, and she flew us to the UK for a premiere and a party dedicated to us,” Ladd said about the film Rambling Rose. “And she sat between us, holding both our hands, and crying, viewing our performance.”

That decade also saw roles in humorous films Cemetery Club reuniting her with her co-star Burstyn, the movie Primary Colors, a comedy about politics, starring John Travolta and Alexander Payne’s the movie Citizen Ruth where she acted as the mother of Dern once more. The decade also brought her TV award nominations for work in Dr Quinn, Medicine Woman, Grace Under Fire and Touched by an Angel.

Partnerships with Her Daughter

She continued to star alongside her daughter in comedy drama Daddy and Them, a movie, Lynch’s Inland Empire, a surreal film and the series by Mike White comedy-drama series the program Enlightened. She was also seen with actress Sandra Bullock in 28 Days, Sir Anthony Hopkins in that movie and with Jennifer Lawrence in Joy.

Her later TV roles included Ray Donovan plus Young Sheldon.

Filmmaking Ventures

Ladd also wrote and helmed the comedy Mrs Munck that included herself and ex-husband actor Bruce Dern. “Bruce is a great actor,” she noted. “It was a privilege to guide him in a film. In fact, I am the sole female in history to helm a film with her ex. I make a joke: ‘I tell women, if you seek payback, direct your ex-husband.’ However, I’m joking.”

Family Ties

She was additionally the third cousin of the great Tennessee Williams, who she referred to as “a major inspiration in my life”.

Back in 2018, Ladd was misdiagnosed with lung disease and told her life expectancy was six months yet she recovered completely when her daughter transferred her to a new hospital.

“If you can take your pain and avoid letting it accumulate like a sore or something, instead apply it to investigate, to clarify the journey for personal and collective growth, then you are triumphing,” Ladd remarked.