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The award-nominated actress Diane Ladd, a Hollywood veteran has died 89 years old.

This star, with roles spanned National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, died at her home in California’s Ojai. Her passing was revealed through a message shared by her daughter, Oscar-winning actor Laura Dern.

Dern, who starred with her mom in several movies including Rambling Rose, referred to her as “my wonderful hero and my profound gift of a mother”, noting that she was by her side when she passed.

“She was the greatest mother, daughter, grandmother, actress, artist as well as compassionate soul that only dreams could have seemingly created,” she wrote. “We were blessed to have her. She is flying with her angels now.”

Beginnings and Rise to Fame

Her initial acting years saw minor parts in television programs like Gunsmoke and that decade featured her performing alongside actor Jack Nicholson in Chinatown.

During that year, 1974, she shared the screen with Ellen Burstyn in Martin Scorsese’s acclaimed dramatic comedy Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, a classic. Her role earned Ladd her first Oscar nomination for best supporting actress.

1980s and Beyond

In the 1980s, she appeared in the thriller the movie Black Widow plus humorous film Christmas Vacation while also joining the sitcom Alice, a comedy program derived from Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore.

In the subsequent decade, she was given a further Oscar nomination for supporting actress nomination for her part in David Lynch’s Wild at Heart, a cult classic where she acted as the mother of her actual daughter Laura Dern’s role. The following year she was awarded an additional nod for her performance in Rambling Rose, another movie that also featured Laura Dern.

“This movie that Princess Diana selected as her very favorite, and she brought Laura and I to England for a special screening and an event for us,” Ladd said of Rambling Rose. “She sat with us, taking our hands, and crying, watching us perform.”

That decade featured performances in comedy The Cemetery Club joining her again with Ellen Burstyn, Primary Colors, a political comedy, starring John Travolta and the film by Alexander Payne Citizen Ruth, a dark comedy in which she portrayed the mother of Dern another time. The decade also earned her TV award nominations for performances in Dr Quinn, Medicine Woman, the show Grace Under Fire and Touched by an Angel.

Partnerships with Her Daughter

She persisted in performing alongside her daughter in dramatic comedies the film Daddy and Them, the David Lynch project the movie Inland Empire and White’s dark comedy series the program Enlightened. She additionally starred alongside Sandra Bullock in 28 Days, a movie, Anthony Hopkins in The World’s Fastest Indian plus Jennifer Lawrence in Joy, a biographical drama.

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

Writing and Directing

Ladd also wrote and directed the comedy film Mrs Munck, a film which starred her and former husband Bruce Dern. “Bruce is a great actor,” she mentioned. “I’m privileged to have directed him in a film. Indeed, I stand as the only woman in recorded history who directed her former husband. I often joke: ‘I tell women, if you want revenge, helm a movie with your ex.’ But I’m only kidding.”

Personal Connections

She happened to be the third cousin of playwright Tennessee Williams, whom she described as “a great influence in my life”.

In 2018, she received an incorrect diagnosis with lung disease and told her life expectancy was six months but made a full recovery when her daughter moved her to a new hospital.

“If you can take your pain and avoid letting it accumulate like a sore or something, instead use it to explore, to illuminate the way for you and those around, then you are winning,” Ladd said.