Diane Ladd, Acclaimed Actress and Mother of Laura Dern, Dies at 89

‘She was the greatest daughter, mother, grandmother, actress, artist and empathetic spirit that only dreams could have seemingly created,’ Dern said.

Diane Ladd attends the 2016 Summer TCA "Hallmark Event" in Beverly Hills, Calif., on July 27, 2016. Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP

Acclaimed actress Diane Ladd, whose career spanned more than six decades, has died at her home in Ojai, California. She was 89.

Her daughter, Oscar-winning actress Laura Dern, confirmed her passing in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter. “My amazing hero and my profound gift of a mother passed with me beside her this morning at her home in Ojai, California,” Dern said.

“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.”

Born Diane Ladner on Nov. 29, 1935, in Laurel, Mississippi, Ladd began acting, dancing, and singing at a young age before pursuing theater work in New Orleans and New York. She made her film debut in Roger Corman’s “The Wild Angels” (1966), alongside her then-husband, Bruce Dern, and Peter Fonda.

Her breakthrough came eight years later in “Martin Scorsese’s Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore” (1974), where she portrayed Flo, a brash yet endearing waitress whose humor and heart made her a standout. The performance earned Ladd her first Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress and a BAFTA Award. The role later inspired the CBS sitcom “Alice,” for which Ladd won a Golden Globe when she joined the cast in 1980.

Ladd went on to receive two additional Oscar nominations, first for her darkly comedic role in David Lynch’s “Wild at Heart” (1990) and then for her tender portrayal of a Southern matriarch in “Rambling Rose” (1991), which also starred Dern. The mother-daughter duo made Academy Award history as the first to be nominated for the same film in the same year.

Her career included a wide range of roles across film and television, from 1974’s “Chinatown” and 1989’s “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation,” to 1998’s “Primary Colors,” 2000’s “28 Days,” and 2015’s “Joy.” She also directed and starred in 1995’s “Mrs. Munck” and appeared in the Hallmark Channel series “Chesapeake Shores.”

In a 1992 Parade interview, Ladd reflected on the tragic death of her first daughter, Diane Elizabeth, who drowned at 18 months old. She shared that the loss deeply affected her marriage to Bruce Dern and shaped how she raised Laura, teaching her to value independence and resilience.

“I was terrified, being on my own with Laura. I had to force myself not to be overly protective because I had lost one child. The result was that it worked the other way. I allowed her to be a free thinker, and that helped her become her own person,” she said, according to Deseret News.

Ladd was married three times, most recently to businessman Robert Charles Hunter, who died earlier this year. She is survived by her daughter Laura Dern and grandchildren Ellery and Jaya.

(L–R) Ellery Harper, Jaya Harper, Diane Ladd, and Laura Dern arrive at the Oscars at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles on Feb. 9, 2020. Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP