Diane Ladd, Oscar-nominated actor and mom of Laura Dern, dies at 89

Diane Ladd, the prolific actor who earned Academy Award nominations for her spirited, soulful performances in Martin Scorsese’s “Alice Does not Dwell Right here Anymore,” David Lynch’s “Wild at Coronary heart” and Martha Coolidge’s “Rambling Rose,” died Monday.

She was 89.

“My wonderful hero and my profound present of a mom handed with me beside her this morning at her residence in Ojai, California,” Ladd’s daughter, Oscar-winning actor Laura Dern, mentioned in a press release.

“She was the best daughter, mom, grandmother, actress, artist and empathetic spirit that solely goals might have seemingly created,” Dern added. “We have been blessed to have her. She is flying together with her angels now.”

In a display screen profession spanning greater than 60 years, Ladd portrayed an eclectic gallery of characters, embodying girls who have been strong-willed however weak, off-kilter however grounded.

Scorsese forged Ladd as a fiery, sharp-tongued Arizona diner waitress in “Alice Does not Dwell Her Anymore,” launched in 1974 to crucial acclaim — and a finest supporting actress Oscar nomination for Ladd.

The identical yr, Ladd had a small however memorable function as a mysterious lady who hires Jack Nicholson’s cynical non-public detective in Roman Polanski’s “Chinatown.”

Lynch forged Ladd as a cartoonishly overbearing mom in “Wild at Coronary heart” (1990), a lovers-on-the-run noir that paid homage to Elvis Presley and “The Wizard of Oz.” Ladd earned her second supporting actress nod within the function of Marietta Fortune.

“There’s not solely speak of the Depraved Witch, however Marietta, performed with fantastic, sleazy zest by Diane Ladd, really wears wicked-witch footwear,” The New York Occasions critic Vincent Canby wrote in his evaluation.

Ladd’s third supporting actress nomination arrived the next yr for her work as a Southern household matriarch in “Rambling Rose,” once more forged reverse Dern. The 2 made historical past as the primary mother-daughter duo nominated for Oscars in the identical yr.