Diane Ladd, Oscar-nominated actor and mother of Laura Dern, dies at 89

(NBC News) – Diane Ladd, the prolific actor who earned Academy Award nominations for her spirited performances in Martin Scorsese’s “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore,” David Lynch’s “Wild at Heart” and Martha Coolidge’s “Rambling Rose,” died Monday.

She was 89.

“My amazing hero and my profound gift of a mother passed with me beside her this morning at her home in Ojai, California,” Ladd’s daughter, Oscar-winning actor Laura Dern, said in a statement.

“She was the greatest daughter, mother, grandmother, actress, artist and empathetic spirit that only dreams could have seemingly created,” Dern added. “We were blessed to have her. She is flying with her angels now.”

In a screen career spanning more than 60 years, Ladd portrayed an eclectic gallery of characters, embodying women who were strong-willed but vulnerable, off-kilter but grounded.

Scorsese cast Ladd as a fiery, sharp-tongued Arizona diner waitress in “Alice Doesn’t Live Her Anymore,” released in 1974 to critical acclaim — and a best supporting actress Oscar nomination for Ladd.

The same year, Ladd had a small but memorable role as a mysterious woman who hires Jack Nicholson’s cynical private detective in Roman Polanski’s “Chinatown.”