Oscar-Nominated Actress Diane Ladd Passes Away at 89

Diane Ladd, three-time Oscar-nominated actress and Broadway alum, passed away the morning of November 3, 2025, with her daughter, Laura Dern, by her side. She was 89 years old. 

In her seven-decade career as a character actress, Ladd appeared across film and television projects in many celebrated roles. She made her Broadway debut in 1968 in Carry Me Back to Morningside Heights. In 1976, she returned to Broadway in A Texas Trilogy: A Texas Trilogy: Lu Ann Hampton Laverty Oberlander, for which she received a Drama Desk Award nomination. 

Previously starring in movies like White Lightning and Chinatown, her breakout screen role came in 1974 with Martin Scorsese's romantic comedy Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore. She received her first Academy Award nomination for her performance as Flo the waitress.

Other notable appearances include Disney's Something Wicked This Way Comes, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, Rambling Rose (Oscar nomination), Citizen Ruth, Primary Colors, and 2015's Joy. She worked with the late David Lynch on two projects: Wild at Heart, for which she received her second Oscar nomination, and Inland Empire. 

Ladd's final film credits were the 2022 dramas Gigi & Nate and Isle of Hope. In the latter, she played a retired Hollywood actress opposite Mary Stuart Masterson. In 2023, she and her daughter, Laura Dern, collaborated on the book project "Honey, Baby, Mine: A Mother and Daughter Talk Life, Death, Love," which compiled personal conversations between the two.