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The award-nominated performer the celebrated Diane Ladd has died 89 years old.

The actress, with credits included National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, left this world in her residence in California’s Ojai. The news was revealed through a message shared by her offspring, Oscar-winning actor Laura Dern, her daughter.

Her daughter, who performed alongside her mother in various films like Rambling Rose, referred to her as “my amazing hero as well as my special gift as a mother”, stating that she was by her side during her final moments.

“She was an exceptional grandmother, mother, daughter, performer, creative as well as empathetic spirit that only dreams could have seemingly created,” she wrote. “We were lucky to have her. She is now with the angels.”

Initial Roles and Rise to Fame

Ladd’s early career included small roles in TV shows such as Gunsmoke while the seventies had her appearing with Jack Nicholson in the film Chinatown.

In the same year, 1974, she appeared with actress Ellen Burstyn in Martin Scorsese’s acclaimed film Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, a classic. Her acting landed Ladd her initial Oscar nod as best supporting actress.

Subsequent Years

Throughout the 1980s, she starred in crime thriller Black Widow plus comedy sequel Christmas Vacation while also joining Alice, a sitcom based on Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore.

In the following decade, she was given a further Oscar nomination for supporting actress Oscar nomination for her performance in the David Lynch film Wild at Heart where she acted as the mom of her real-life daughter Laura Dern’s role. The following year she obtained an additional nod for her role in Rambling Rose, another movie which also starred Dern.

“This movie which Princess Diana chose as her absolutely favorite, and she invited me and Laura to the UK for a special screening and a party for us,” Ladd shared regarding Rambling Rose. “She sat with us, holding both our hands, and crying, seeing us act.”

That decade featured performances in comedy Cemetery Club, a film joining her again with her co-star Burstyn, the movie Primary Colors, a political comedy, starring John Travolta and Alexander Payne’s Citizen Ruth, a dark comedy where she acted as the mother of Dern again. The decade also earned her nominations for Emmy Awards for work in Dr Quinn, Medicine Woman, Grace Under Fire, a sitcom plus Touched by an Angel.

Collaborations with Daughter

She continued to star with her daughter in films blending humor and drama the film Daddy and Them, the David Lynch project Inland Empire, a surreal film and Mike White’s satirical show Enlightened. She was also seen next to Sandra Bullock, a star in the film 28 Days, Anthony Hopkins, a legend in that movie plus Jennifer Lawrence in Joy.

Subsequent TV appearances featured the series Ray Donovan plus Young Sheldon.

Writing and Directing

She additionally penned and oversaw the comedy the movie Mrs Munck that included her and former husband actor Bruce Dern. “Bruce is a talented star,” she said. “I was honored to direct him on a project. In fact, I stand as the only woman in recorded history to helm a film with her ex. I humorously say: ‘I advise females, if you seek payback, direct your ex-husband.’ Though I’m just teasing.”

Personal Connections

Ladd was also a family member of Tennessee Williams, whom she described as “a significant impact throughout my life”.

During 2018, doctors misdiagnosed Ladd with a respiratory illness and advised she only had half a year left yet she recovered completely once her daughter transferred her to a different hospital.

“Should you harness your suffering and not let it back up like a sore or something, rather utilize it to discover, to clarify the journey for yourself and others, then you are winning,” Ladd said.