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Rose Diane Ladd (née Ladner; November 29, 1935 – November 3, 2025) was an American actress. With a career spanning over 70 years, she appeared in over 200 films and television shows, receiving three Academy Award nominations for her roles in Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974), Wild at Heart (1990) and Rambling Rose (1991), the first of which won her a BAFTA Award. She was also nominated for three Primetime Emmy Awards and four Golden Globe Awards, winning one for her role in the sitcom Alice (1980–1981).
Ladd's other film appearances include Chinatown (1974), National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989), Ghosts of Mississippi (1996), Primary Colors (1998), 28 Days (2000) and Joy (2015). She was the mother of actress Laura Dern, with her ex-husband, actor Bruce Dern.
Early life
Ladd was born Rose Diane Ladner, the only child of Mary Bernadette Ladner (née Anderson), a housewife and actress, and Preston Paul Ladner, a veterinarian who sold products for poultry and livestock.[1][2][3][4] She was born in Laurel, Mississippi, on November 29, 1935, while the family was visiting relatives for Thanksgiving, though they lived in Meridian, Mississippi.[1][5] Ladd was related to playwright Tennessee Williams[6] and poet Sidney Lanier.[7] Ladd was raised in her mother's Roman Catholic faith.[8][9]
Career
In 1953, while living in New Orleans, Ladd was cast in a production of the Jack Kirkland play Tobacco Road, and later moved to New York, where she acted on stage and screen.[10]
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 television series Alice, in which Flo was portrayed by Polly Holliday. When Holliday left the TV series, Ladd succeeded her as waitress Isabelle "Belle" Dupree.
Her subsequent film appearances included Black Widow (1987), National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989), Ghosts of Mississippi (1996), Primary Colors (1998), 28 Days (2000) and Joy (2015). She appeared in the independent screwball comedy Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me in 1992, where she played a flirty, aging Southern belle alongside her real mother, actress Mary Lanier.[11]
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, 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 Awards history that such an event had occurred. They were also nominated for dual Golden Globe Awards in the same year.
Ladd also worked in theatre. She made her Broadway debut in Carry Me Back to Morningside Heights in 1968. In 1976, she starred in A Texas Trilogy: Lu Ann Hampton Laverty Oberlander, for which she received a Drama Desk Award nomination.[12]
On November 1, 2010, Ladd, Laura Dern and Bruce Dern received adjoining stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame; this was the first time family members had been given such consideration on the Walk.[13]
She starred in the Hallmark Channel series Chesapeake Shores.[14]
Ladd's final two film roles were in Gigi & Nate and Isle of Hope, both from 2022.[15]
Personal life and death
Ladd was married to actor and one-time co-star Bruce Dern from 1960 to 1969. They had two daughters, Diane Elizabeth, who died at age eighteen months after a drowning accident, and Laura Elizabeth, who became an actress.[16][17] Ladd and Laura Dern co-starred in the films Wild at Heart, Rambling Rose, Citizen Ruth and Inland Empire, and in the HBO series Enlightened.[10] The two also appeared together in White Lightning and Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, although Laura was uncredited in both.
Ladd was married to William A. Shea Jr. from 1969 to 1977. She married again in 1999, to her third husband, Robert Charles Hunter.[16] Hunter was at one point the CEO of PepsiCo Food Systems.[18] They remained married until Hunter's death in 2025, three months before her own death.[18][19]
Ladd was supportive of Jesse Jackson's 1988 presidential campaign.[20]
In 2018, Ladd was misdiagnosed with pneumonia and given six months to a year to live after she inhaled "poison spray" from the farms neighboring her home, constricting her esophagus.[21] Her daughter, Laura, transferred her to another hospital where she made a full recovery.[22]
Ladd died from idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis at her home in Ojai, California, on November 3, 2025, aged 89.[18][23][24]
Filmography
Film
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 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 |
| Macho Callahan | Girl | ||
| WUSA | Barmaid at Railroad Station | Uncredited | |
| 1971 | The Steagle | Mrs. Forbes | |
| 1973 | White Lightning | Maggie | Credited as Diane Lad |
| 1974 | Chinatown | Ida Sessions | |
| Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore | Florence Jean "Flo" Castleberry | ||
| 1976 | Embryo | Martha Douglas | |
| 1981 | All Night Long | Helen Dupler | |
| 1983 | Something Wicked This Way Comes | Mrs. Nightshade | |
| Sweetwater | Lucy | ||
| 1987 | Black Widow | Etta | |
| 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 | |
| Rambling Rose | Mother | ||
| 1992 | Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me | Lucille | |
| Forever | Mabel Normand | ||
| Spies Inc. | Alice | ||
| 1993 | The Cemetery Club | Lucille Rubin | |
| Carnosaur | Dr. Jane Tiptree | ||
| Father Hood | Rita | ||
| 1995 | Mother | Olivia Hendrix | Also co-producer |
| Mrs. Munck | Mrs. Munck | Also writer and director | |
| Raging Angels | Sister Kate | ||
| 1996 | Citizen Ruth | Ruth's Mother | Uncredited |
| Ghosts of Mississippi | Grandma Caroline Moore | ||
| 1997 | Get a Clue | Berthe Erica Crow | |
| James Dean: Race with Destiny | Mama Pierangeli | ||
| 1998 | Primary Colors | Mamma Stanton | |
| Route 66 | |||
| 1999 | Can't Be Heaven | Nona Gina | |
| 2000 | 28 Days | Bobbie Jean | |
| The Law of Enclosures | Bea | ||
| 2001 | Daddy and Them | Jewel | |
| Rain | Audrey Turnquick | ||
| 2002 | Redemption of the Ghost | Aunt Helen | |
| More than Puppy Love | Aunt Edna | ||
| The Virgin | |||
| 2003 | Charlie's War | Jobie | |
| 2005 | The World's Fastest Indian | Ada | |
| 2006 | Come Early Morning | Nana | |
| When I Find the Ocean | Edna | ||
| Inland Empire | Marilyn Levens | ||
| 2008 | Jake's Corner | Fran | |
| American Cowslip | Roe | ||
| 2013 | Grave Secrets | Emily Barnes | |
| 2014 | Just Before I Go | Mamma | Uncredited |
| 2015 | I Dream Too Much | Vera | |
| Joy | Mimi | ||
| 2016 | Sophie and the Rising Sun | Ruth Jeffers | |
| Amerigeddon | Betty | ||
| Boonville Redemption | Grandma Mary | ||
| 2019 | The Last Full Measure | Alice Pitsenbarger | [10] |
| 2020 | Charlie's Christmas Wish | Nana | |
| 2021 | Charming the Hearts of Men[25] | Alice Paul | Uncredited |
| 2022 | Gigi & Nate | Mama Blanche | [15] |
| Isle of Hope | Carmen Crawford | [15] |
Television
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1957 | Decoy | Selma Richmond | Episode: "Two Days to Kill" |
| 1958 | The Big Story | Vera | Episode: "The Small of Death" |
| 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" |
| Armstrong Circle Theatre | Charlotte Cable | Episode: "The Counterfeit League" | |
| 77 Sunset Strip | Helen Saunders | Episode: "The Left Field Caper" | |
| Perry Mason | Miss Frances | Episode: "The Case of the Shifty Shoebox" | |
| Mr. Novak | Mrs. Otis | Episode: "I Don't Even Live Here" | |
| Hazel | Sharlene | Episode: "George's 32nd Cousin" | |
| 1964 | The Fugitive | Stella | Episode: "Come Watch Me Die" |
| The Great Adventure | Annie Thompson | Episode: "Rodger Young" | |
| 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" |
| 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" |
| Addie and the King of Hearts | Irene Davis | TV movie | |
| 1977 | The November Plan | Laura Taylor | |
| 1978 | Black Beauty | Amelia Gordon | Miniseries |
| Thaddeus Rose and Eddie | Carlotta | TV movie | |
| 1979 | Willa | Mae | |
| 1980 | Guyana Tragedy: The Story of Jim Jones | Lynette Jones | |
| 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 | |
| Faerie Tale Theatre | Mother | Episode: "Little Red Riding Hood" | |
| 1984 | I Married a Centerfold | Jeanette Bryan | TV movie |
| 1985 | Crime of Innocence | Rose Hayward | |
| 1987 | Celebration Family | Mrs. Heflin | |
| 1988 | Bluegrass | Verna Howland | |
| 1989 | Father Dowling Mysteries | Arlene | Episode: "The Face in the Mirror Mystery" |
| Heartland | Marjorie | Episode: "B.L. Moves Out" | |
| 1990 | Rock Hudson | Kay | TV movie |
| In the Heat of the Night | Maybelle Cheseboro | Episode: "Home Is Where the Heart Is" | |
| The Lookalike | Mary Helen Needam | TV movie | |
| 1991 | Shadow of a Doubt | Emma | |
| 1992 | Middle Ages | Bebe Cooper | Episode: "Forever Young" |
| 1993 | L.A. Law | Celeste Bauman | Episode: "Cold Shower" |
| Harts of the West | Alison's Mom | Episode: "Guess Who's Coming to Chow?" | |
| Sisters | Belle Adderly | Episode: "The Best Intentions" | |
| Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman | Charlotte Cooper | 2 episodes | |
| 1994–1997 | Grace Under Fire | Louise Burdette | |
| 1994 | Hush Little Baby | Edie | TV movie |
| The Gift | Evie | TV short | |
| 1996 | The Siege at Ruby Ridge | Irma Coulter | TV movie |
| Cold Lazarus | Martina Masdon | Miniseries; 3 episodes | |
| 1997 | Breach of Faith: A Family of Cops 2 | Aunt Shelly Fein | TV movie |
| Touched by an Angel | Carolyn Sellers | Episode: "An Angel by Any Other Name" | |
| Get a Clue | Berthe Erica Crow | TV movie | |
| 1998 | The Staircase | Sister Margaret | |
| 2000 | Best Actress | Herself | |
| Sharing the Secret | Nina's Mother | ||
| Strong Medicine | Annabelle Lee Stowe | 2 episodes | |
| 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 |
| Damaged Care | Mary "Rhodie" Rhodes | ||
| 2003 | Aftermath | Mother | |
| 2004 | Gracie's Choice | Louela Lawson | |
| 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 | Mayerthorpe | Roszko's Mother | |
| 2011–2013 | Enlightened | Helen Jellicoe | 16 episodes |
| 2012 | Deadtime Stories | Barnsey | Episode: "Grave Secrets" |
| 2016 | Ray Donovan | Motel Lady | Episode: "Federal Boobie Inspector" |
| 2016–2022 | Chesapeake Shores | Nell O'Brien | 43 episodes |
| 2018 | Christmas Lost and Found | Grandma Frances | TV movie |
| 2021 | Young Sheldon | Hortense | Episode: "The Geezer Bus and a New Model for Education" |
Awards and nominations
Books
- Ladd, Diane (2006). Spiraling Through the School of Life: A Mental, Physical, And Spiritual Discovery. Hay House Inc. ISBN 978-1-401-90719-8.
- Ladd, Diane (2016). A Bad Afternoon for a Piece of Cake. Exxcell Press. ISBN 978-0-981-79206-4.
- Dern, Laura; Ladd, Diane (2023). Honey, Baby, Mine: A Mother and Daughter Talk Life, Death, Love (and Banana Pudding). Grand Central Publishing. ISBN 978-1-538-72037-0.
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