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The Oscar-nominated actress Diane Ladd has died aged 89.

The actress, with credits included Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, passed away at home in California’s Ojai. Her passing was shared through a message from her offspring, award-winning actress Laura Dern.

Laura Dern, who performed alongside Diane Ladd in various films such as Wild at Heart, referred to her as “my amazing hero as well as my special gift as a mother”, noting that she was at her bedside when she passed.

“She was an exceptional daughter, mother, grandmother, star, artist as well as caring individual that seemed almost dreamlike,” she stated. “We were lucky to have her. She is now with the angels.”

Early Career and Breakthrough

The start of her career included supporting roles on television series like Gunsmoke whereas that decade saw her starring next to the legendary Jack Nicholson in Chinatown.

During that year, 1974, she performed alongside Ellen Burstyn in Martin Scorsese’s praised dramatic comedy Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore. The performance brought Ladd an Academy Award nomination as best supporting actress.

Subsequent Years

In the 1980s, she was seen in the thriller Black Widow plus comedy sequel Christmas Vacation and appeared on the show Alice, a television series based on Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore.

In the subsequent decade, she received a further supporting actress nomination for her part in the David Lynch film the movie Wild at Heart where she played the mother of her actual daughter Dern’s character. The next year she received an additional nod for her acting in Rambling Rose, another movie which included her daughter.

“This movie that the late Princess Diana chose as her absolutely favorite, and she invited us to London for a premiere and a celebration in our honor,” Ladd said about the film Rambling Rose. “She sat with us, grasping our hands, and crying, viewing our performance.”

The 1990s featured performances in humorous films Cemetery Club joining her again with Ellen Burstyn, the movie Primary Colors, a satirical film, starring John Travolta and the film by Alexander Payne Citizen Ruth, a dark comedy where she acted as Dern’s mother once more. Those years also earned her Emmy nominations for work in Dr Quinn, Medicine Woman, the show Grace Under Fire and Touched by an Angel, a drama.

Collaborations with Daughter

She continued to star with Laura Dern in comedy drama Daddy and Them, the David Lynch project Inland Empire, a surreal film and the series by Mike White comedy-drama series Enlightened, a TV series. She additionally starred alongside Sandra Bullock, a star in 28 Days, a movie, Sir Anthony Hopkins in The World’s Fastest Indian and with Jennifer Lawrence in Joy, a biographical drama.

Her later TV roles included the series Ray Donovan and Young Sheldon.

Behind the Camera

Ladd also wrote and oversaw the comedy Mrs Munck that included herself and former husband Bruce Dern, an actor. “Bruce is a talented star,” she mentioned. “It was a privilege to guide him on a project. In fact, I am the sole female in history to direct her ex-husband. I make a joke: ‘I tell women, should you desire retribution, helm a movie with your ex.’ But I’m only kidding.”

Personal Life

She was additionally a family member of the great Tennessee Williams, who she referred to as “a significant impact on my life”.

During 2018, doctors misdiagnosed Ladd with a respiratory illness and told her life expectancy was six months but she regained full health when her daughter transferred her to a different hospital.

“Should you harness your suffering and not let it back up like a sore or something, instead apply it to discover, to illuminate the way for you and those around, then you are succeeding,” Ladd expressed.