OJAI, CA – Three-time Oscar nominee Diane Ladd, best known for her role as waitress Flo in the 1974 film “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore,” died Monday at her home in Ojai, California. She was 89.
Her daughter, actress Laura Dern, confirmed the death in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter, saying she was at her mother’s bedside when she passed.
“My amazing hero and my profound gift of a mother, Diane Ladd, passed with me beside her this morning, at her home in Ojai, Calif.,” Dern wrote. “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 earned Academy Award nominations for her performances in Martin Scorsese’s “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore” (1974), “Wild At Heart” (1990) and “Rambling Rose” (1991). The latter film made Hollywood history when Ladd and Dern became the first mother-daughter pair to receive Oscar nominations in the same year.
Over a career spanning more than five decades, Ladd appeared in more than 300 films and television shows. Her notable credits include “Something Wicked This Way Comes” (1983), “Ghosts of Mississippi” (1996), “28 Days” (2000) and “Joy” (2015).
Her final television role came in the Hallmark series “Chesapeake Shores,” where she portrayed Nell O’Brien from 2016 to 2022. Her last film appearance was in the 2022 movie “Gigi & Nate.”
Beyond acting, Ladd wrote and directed the critically acclaimed film “Mrs. Munck,” demonstrating her versatility as an artist. Princess Diana selected “Rambling Rose” as one of her favorite films, leading to a royal premiere in London with a party honoring the actresses.
Ladd faced a life-threatening health crisis in 2018 when she was initially misdiagnosed with pneumonia after inhaling poison spray from a farm near her home. The exposure constricted her esophagus, and doctors gave her only six months to live.
Dern, unsatisfied with the diagnosis, transferred her mother to another hospital where she made a full recovery. During Ladd’s rehabilitation, Dern accompanied her on long walks to rebuild her lung capacity, recording their conversations.
Those recorded discussions became the basis for their 2023 joint memoir “Honey, Baby, Mine: A Mother And Daughter Talk Life, Death, Love (And Banana Pudding).” The Telegraph called it “the best, truest, most shockingly entertaining Hollywood memoir.”
Ladd was married to actor Bruce Dern from 1960 to 1969. The couple had two daughters: Diane, who died at 18 months after drowning in a pool, and Laura, born five years later.
Bruce Dern, 89, released a statement Monday calling his ex-wife “funny, clever, gracious” and “a great teammate to her fellow actors.”
“She lived a good life,” Dern said. “She saw everything the way it was. But most importantly to me, she was a wonderful mother to our incredible wunderkind daughter. And for that I will be forever grateful to her.”
The mother-daughter duo shared the screen multiple times throughout their careers, appearing together in “Enlightened,” “Inland Empire,” “Damaged Care,” “Daddy & Them,” “Citizen Ruth,” and “The Siege at Ruby Ridge.”
Despite her success, Ladd initially discouraged her daughter from pursuing acting. “I think the quote of my mother’s was, ‘Be a lawyer, be a doctor, be a leper missionary, but don’t be an actress!'” Laura Dern recalled in a 2018 People magazine interview.
Ladd is survived by her daughter Laura Dern and two grandchildren, Ellery Walker Harper, 24, and Jaya Harper, 20.
