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The Academy Award-nominated performer the celebrated Diane Ladd passed away aged 89.

This star, whose filmography spanned National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, passed away at home in California’s Ojai. The news was announced via an announcement from her daughter, award-winning actress Laura Dern.

Laura Dern, who starred with Diane Ladd in a number of films including Wild at Heart and Rambling Rose, called her “my amazing hero as well as my precious gift being my mom”, stating that she was by her side as she died.

“She was the most wonderful grandmother, mother, daughter, performer, creative and caring individual that only dreams could have seemingly created,” she expressed. “We were lucky to have her. Her spirit soars with angels.”

Beginnings and Major Success

Ladd’s early career saw small roles on television series like Gunsmoke while that decade featured her performing with the legendary Jack Nicholson in the film Chinatown.

In the same year, the year 1974, she appeared with Ellen Burstyn in the Martin Scorsese celebrated dramatic comedy the movie Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore. Her acting landed Ladd her first Oscar nomination in the supporting actress category.

Subsequent Years

In the 1980s, she was seen in crime thriller Black Widow, a suspense story plus humorous film Christmas Vacation and appeared on the sitcom Alice, a television series based on Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore.

During the next ten years, she earned another Oscar nomination for supporting actress Academy Award nomination for her part in David Lynch’s Wild at Heart, a cult classic where she played the mother of her actual daughter the character played by Dern. The next year she obtained an additional nod for her acting in Rambling Rose, another movie that also featured Dern.

“This was the film that Princess Diana selected as her very favorite, and she flew us to the UK for a special screening and a celebration for us,” Ladd recalled regarding Rambling Rose. “And she sat between us, grasping our hands, and crying, seeing us act.”

That decade included parts in the comedy Cemetery Club bringing her back with her co-star Burstyn, Primary Colors, a political story, a political comedy, featuring John Travolta and Payne’s Citizen Ruth where she played the mother of Dern again. Those years also brought her nominations for Emmy Awards for roles in Dr Quinn, Medicine Woman, the show Grace Under Fire and Touched by an Angel.

Collaborations with Daughter

She persisted in performing alongside her daughter in comedy drama Daddy and Them, David Lynch’s Inland Empire, a surreal film and White’s comedy-drama series Enlightened. She also appeared next to actress Sandra Bullock in 28 Days, Anthony Hopkins in The World’s Fastest Indian and Jennifer Lawrence in Joy, a biographical drama.

Her more recent television parts included the series Ray Donovan plus Young Sheldon.

Behind the Camera

She also authored and directed the comedy film the movie Mrs Munck that included Diane Ladd and ex-husband Bruce Dern, an actor. “Bruce is an excellent performer,” she noted. “I’m privileged to have directed him in a movie. Indeed, I stand as the only woman in recorded history who directed her former husband. I humorously say: ‘I advise females, if you seek payback, guide your former spouse.’ Though I’m just teasing.”

Family Ties

She happened to be a family member of Tennessee Williams, whom she described as “a major inspiration throughout my life”.

During 2018, she received an incorrect diagnosis with lung disease and informed her life expectancy was six months but she regained full health once her daughter transferred her to a new hospital.

“When you use your pain and avoid letting it accumulate similar to a wound, instead apply it to explore, to make the path clearer for you and those around, then you are winning,” Ladd expressed.