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The Academy Award-nominated performer Diane Ladd, a Hollywood veteran left us 89 years old.

The actor, whose filmography included Chinatown, passed away at home at her Ojai, California home. This announcement was revealed through a message by her child, award-winning actress her daughter Laura Dern.

Dern, who starred with her mom in a number of films like Wild at Heart and Rambling Rose, called her “my amazing hero as well as my precious gift as a mother”, noting that she was at her bedside during her final moments.

“She was an exceptional daughter, mother, grandmother, performer, creative along with caring individual that only dreams could have seemingly created,” she stated. “We were blessed to have her. She is flying with her angels now.”

Early Career and Breakthrough

Ladd’s early career included minor parts in television programs such as Gunsmoke and the seventies featured her performing alongside Jack Nicholson in Chinatown.

In the same year, 1974, she performed alongside Ellen Burstyn in the Martin Scorsese praised film Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, a classic. Her role landed Ladd an Academy Award nomination in the supporting actress category.

Later Decades

During the eighties, she appeared in the thriller Black Widow, a suspense story plus humorous film National Lampoon’s holiday comedy while also joining the sitcom Alice, a television series based on Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore.

During the next ten years, she earned an additional best supporting actress Academy Award nomination for her part in Lynch’s Wild at Heart, a cult classic where she played the mom of her real-life daughter Laura Dern’s role. A year later she received another nomination for her acting in Rambling Rose, another movie which included Laura Dern.

“This was the film that Princess Diana selected as her very favorite, and she invited me and Laura to England for a premiere and an event dedicated to us,” Ladd said of Rambling Rose. “She positioned herself between us, taking our hands, and weeping, watching us perform.”

The nineties included parts in comedy Cemetery Club, a film joining her again with Burstyn, Primary Colors, a political comedy, with John Travolta and Payne’s Citizen Ruth in which she portrayed Dern’s mother another time. Those years also saw her score Emmy nominations for performances in Dr Quinn, Medicine Woman, the show Grace Under Fire and Touched by an Angel, a drama.

Working with Laura Dern

She continued to star alongside her daughter in films blending humor and drama Daddy and Them, Lynch’s Inland Empire and White’s comedy-drama series Enlightened, a TV series. She was also seen next to Sandra Bullock, a star in the film 28 Days, Anthony Hopkins, a legend in The World’s Fastest Indian, a film and Jennifer Lawrence in the film Joy.

Her later TV roles featured Ray Donovan and Young Sheldon.

Behind the Camera

She also authored and oversaw the humorous movie the movie Mrs Munck that included her and former husband Bruce Dern. “Bruce is a great actor,” she said. “I was honored to direct him in a film. In fact, I am the sole female in history who directed her former husband. I humorously say: ‘I advise females, if you want revenge, helm a movie with your ex.’ But I’m only kidding.”

Personal Life

She was additionally a relative of playwright Tennessee Williams, whom she described as “a major inspiration on my life”.

During 2018, doctors misdiagnosed Ladd with a pulmonary condition and informed she had just six months to live but she regained full health once her daughter shifted her to a different hospital.

“When you use your pain and avoid letting it accumulate similar to a wound, instead use it to investigate, to clarify the journey for yourself and others, then you are triumphing,” Ladd said.