The late Hollywood icon Diane Ladd starred in numerous films with her actress daughter Laura Dern – even making movie history with her.
The duo appeared in The Siege at Ruby Ridge, Wild At Heart, Citizen Ruth, Inland Empire, the HBO series Enlightened, and more.
In 1992 they became the first mother-daughter pairing to earn acting nominations in the same film for Rambling Rose.
It’s a moment Dern, 58, remembers with fondness. ‘The call came from my publicist, Annette Wolf,’ she told Variety two weeks ago. ‘”Laura, dear, you and your mother have just both been nominated for Academy Awards for the movie.” I was 21 years old. We brought my grandmother with us, and as a family, it was a very beautiful memory.’
Dern was just a young girl when she first ‘co-starred’ with her mother, making uncredited appearances in her mom’s films White Lightning and Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore?
While Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore? marks the first time Dern appeared on the big screen, she doesn’t see it as her film debut and more as her merely being on set with her mother and director Martin Scorsese.
The late Diane Ladd starred with her daughter Laura Dern on numerous films, including Rambling Rose
They made movie history for Rambling Rose, becoming the first mother-daughter pairing to earn acting nominations in the same year
‘I mean, to me, that was like being on the set with my mom and Marty letting me sit there. I was eating an ice cream cone in the scene where Ellen [Burstyn] and Kris Kristofferson kiss,’ she told The Hollywood Reporter in 2014.
‘I loved it — and I loved him. I think he was my first crush. I was just sitting there like, “Oh, my God, Kris Kristofferson is so amazing.” They just seemed so cool. And I think he had to do 19 takes, so I had to eat 19 ice cream cones. And I heard Marty say to my mom, “Your kid ate 19 banana ice cream cones and didn’t vomit? She’s got to be an actress!” And then, I used that when I was 11. I was like, “Mom, Scorsese said that I—” [laughs].’
The relationship was one that did not go unnoticed by Dern’s Wild at Heart co-star Nicolas Cage.
‘I remember on the set of David Lynch’s film Wild at Heart and Nicolas Cage came up behind me and whispers in my ear, “That’s your mom, like your real mom,”‘ she recalled on CBS Sunday in 2023.
Dern was the one to confirm her mother’s passing on Monday.
Ladd, best known for role as the waitress Flo in the 1974 film Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, died at age 89 at her home in Ojai, California.
Dern confirmed the devastating news in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter on Monday.
They worked together in the HBO series Enlightened
‘For me, a set felt like a second home,’ Dern told CBS Sunday in 2023; pictured in Wild at Heart with her mother
‘My amazing hero and my profound gift of a mother, Diane Ladd, passed with me beside her this morning, at her home in Ojai, Calif.,’ Dern wrote.
She continued: ‘She was the greatest daughter, mother, grandmother, actress, artist and empathetic spirit that only dreams could have seemingly created,’ she added. ‘We were blessed to have her. She is flying with her angels now.’
Ladd earned three Oscar nominations over her lifetime for her roles in Martin Scorsese’s Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (1974), Wild at Heart (1990) and Rambling Rose (1991).
The performer starred in more than 300 films and TV shows including Stephen King’s 2004 supernatural horror television series for ABC.
Ladd’s other biggest credits include Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983), Ghosts of Mississippi (1996), 28 Days (2000), Charlie’s War (2003) and Joy (2015).
Dern also worked with her mother in Citizen Ruth; Dern pictured
Her final TV role was in the Hallmark series Chesapeake Shores, where she played Nell O’Brien from 2016 to 2022. Meanwhile, her last TV film role was in the 2022 film Gigi & Nate.
Over her career, the star even found time to write and direct the film, Mrs. Munck, which received critical acclaim.
In 2018, Ladd was given only six months to live after she was misdiagnosed with pneumonia after inhaling poison spray from a farm neighboring her home.
That ended up constricting her esophagus.
Dern, unsatisfied with the diagnosis or prognosis, transferred her to another hospital, where she made a full recovery.
During Ladd’s recovery, Dern was determined to help her mother rebuild her lung capacity after the doctors told her long walks might help repair the damage.
Dern was inspired to creatively challenge her mother during their walks, so she recorded their conversations.
Oscar-nominated actress Ladd has died at age 89; seen in 2023
Ladd earned three Oscar nominations over her lifetime for her roles in Martin Scorsese’s Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (1974), Wild at Heart (1990) and Rambling Rose (1991); seen in 1988
Those conversations turned into their 2023 joint memoir Honey, Baby, Mine: A Mother and Daughter Talk Life, Death, Love (and Banana Pudding).
The Telegraph’s review of the book called it ‘the best, truest, most shockingly entertaining Hollywood memoir… it is also one of the most loving.’
At one point in the book, the mother-daughter duo reminisce about Dern’s difficult teenage years.
‘Do you feel like I screwed you up?’ Ladd asks Dern. ‘Absolutely,’ Dern replies.
‘I bet you’re thinking of the time I slapped you,’ Ladd says. ‘You mouthed off to me, and I’d had a horrible day. You were only 10, and you said something really teenage-smart at the refrigerator… I thought, What am I doing wrong as a parent?’
Dern, noting that she’s frustrated that Ladd didn’t apologize for that, pointed out that she was 14 at the time and reminded her mom that she was ‘really unhappy at work and wanted to come home and blame someone else.’
In 2018, Dern admitted to People her mom tried to dissuade her from pursuing acting.
The performer starred in more than 300 films and TV shows including Stephen King’s 2004 supernatural horror television series for ABC (seen in 2010)
‘I think the quote of my mother’s was, “Be a lawyer, be a doctor, be a leper missionary, but don’t be an actress!”‘ she mused.
Regardless, the pair ended up sharing the screen multiple times.
Dern was the second daughter of Ladd and her ex-husband, actor Bruce Dern, 89.
Their first child, a daughter also named Diane died at 18 months old when she fell into a pool and hit her head. Laura was born five years later.
In addition to Dern, Ladd is survived by her two grandchildren, Ellery Walker Harper, 24 and Jaya Harper, 20.
