Oscar-Nominated Actress Dead at 89

Oscar-nominated actress Diane Ladd, whose charm and grit lit up screens for more than six decades — and whose close bond with daughter Laura Dern became one of Hollywood’s most beloved mother-daughter stories — has died at 89.

Dern confirmed the heartbreaking news Monday, saying her “hero” mom passed peacefully at home in Ojai, California.

“My amazing hero and my profound gift of a mother, Diane Ladd, passed with me beside her this morning,” Dern shared in a statement. “She was the greatest daughter, mother, grandmother, actress, artist and empathetic spirit that only dreams could have seemingly created… She is flying with her angels now.”

Born in 1935 in Laurel, Mississippi, Ladd grew up performing — singing, dancing, and acting before she even hit her teens. Her breakout role came in Martin Scorsese’s 1974 classic “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore,” where she played the tough-talking waitress Flo — earning her first Oscar nomination and a permanent place in pop culture.

The movie spun off into the hit CBS sitcom Alice, which brought Ladd a Golden Globe and cemented her as one of the small screen’s great scene-stealers.

From there, she never stopped. Her résumé stretched from Something Wicked This Way Comes and Ghosts of Mississippi to 28 Days, Joy, and even 2022’s Gigi & Nate. On TV, fans loved her turns in Kingdom Hospital and Chesapeake Shores.

Even though Ladd once begged Laura not to become an actress — “Be a lawyer, be a doctor, be a leper missionary, but don’t be an actress!” Dern once recalled her mom saying — fate had other plans.

The pair went on to star together in several projects, including David Lynch’s “Wild at Heart” (1990) and “Rambling Rose” (1991) — both earning Oscar nominations for their mother-daughter duo performances. They later reunited for Citizen Ruth, Inland Empire, and HBO’s Enlightened.

Off screen, their connection deepened after Ladd’s 2018 lung disease diagnosis, when Dern began taking daily walks with her mom to help her recover. Those conversations became the heart of their joint 2023 memoir, “Honey, Baby, Mine: A Mother and Daughter Talk Life, Death, Love (and Banana Pudding).”

“All the deep listening filled us with love,” Dern told PEOPLE at the time. “It was very healing.”

Ladd’s life wasn’t without heartbreak. She and actor Bruce Dern, her husband from 1960 to 1969, suffered the devastating loss of their first daughter, Diane, who drowned at just 18 months old.

“You will never get over that,” Ladd once said. “The child is not supposed to die before the parent.”

The tragedy led to the couple’s eventual divorce but didn’t stop Ladd from pouring her heart into motherhood again — raising Laura with compassion and strength.

After two more marriages, she found lasting love with Robert Charles Hunter, her husband from 1999 until his death earlier this year.

With three Oscar nominations, three Emmy nods, a Golden Globe, and more than 120 acting credits, Ladd leaves behind one of the richest careers in Hollywood history — not to mention a family that adored her.

At the 2020 Oscars, she attended the ceremony proudly beside Laura and her grandchildren, Ellery and Jaya Harper — beaming with pride as her daughter took home her own Academy Award for Marriage Story.

Diane Ladd’s presence, both fiery and tender, shaped generations of women in film. And as Laura Dern put it best — her mother’s spirit is “flying with her angels now.”