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This Academy Award-nominated performer Diane Ladd passed away at the age of 89.

The star, whose filmography included Chinatown, died at her home in Ojai, California. Her passing was announced through a message by her daughter, award-winning actress Laura Dern, her daughter.

Dern, who starred with her mother in a number of films like Rambling Rose, referred to her as “my incredible hero plus my profound gift as a mother”, stating that she was at her bedside when she passed.

“She was the most wonderful mother, daughter, grandmother, actress, artist and caring individual that seemed almost dreamlike,” she expressed. “We were fortunate to know her. She is now with the angels.”

Beginnings and Rise to Fame

Ladd’s early career included supporting roles in television programs including The Fugitive while the seventies had her appearing with Jack Nicholson in the classic Chinatown.

That very year, the year 1974, she shared the screen with actress Ellen Burstyn in the Martin Scorsese celebrated dramatic comedy the movie Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore. Her role earned Ladd her first Oscar nomination as best supporting actress.

Subsequent Years

During the eighties, she appeared in the dramatic film the movie Black Widow plus comedy sequel Christmas Vacation and also took part in the sitcom Alice, a sitcom based on the film Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore.

In the subsequent decade, she received an additional Oscar nomination for supporting actress nomination for her role in Lynch’s the movie Wild at Heart in which she portrayed the mother of her biological child Dern’s character. The next year she obtained another nomination for her role in the film Rambling Rose which also starred Dern.

“This was the film that the late Princess Diana chose as her absolutely favorite, and she flew me and Laura to London for a special screening and an event for us,” Ladd shared of Rambling Rose. “She positioned herself between us, holding both our hands, and crying, seeing us act.”

That decade featured performances in comedy Cemetery Club, a film joining her again with her co-star Burstyn, the movie Primary Colors, a political comedy, with John Travolta and Payne’s Citizen Ruth, a dark comedy where she played Dern’s mother again. Those years also brought her TV award nominations for work in Dr Quinn, Medicine Woman, Grace Under Fire, a sitcom plus Touched by an Angel.

Collaborations with Daughter

She persisted in performing with her daughter in dramatic comedies the film Daddy and Them, the David Lynch project the movie Inland Empire and White’s comedy-drama series Enlightened. She also appeared next to Sandra Bullock, a star in 28 Days, a movie, Anthony Hopkins, a legend in The World’s Fastest Indian plus Jennifer Lawrence in the film Joy.

Her more recent television parts consisted of Ray Donovan, a drama plus Young Sheldon.

Behind the Camera

Ladd also wrote and oversaw the comedy the movie Mrs Munck which starred her and previous spouse Bruce Dern. “Bruce is a great actor,” she noted. “It was a privilege to guide him in a movie. In fact, I stand as the only woman in history who directed her former husband. I often joke: ‘I tell women, if you seek payback, direct your ex-husband.’ Though I’m just teasing.”

Personal Connections

She was additionally the third cousin of Tennessee Williams, who she called “a significant impact in my life”.

During 2018, she received an incorrect diagnosis with a respiratory illness and advised her life expectancy was six months but she regained full health after her daughter shifted her to a new hospital.

“When you use your pain and not let it back up like a sore or something, instead apply it to explore, to clarify the journey for you and those around, then you are triumphing,” Ladd said.