Diane Ladd Dies at 89; Laura Dern at Side

Diane Ladd, the three-time Academy Award–nominated actress, died at 89 at her home in Ojai, California, with her daughter Laura Dern at her side; the family has not disclosed a cause of death. Ladd's six-decade career spanned film, television and stage, with Oscar-nominated performances in Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974), Wild at Heart (1990) and Rambling Rose (1991), and she won a Golden Globe for the sitcom Alice. She frequently collaborated with Dern — the two were nominated for acting for the same film, Rambling Rose — and appeared together in projects including HBO's Enlightened; Ladd continued acting into her late 80s with credits such as 2022's Gigi & Nate. Tributes poured in from colleagues and family, including director Martin Scorsese and former husband Bruce Dern, who praised her work and called her a 'hidden treasure.' The family noted that her husband, pianist Robert Charles Hunter, died earlier this year, and Laura Dern described her mother as 'my amazing hero' and a 'profound gift of a mother.'