Today is the 85th Birthday of the amazing actress Diane Ladd. She has has a long career full of amazing work, but if you only see one film, see Wild at Heart. You will want to see everything she has ever done. The world is a better place because she is in it.
NAME: Diane Ladd
OCCUPATION: Film Actress
BIRTH DATE: November 29, 1935/1942
EDUCATION: Louisiana State University
PLACE OF BIRTH: Laurel, Mississippi
ORIGINALLY: Rose Diane Ladnier
GOLDEN GLOBE 1981 for Alice (television)
HOLLYWOOD WALK OF FAME 6270 Hollywood Blvd. (2010)
BEST KNOWN FOR: Diane Lane is a Golden Globe–winning actress of films and TV and the mother of actress Laura Dern.
Diane Ladd is an American actress, film director, producer and published author. She has appeared in over 120 roles, on television, and in miniseries and feature films, including Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (1974), Wild at Heart (1990), Rambling Rose (1991), Ghosts of Mississippi, Primary Colors, 28 Days (2000), and American Cowslip (2008). Twice divorced and currently married, Ladd is the mother of actress Laura Dern by ex-husband actor Bruce Dern.
Ladd was born Rose Diane Ladner in Meridian, Mississippi in 1932, the only child of Mary Bernadette, a housewife and actress, and Preston Paul Ladner, a poulterer. Ladd is a second cousin of playwright Tennessee Williams and is also related to poet Sidney Lanier. Ladd was raised in the Roman Catholic faith of her mother.
Ladd was formerly married to actor and one-time co-star Bruce Dern from 1960–1969; the couple had two children, Diane Elizabeth Dern and actress Laura Elizabeth Dern. Diane died at 18 months from head injuries caused by falling into a swimming pool. Ladd and Laura Dern co-starred in the films Wild at Heart and Rambling Rose. They also appeared together in Inland Empire, another film by David Lynch. They most recently have co-starred on the HBO series Enlightened. Ladd is now married to Robert Charles Hunter.
In 1971, Ladd joined the cast of the CBS soap opera, The Secret Storm. She was the second actress to play the role of Kitty Styles on the long-running daytime serial. She later had a supporting role in Roman Polanski’s 1974 film Chinatown, and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for her role as Flo in the film Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore. That film inspired the TV series Alice, in which Flo was portrayed by Polly Holliday. When Holliday left the TV series, Ladd succeeded her as waitress Isabelle “Belle” Dupree. In 1993, Ladd appeared in the episode “Guess Who’s Coming to Chow?” of the CBS comedy/western series Harts of the West in the role of the mother of co-star Harley Jane Kozak. The 15-episode program, set on a dude ranch in Nevada starred Beau Bridges and Lloyd Bridges.
In 2004, Ladd played psychic Mrs. Druse in the television miniseries of Stephen King’s Kingdom Hospital. In April 2006, Ladd released her first book entitled: Spiraling Through The School Of Life: A Mental, Physical, and Spiritual Discovery. In 2007, she co-starred in the Lifetime Television film Montana Sky.
In addition to her Academy Award nomination for Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, she was also nominated (again in the Best Actress in a Supporting Role category) for both Wild at Heart and Rambling Rose, both of which she starred alongside her daughter Laura Dern. Dern received a nomination for Best Actress for Rambling Rose. The dual mother and daughter nominations for Ladd and Dern in Rambling Rose marked the first time in Academy Award history that such an event had occurred. They were also nominated for dual Golden Globe Awards in the same year.
Ladd has worked in the theatre as well. She made her Broadway debut in the play Carry Me Back to Morningside Heights in 1968. In 1976 she starred in the play, A Texas Trilogy: Lu Ann Hampton Laverty Oberlander, for which she received a Drama Desk Award nomination.
Film
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1960 | Murder, Inc. | Showgirl | Uncredited |
| 1961 | Something Wild | Bit Part | Uncredited |
| 1962 | 40 Pounds of Trouble | Young Bride on Honeymoon | Uncredited |
| 1966 | The Wild Angels | Gaysh | |
| 1969 | The Reivers | Phoebe | |
| 1970 | The Rebel Rousers | Karen | Shot in 1967 |
| 1970 | Macho Callahan | Girl | |
| 1970 | WUSA | Barmaid at Railroad Station | Uncredited |
| 1971 | The Steagle | Mrs. Forbes | |
| 1973 | White Lightning | Maggie | |
| 1974 | Chinatown | Ida Sessions | |
| 1974 | Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore | Flo | |
| 1976 | Embryo | Martha Douglas | |
| 1981 | All Night Long | Helen Dupler | |
| 1983 | Something Wicked This Way Comes | Mrs. Nightshade | |
| 1983 | Sweetwater | Lucy | |
| 1987 | Black Widow | Etta | |
| 1987 | Plain Clothes | Jane Melway | |
| 1989 | National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation | Nora Griswold | |
| 1990 | Wild at Heart | Marietta Fortune | |
| 1991 | A Kiss Before Dying | Mrs. Corliss | |
| 1991 | Rambling Rose | Mother | |
| 1992 | Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me | Lucille | |
| 1992 | Forever | Mabel Normand | |
| 1992 | Spies Inc. | Alice | |
| 1993 | The Cemetery Club | Lucille Rubin | |
| 1993 | Carnosaur | Dr. Jane Tiptree | |
| 1993 | Father Hood | Rita | |
| 1995 | Mother | Olivia Hendrix | Also co-producer |
| 1995 | Mrs. Munck | Mrs. Munck | Also writer and director |
| 1995 | Raging Angels | Sister Kate | |
| 1996 | Citizen Ruth | Ruth’s Mother | Uncredited |
| 1996 | Ghosts of Mississippi | Grandma Caroline Moore | |
| 1997 | James Dean: Race with Destiny | Mama Pierangeli | |
| 1998 | Primary Colors | Mamma Stanton | |
| 1998 | Route 66 | ||
| 1999 | Can’t Be Heaven | Nona Gina | |
| 2000 | 28 Days | Bobbie Jean | |
| 2000 | The Law of Enclosures | Bea | |
| 2001 | Daddy and Them | Jewel | |
| 2001 | Rain | Audrey Turnquick | |
| 2002 | Redemption of the Ghost | Aunt Helen | |
| 2002 | More than Puppy Love | Aunt Edna | |
| 2002 | The Virgin | ||
| 2003 | Charlie’s War | Jobie | |
| 2005 | The World’s Fastest Indian | Ada | |
| 2006 | Come Early Morning | Nana | |
| 2006 | When I Find the Ocean | Edna | |
| 2006 | Inland Empire | Marilyn Levens | |
| 2008 | Jake’s Corner | Fran | |
| 2008 | American Cowslip | Roe | |
| 2013 | Grave Secrets | Emily Barnes | |
| 2014 | Just Before I Go | Mamma | Uncredited |
| 2015 | I Dream Too Much | Vera | |
| 2015 | Joy | Mimi | |
| 2016 | Sophie and the Rising Sun | Ruth Jeffers | |
| 2016 | Amerigeddon | Betty | |
| 2016 | Boonville Redemption | Grandma Mary | |
| 2019 | The Last Full Measure | Alice Pitsenbarger |
Television
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1957 | Decoy | Selma Richmond | Episode: “Two Days to Kill” |
| 1958 | The Big Story | Vera | Episode: “The Small of Death” |
| 1958 | The Walter Winchell File | Lois | Episode: “A Thing of Beauty: File #29” |
| 1958–1959 | Naked City | Kathie Mills / Yankee Cretias | 2 episodes |
| 1959 | Deadline | Judy | Episode: “Victor Reisel” |
| 1961 | The Detectives | Gloria Tyler | Episode: “Act of God” |
| 1963 | Wide Country | Alma Prewitt | Episode: “Step Over the Sky” |
| 1963 | Armstrong Circle Theatre | Charlotte Cable | Episode: “The Counterfeit League” |
| 1963 | 77 Sunset Strip | Helen Saunders | Episode: “The Left Field Caper” |
| 1963 | Perry Mason | Miss Frances | Episode: “The Case of the Shifty Shoebox” |
| 1963 | Mr. Novak | Mrs. Otis | Episode: “I Don’t Even Live Here” |
| 1963 | Hazel | Sharlene | Episode: “George’s 32nd Cousin” |
| 1964 | The Fugitive | Stella | Episode: “Come Watch Me Die” |
| 1964 | The Great Adventure | Annie Thompson | Episode: “Rodger Young” |
| 1964 | Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre | Cissy | Episode: “The Game with Glass Pieces” |
| 1964–1967 | Gunsmoke | Bonnie Mae Haley / Lulu / Elena Kerlin | 3 episodes |
| 1966 | Daniel Boone | Ronda Cameron | Episode: “Seminole Territory” |
| 1966 | Shane | Amy Sloate | Episode: “The Distant Bell” |
| 1967 | The Big Valley | Muriel Akely | Episode: “Boy into Man” |
| 1968 | Ironside | Peggy Barnard | Episode: “Robert Phillips vs. the Man” |
| 1969 | Then Came Bronson | Valerie Faber | Episode: “Old Tigers Never Die–They Just Run Away” |
| 1971–1972 | The Secret Storm | Kitty Styles #2 | Unknown episodes |
| 1973 | The Devil’s Daughter | Alice Shaw | TV movie |
| 1975 | Movin’ On | Amy | Episode: “General Delivery” |
| 1976 | City of Angels | Laura | Episode: “The November Plan: Part 1” |
| 1976 | Addie and the King of Hearts | Irene Davis | TV movie |
| 1977 | The November Plan | Laura Taylor | TV movie |
| 1978 | Black Beauty | Amelia Gordon | Miniseries |
| 1978 | Thaddeus Rose and Eddie | Carlotta | TV movie |
| 1979 | Willa | Mae | TV movie |
| 1980 | Guyana Tragedy: The Story of Jim Jones | Lynette Jones | TV movie |
| 1980–1981 | Alice | Belle Dupree | 22 episodes |
| 1980–1985 | The Love Boat | Christa Johanson / Bernice Bronson / Ruby Gibson | 3 episodes |
| 1982 | Desperate Lives | Carol Cameron | TV movie |
| 1983 | Grace Kelly | Margaret Kelly | TV movie |
| 1983 | Faerie Tale Theatre | Mother | Episode: “Little Red Riding Hood” |
| 1984 | I Married a Centerfold | Jeanette Bryan | TV movie |
| 1985 | Crime of Innocence | Rose Hayward | TV movie |
| 1987 | Celebration Family | Mrs. Heflin | TV movie |
| 1988 | Bluegrass | Verna Howland | TV movie |
| 1989 | Father Dowling Mysteries | Arlene | Episode: “The Face in the Mirror Mystery” |
| 1989 | Heartland | Marjorie | Episode: “B.L. Moves Out” |
| 1990 | Rock Hudson | Kay | TV movie |
| 1990 | In the Heat of the Night | Maybelle Cheseboro | Episode: “Home Is Where the Heart Is” |
| 1990 | The Lookalike | Mary Helen Needam | TV movie |
| 1991 | Shadow of a Doubt | Emma | TV movie |
| 1992 | Middle Ages | Bebe Cooper | Episode: “Forever Young” |
| 1993 | L.A. Law | Celeste Bauman | Episode: “Cold Shower” |
| 1993 | Harts of the West | Alison’s Mom | Episode: “Guess Who’s Coming to Chow?” |
| 1993 | Sisters | Belle Adderly | Episode: “The Best Intentions” |
| 1993 | Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman | Charlotte Cooper | 2 episodes |
| 1994 | Hush Little Baby | Edie | TV movie |
| 1994 | The Gift | Evie | TV short |
| 1996 | The Siege at Ruby Ridge | Irma Coulter | TV movie |
| 1996 | Cold Lazarus | Martina Masdon | Miniseries; 3 episodes |
| 1997 | Breach of Faith: A Family of Cops 2 | Aunt Shelly Fein | TV movie |
| 1997 | Touched by an Angel | Carolyn Sellers | Episode: “An Angel by Any Other Name” |
| 1997 | Get a Clue | Berthe Erica Crow | TV movie |
| 1998 | The Staircase | Sister Margaret | TV movie |
| 2000 | Best Actress | Herself | TV movie |
| 2000 | Sharing the Secret | Nina’s Mother | TV movie |
| 2000 | Strong Medicine | Annabelle Lee Stowe | 2 episodes |
| 2000 | Christy: Return to Cutter Gap | Alice Henderson | TV movie |
| 2001 | Christy, Choices of the Heart | Alice Henderson | 2 episodes |
| 2002 | Living with the Dead | Regina Van Praagh | TV movie |
| 2002 | Damaged Care | Mary “Rhodie” Rhodes | TV movie |
| 2003 | Aftermath | Mother | TV movie |
| 2004 | Gracie’s Choice | Louela Lawson | TV movie |
| 2004 | Kingdom Hospital | Sally Druse | 13 episodes |
| 2005 | Cold Case | Zelda Amatuzzi (2005) | Episode: “Committed” |
| 2006 | ER | Mrs. Pooler | Episode: “No Place to Hide” |
| 2007 | Montana Sky | Bess | TV movie |
| 2008 | Menace | Roszko’s Mother | TV movie |
| 2011–2013 | Enlightened | Helen Jellicoe | 16 episodes |
| 2012 | Deadtime Stories | Barnsey | Episode: “Grave Secrets” |
| 2016 | Ray Donovan | Motel Lady | Episode: “Federal Boobie Inspector” |
| 2016–present | Chesapeake Shores | Nell O’Brien | 29 episodes |
