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The Academy Award-nominated performer the celebrated Diane Ladd has died aged 89.

This actress, with filmography featured Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, died at her home in California’s Ojai. Her passing was revealed in a statement shared by her child, award-winning actress Laura Dern, her daughter.

Her daughter, who starred with Diane Ladd in a number of films including Wild at Heart, called her “my incredible hero and my special gift being my mom”, stating that she was at her bedside when she passed.

“She was an exceptional grandmother, mother, daughter, actress, artist along with empathetic spirit that felt like a dream come true,” she stated. “We were blessed to have her. She is flying with her angels now.”

Beginnings and Breakthrough

Ladd’s early career included supporting roles in television programs such as The Fugitive while the seventies featured her performing with actor Jack Nicholson in Chinatown.

During that year, the year 1974, she shared the screen with actress Ellen Burstyn in Martin Scorsese’s celebrated film Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore. The performance landed Ladd an Academy Award nomination for best supporting actress.

Later Decades

In the 1980s, she was seen in the thriller Black Widow as well as humorous film National Lampoon’s holiday comedy and also took part in the show Alice, a sitcom derived from Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore.

During the next ten years, she was given an additional supporting actress nomination for her part in David Lynch’s Wild at Heart where she played the parent of her real-life daughter Laura Dern’s role. The next year she received an additional nod for her performance in Rambling Rose, another movie that also featured her daughter.

“This was the film which Princess Diana chose as her absolutely favorite, and she invited me and Laura to London for a special screening and a party for us,” Ladd recalled of Rambling Rose. “And she sat between us, taking our hands, and crying, seeing us act.”

The 1990s featured performances in comedy Cemetery Club bringing her back with her co-star Burstyn, the movie Primary Colors, a comedy about politics, with John Travolta and Alexander Payne’s Citizen Ruth, a dark comedy in which she portrayed Laura Dern’s mom another time. That period also saw her score TV award nominations for roles in the series Dr Quinn, Medicine Woman, Grace Under Fire and Touched by an Angel, a drama.

Partnerships with Her Daughter

She kept appearing with Laura Dern in films blending humor and drama Daddy and Them, a movie, David Lynch’s Inland Empire and Mike White’s satirical show the program Enlightened. She also appeared alongside actress Sandra Bullock in the film 28 Days, Sir Anthony Hopkins in that movie and with Jennifer Lawrence in Joy.

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

Writing and Directing

She additionally penned and oversaw the comedy film 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 ever to direct her ex-husband. I humorously say: ‘I say ladies, if you seek payback, helm a movie with your ex.’ But I’m only kidding.”

Family Ties

Ladd was also the third cousin of playwright Tennessee Williams, who she referred to as “a significant impact throughout my life”.

In 2018, doctors misdiagnosed Ladd with a pulmonary condition and informed she only had half a year left but made a full recovery when her daughter shifted her to a new hospital.

“Should you harness your suffering and prevent it from festering like a sore or something, rather utilize it to explore, to make the path clearer for personal and collective growth, then you are succeeding,” Ladd expressed.