Known for roles in Alice Don’t Live Here Anymore (1975), Coração Selvagem (1991) and As Noites de Rose (1992), the artist is also the mother of Laura Dern
Three-time nominee and mother of , Diane Ladd died this Monday (3), at her home in Ojai, na. The actress’ death was confirmed by her daughter, who shared an official statement published in the Hollywood Reporter.
“My incredible hero and great gift of a mother, Diane Ladd, died with me at her side this morning in her home in Ojai, California. She was the greatest daughter, mother, grandmother, actress and artist and an empathetic spirit that seemingly only dreams could have created,” Dern wrote. “We were blessed to have her. She’s flying with the angels now.”
Ladd was born on November 29, 1935, in the US state of Mississippi. She is the daughter of fellow actress Mary Bernadette Ladner, having started acting early. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, she starred in series such as Perry Mason, Naked City and Mr. Novak before heading to the big screen in 1966, in the 1966 film Wild Angels, in which she starred alongside her husband Bruce Dern.
The couple had two daughters, Laura and Diane, who died in a swimming pool accident at just 18 months old. In interviews given throughout his career, Ladd stated that his grief for the girl led to his divorce from Dern in 1969.
Ladd’s first Oscar nomination came in 1975, for his performance in Martin Scorsese’s Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore. His second nomination came in 1991, for David Lynch’s Wild at Heart, the first film in which he acted with Laura Dern. The following year, mother and daughter competed for an Oscar for another “family” work, with Dern being nominated for Best Actress and Ladd for Best Supporting Actress for Rose Nights.
Ladd has also written three books: Spiraling Through the School of Life: A Mental, Physical and Spiritual Discovery, released in 2006, A Bad Afternoon for a Piece of Cake, in 2016, and, more recently, Honey, Baby, Mine: A Mother and Daughter Talk Life, Death, Love (and Banana Pudding), which was co-written with Laura and based on conversations between the two.
In addition to Bruce Dern, Ladd was also married to William A. Shea, Jr., between 1969 and 1976, and Robert Charles Hunter, with whom she lived from 1999 until his death in July 2025.
*With information from Estadão Conteúdo
Published by Nátaly Tenório
