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| Diane Ladd: 'My whole job as an actor is to fight for justice, to show you saint or sinner, so that we don't judge too quickly' Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze |
Rambling Rose and Wild At Heart star Diane Ladd has died at the age of 89.
Laura Dern paid tribute to her three-time Oscar-nominated mother, who passed away in California, saying: "My amazing hero and my profound gift of a mother, Diane Ladd, passed with me beside her this morning,"
She added: "She was the greatest daughter, mother, grandmother, actress, artist and empathetic spirit that only dreams could have seemingly created. We were blessed to have her."
Ladd was first Oscar-nominated for her waitress role alongside Ellen Burstyn in Martin Scorsese's Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore. In a careeer spanning more than five decades, she also received Academy Award nominations for Wild At Heart and Rambling Rose - starring alongside her daughter both times. With Rambling Rose, they became the first mother and daughter pair to be both nominated for the same film.
The pair also wrote a book Honey, Baby, Mine: A Mother and Daughter Talk Life, Death, Love together.
Mississippi-born Ladd was married to fellow actor Bruce Dern from 1960 to 69, and the couple had two children, but the eldest, also Diane, died in a swimming pool accident at just 18 months old. After her divorce from Dern, she married William A Shea Jr but the marriage was to last just three years. She wed author Robert Charles Hunter in 1999 and they remained together until his death in August.
Other notable roles included in Chinatown, Inland Empire and HBO series Englightened, which again also featured her daughter.
Bruce Dern paid tribute to his ex-wife in a statement, describing her as "funny, clever, gracious". He added: "But most importantly to me, she was a wonderful mother to our incredible wunderkind daughter. And for that I will be forever grateful to her."
Speaking to us about her role in David O Russell's Joy, Ladd said: "When you do something, when you do a part, especially based on reality, and then you discover that that person appreciates what you've done and you've succeeded, it is like a painting. Like having done a painting but nobody can see it really and know. I can't tell you the feeling, because my whole job as an actor is to fight for justice, to show you saint or sinner, so that we don't judge too quickly.
"We judge often quickly in this world, we human beings. Do you have a car like I do? Do you drive the same car? Do you belong to the same club? What are you wearing? Who made that bag? It's all a joke! It's all baloney. It's all about you. You are the book cover and what's your book like inside? You know, we got to start reading the books of each other."
