Flying with her angels: Diane Ladd (1935-2025) | Tributes

November 30^thon what would have been his 90th birthday^th anniversary, TCM is airing a double feature of two of Diane Ladd’s best performances: 1974’s “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore” and 1991’s “Rambling Rose.” Oscar-nominated for both, they are wonderful examples of Ladd’s skill at drawing characters that resemble people you know.

She had a realism grounded in her acting, a performer who looked at the world around her and incorporated those she encountered into her craft. She was an underrated actress, too rarely mentioned among the greats, but the truth is she was as reliable as anyone of her generation. She never felt fake. You couldn’t see the tricks like when so many artists try to put themselves in the shoes of “real people.” She searched for the truth in her characters and, in doing so, got lost.

And she has shaped careers in ways that are also underappreciated. We wouldn’t really have the same impression of legends like Martin Scorsese, Alexander Payne, Roman Polanski or David Lynch without the way she influenced their legacy. She was an outspoken leader in her craft, and Hollywood is a darker place now that she’s left it.

Few actresses have had the longevity of Diane Ladd, with credits spanning an incredible eight decades and more than 200 projects. Her Mississippi roots served her well when it came to playing characters from the area — she was actually a first cousin of Tennessee Williams — but she also sought to leave some of that behind, telling the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in 1993, “Southern women are supposed to be the best wives – second only to Japanese; we were raised to be slaves. I’ve come a long way.”

She began this long journey when she was just a teenager, landing a role in a stage production of Tobacco route. Her first film appearance would have been in an uncredited role in 1961’s “Something Wild,” but she had already done notable work on television by that point. She appeared regularly on the small screen throughout the ’60s, appearing in classics like “The Fugitive,” “Gunsmoke,” “The Big Valley” and “Ironside.”

Diane Ladd rose to fame in 1974 when she appeared in two of that year’s best films: Roman Polanski’s “Chinatown” and Martin Scorsese’s “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore.” The first to win was a Best Picture nomination, and the second earned Ladd her first of three Academy Award nominations for Best Supporting Actress. These two fantastic performances also showed Ladd’s range. She was a performer who often felt stereotyped in “Southern Lady” roles, but these are such unique and fully drawn characters that they alone prove the superficiality of this criticism.

From then on, she worked regularly in film and television. Highlights of the film include “Something Wicked This Way Comes”, “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation”, “Wild at Heart” (his second Oscar nod), “Rambling Rose” (his third and final), “Citizen Ruth”, “Primary Colors” and “Joy”. She also appeared in the television series “Alice,” loosely based on Scorsese’s film, in 1980, but it lasted only one season, for which she won a Golden Globe. She received Emmy nominations for her appearances in “Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman,” “Grace Under Fire” and “Touched by an Angel.” She knew how to make an impact.

Of course, she was also part of a legendary family. She married Bruce Dern in 1960 and they had two children. Sadly, one of them died at 18 months, but the other was Laura Dern, an Oscar winner herself. Whenever they appeared together, like in “Rambling Rose,” “Wild at Heart” or the truly special “Enlightened,” they brought with them an unmistakable truth to the set.

In a statement, Dern herself put it more beautifully than we could:

“My incredible hero and profound gift of a mother, Diane Ladd, passed away by my side this morning, at her home in Ojai, California. She was the greatest daughter, mother, grandmother, actress, artist and empathetic spirit that only dreams could have created. We were lucky to have her. She is flying with her angels now.”