Diane Ladd Dies: Oscar-Nominated ‘Wild At Heart,’ ‘Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore’ Actress Was 89
Diane Ladd, the Oscar- and Emmy-nominated actress best known for memorable turns in Martin Scorsese’s Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore and David Lynch’s Wild at Heart, died at her home in Ojai this morning, according to her daughter, Laura Dern, who was at her bedside. Ladd was 89.
Dern confirmed the news to Deadline and offered the following statement:
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.
She was the greatest daughter, mother, grandmother, actress, artist and empathetic spirit that only dreams could have seemingly created
We were blessed to have her
She is flying with her angels now.
Ladd’s first movie role was Roger Corman’s Wild Angels (1966) in which she starred with her first husband, Bruce Dern, alongside Nancy Sinatra and Peter Fonda.
Ladd memorably played Ida Sessions in Roman Polanski’s Chinatown (1974), a pivotal character who helps lead Jack Nicholson’s Jake Giddes to the truth behind the murder of Hollis Mulwray — the film’s central mystery.
That same year, Martin Scorsese’s Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore brought Ladd her first Oscar nomination. In it, she defined the Southern crackerjack Flo, a waitress who works alongside Ellen Burstyn’s Alice. The role was later played on television by Polly Holliday.
Burstyn won the Best Actress Oscar for Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore. Ladd received a Best Supporting Actress nomination, but lost to Ingrid Bergman. Ladd did win a BAFTA for her work in the film.
CBS brought her onto the TV series adaptation of Scorsese’s film, Alice. She did not play Flo, but the singing waitress Belle who, like Ladd, hailed from Mississippi. She won a Golden Globe for the character, who appeared in 23 episodes of the hit show.
Ladd’s second Oscar Nomination was for the role of Marietta in David Lynch’s Wild At Heart. The film, which starred Nicolas Cage and Dern, won Cannes’ Palme d’Or.
Her third Oscar nomination came for Rambling Rose, in which she co-starred along with Robert Duval, Lucas Haas, and Dern. She and Dern made show business history as the first mother and daughter tandem ever to be nominated for the Oscar for the same motion picture in the same year.
Ladd starred in more than dozens of films and television shows, including Stephen King’s fifteen hour mini-series, Kingdom Hospital. She was recently seen in Lifetime’s Movie of the Week, Montana Sky and in the film, The World’s Fastest Indian co-starring Anthony Hopkins.
Every Christmas she’s seen in the holiday film, Christmas Vacation with Chevy Chase.
Ladd made her directing and writing debut with the film, Mrs. Munck (Viacom) starring Bruce Dern, Kelly Preston, the late Shelley Winters and herself.
Member of the famed Actors Studio’s acting, directing and playwriting units; and a Screen Actors Guild National Board Member, holding a number of noteworthy positions through the years. She is the Founder and President of the Art & Culture Taskforce, ACT – a charitable organization dedicated to strengthening education and the arts in America.
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