Hollywood mourns Oscar-nominated actress Diane Ladd

American actress Diane Ladd, a three-time Academy Award nominee for her supporting roles in “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore,” “Wild at Heart,” and “Rambling Rose,” has died at the age of 89, her daughter Laura Dern announced Monday, according to Reuters.

Ladd passed away at her home in California, Dern said. Dern — herself an Oscar-winning actress — is Ladd’s daughter from her marriage to actor Bruce Dern, CE Report quotes AGERPRES.

Known for portraying strong, intelligent, and complex women, Ladd’s seven-decade career began on stage in the 1950s. She played a range of memorable roles, from a bold waitress to a troubled mother and an eccentric 1930s housewife.

The tall, blonde actress appeared alongside her daughter Laura in several films, including “White Lightning” (1973), David Lynch’s “Wild at Heart” (1990), “Citizen Ruth” (1996), “Daddy and Them” (2001), and HBO’s “Enlightened” (2011). The two often portrayed mother-daughter pairs on screen.

Both were nominated for Oscars for their performances in “Rambling Rose” (1991) — making them the first and only mother-daughter duo to receive Academy Award nominations for the same film in the same year.

“She’s simply the greatest actress of all time,” Laura Dern said of her mother in a 2019 interview on Inside the Actors Studio. “You don’t even have to use the word brave — because she is brave in life. She doesn’t care what others think.”

Beyond acting, the two collaborated on a 2023 memoir titled “Honey, Baby, Mine: A Mother and Daughter Talk Life, Death, Love,” based on conversations during their daily walks after Ladd was diagnosed with a lung condition. Doctors had told her she had only months to live — but she recovered through persistence and physical activity.

Born Rose Diane Ladner on November 29, 1935, in Meridian, Mississippi, Ladd decided early in life that she wanted to act. She graduated high school at 16 and debuted on stage in 1952 in an off-Broadway production of “Orpheus Descending” by her distant cousin, Tennessee Williams, where she met Bruce Dern.

She later appeared in iconic 1960s TV shows like “Perry Mason,” “77 Sunset Strip,” and “The Fugitive,” before starring in Roger Corman’s biker film “The Wild Angels” (1966) alongside Dern, Peter Fonda, and Nancy Sinatra.

Her career spanned over 120 film and television roles, including appearances in Roman Polanski’s “Chinatown” (1974) and David O. Russell’s “Joy” (2015). She earned three Emmy nominations in the 1990s.

Ladd also wrote short stories and screenplays, and in 1995, she directed and starred in “Mrs. Munck” with Bruce Dern.

In 2010, Ladd, Dern, and Laura Dern received side-by-side stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame during a joint ceremony.

In her 2006 memoir, “Spiraling Through the School of Life,” Ladd reflected on both triumphs and tragedies, including the death of her first daughter in a 1962 accident.

Ladd was married three times and continued working well into her 80s.

“Art is just a mirror — and that’s why we go to the movies, to discover who we are,” she told The New York Times in 2023.