Diane Ladd, the 89-year-old actress whose career intertwined with some of cinema’s most iconic filmmakers, died on Monday, November 3, at her home in Ojai, California. The cause of death has not yet been revealed.
Her daughter, Laura Dern, confirmed the news in a statement. “She was the greatest daughter, mother, grandmother, actress, artiste and empathetic spirit that only dreams could have seemingly created. We were blessed to have her. She is flying with her angels now,” PTI quoted Laura Dern as saying.
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Who was Diane Ladd?
Born Rose Diane Ladner in Laurel, Mississippi, on November 29, 1935. In her 2006 memoir Spiraling Through the School of Life, she recalled how her great-grandmother had once told her that she would one day be “in front of a screen” and would “command” her own audiences.
In 1952, Ladd began her acting journey with an off-Broadway production of Orpheus Descending, written by her third cousin, Tennessee Williams. It was during this play that she met her first husband, Bruce Dern, with whom she would later have Laura.
Ladd’s career on screen began to bloom in the 1950s, when she appeared in popular television shows such as Perry Mason, Gunsmoke, and The Big Valley. But it was her magnetic performance in Martin Scorsese’s Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (1974) that earned her an Oscar nomination.
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She was nominated again for her role in David Lynch’s Wild at Heart (1990), and just a year later, for her performance in Rambling Rose (1991).
Ladd was married three times: first to Bruce Dern, then to William A. Shea Jr., and later to Robert Charles Hunter, an author and former PepsiCo executive, with whom she remained until his death in August.
