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This award-nominated actress Diane Ladd has died 89 years old.

The star, whose roles featured Chinatown, left this world in her residence in California’s Ojai. Her passing was revealed in a statement from her daughter, Academy Award-winning star Laura Dern.

Dern, who appeared with Diane Ladd in several movies like Rambling Rose, referred to her as “my amazing hero plus my profound gift of a mother”, noting that she was by her side as she died.

“She was an exceptional grandmother, mother, daughter, performer, creative and caring individual that felt like a dream come true,” she stated. “We were fortunate to know her. She is now with the angels.”

Initial Roles and Major Success

The start of her career featured supporting roles in television programs including Perry Mason while that decade featured her performing with the legendary Jack Nicholson in the classic Chinatown.

In the same year, 1974, she shared the screen with Ellen Burstyn in Scorsese’s praised dramatic comedy Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, a classic. The performance earned Ladd her initial Oscar nod in the supporting actress category.

Subsequent Years

In the 1980s, she starred in crime thriller the movie Black Widow as well as humorous film Christmas Vacation and appeared on the sitcom Alice, a television series derived from her earlier movie.

During the next ten years, she earned another best supporting actress Academy Award nomination for her part in David Lynch’s the movie Wild at Heart where she acted as the parent of her actual daughter Dern’s character. A year later she received a further nomination for her role in Rambling Rose, another movie that also featured Dern.

“This was the film that the late Princess Diana selected as her very favorite, and she flew Laura and I to the UK for a special screening and a party dedicated to us,” Ladd said about the film Rambling Rose. “She positioned herself between us, grasping our hands, and weeping, seeing us act.”

The nineties included parts in the comedy Cemetery Club, a film reuniting her with Ellen Burstyn, the movie Primary Colors, a satirical film, featuring John Travolta and Alexander Payne’s Citizen Ruth in which she portrayed the mother of Dern another time. Those years also saw her score Emmy nominations for roles on Dr Quinn, the show Grace Under Fire and Touched by an Angel.

Working with Laura Dern

She persisted in performing with Laura Dern in films blending humor and drama Daddy and Them, the David Lynch project the movie Inland Empire and Mike White’s dark comedy series the program Enlightened. She was also seen alongside Sandra Bullock in 28 Days, a movie, Anthony Hopkins, a legend in that movie and with Jennifer Lawrence in the film Joy.

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

Writing and Directing

Ladd also wrote and oversaw the humorous movie the movie Mrs Munck which starred herself and previous spouse Bruce Dern. “Bruce is a great actor,” she mentioned. “I’m privileged to have directed him in a movie. Actually, I am the sole female in recorded history to direct her ex-husband. I often joke: ‘I tell women, if you want revenge, guide your former spouse.’ But I’m only kidding.”

Personal Connections

She happened to be a family member of the great Tennessee Williams, who she called “a great influence throughout my life”.

During 2018, she received an incorrect diagnosis with a respiratory illness and advised her life expectancy was six months but made a full recovery once her daughter shifted her to another medical facility.

“If you can take your pain and not let it back up like an injury, rather utilize it to investigate, to clarify the journey for you and those around, then you are succeeding,” Ladd said.