Biography
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Diane Ladd (born November 29, 1935) 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-husb...
Known For
Complete Filmography

Common Ground
2023
Executive Producer
Sobering yet hopeful, Common Ground exposes the interconnectedness of American farming policy, politics, and illness. Follow the solution-driven pligh...

Isle of Hope
2022
as Carmen
A university professor tries to reconcile with her mother after the woman suffers a life-threatening stroke.

Gigi & Nate
2022
as Mama Blanche
A young man with a bright future suffers a near-fatal accident and recreates his new life with the help of an unlikely animal friend.

Charlie's Christmas Wish
2020
as Nana
Coming home from his last deployment, Sgt. Major John Frost arrives a month early and he’s happy to be home for Christmas. He finds his wife, Jill and...

The Last Full Measure
2020
as Alice Pitsenbarger
The incredible true story of Vietnam War hero William H. Pitsenbarger, a U.S. Air Force Pararescuemen medic who personally saved over sixty men. Thirt...

Christmas Lost and Found
2018
as Grandma Frances
After years of missing family gatherings, New York City event planner Whitney Kennison (Tiya Sircar) is off to Chicago to spend Christmas with Grandma...

Olympia
2018
as Herself
Follow Academy Award winner Olympia Dukakis behind the scenes in this affectionate profile of a stalwart New Yorker and beloved stage and screen treas...

I Dream Too Much
2016
as Vera
Dora Welles is an imaginative college grad ready to experience all the excitement of life. Instead she finds herself in snowy upstate New York caring ...

AmeriGeddon
2016
as Betty
A dire warning of a wake up call of what might be our future when a globalist terrorist organization aligned with the United Nations disables the Unit...

Sophie and the Rising Sun
2016
as Ruth Jeffers
In a small Southern town in the autumn of 1941, Sophie’s lonely life is transformed when an Asian man arrives under mysterious circumstances. Their lo...

Joy
2015
as Mimi
A story based on the life of a struggling Long Island single mom who became one of the country's most successful entrepreneurs.

And the Oscar Goes To...
2014
as Self (archive footage)
The story of the gold-plated statuette that became the film industry's most coveted prize, AND THE OSCAR GOES TO... traces the history of the Academy ...

Deadtime Stories: Grave Secrets
2012
as Barnsey
When four friends set out to bury a dead bird, they dig up a grave that's already occupied and unearth a frightening secret about the scary old lady n...

American Cowslip
2009
as Roe
In Blythe, California, a small town in the remote California desert, Ethan Inglebrink is an eccentric, agoraphobic heroin addict who is obsessed with ...

Jake's Corner
2008
as Fran
The fictional story of an ex-football star, Johnny Dunn, who moves far from the spotlight after a family tragedy to a small, desert town he owns calle...
Mayerthorpe
2008
as Roszko's mother
A semi-fictional story about the shooting of four Canadian RCMP officers during a drug raid in Mayerthorpe, Alberta.

Lynch 2
2007
as Self
Follow up of the Lynch documentary on the making of Inland Empire. Released as an extra on the Inland Empire DVD.

Nora Roberts’ Montana Sky
2007
as Bess
The wealthy stock dealer bequeaths his Montana farm to the three daughters provided they would live there together at least for a year.

Inland Empire
2006
as Marilyn Levens
As a Hollywood actress begins to adopt the persona of her character in a film, her world becomes nightmarish and surreal.

When I Find the Ocean
2006
as Edna
A little girl leaves home with her pet dog and rabbit to escape abuse and find the ocean in the hopes of feeling closer to her father who has passed a...

Come Early Morning
2006
as Nana
A thirty-something southern woman searches for love, despite the burdens she carries with her.

The World's Fastest Indian
2005
as Ada
The life story of New Zealander Burt Munro, who spent years building a 1920 Indian motorcycle—a bike which helped him set the land-speed world record ...

Love, Death, Elvis & Oz: The Making of Wild at Heart
2004
A documentary about the making of the movie Wild at Heart, produced for the DVD release of the film.

Kingdom Hospital
2004
as Sally Druse
Stephen King's take on the masterpiece series by Lars von Trier. The story takes place in a hospital in Lewiston, Maine, built on the site of a Civil ...

Gracie's Choice
2004
as Louela Lawson
For as long as she can remember, 16 year-old Gracie has been raising her four siblings, each of whom has a different, absent father and their mother i...

Charlie's War
2003
as Jobie
Charlie's War is the story of Charlotte Lewis, a woman who is experiencing serious emotional and mental turmoil brought about by nightmares of increas...

A Long Way Home
2003
as Mother
Family members struggle to heal their emotional wounds after an incident of sexual abuse.

Living with the Dead
2002
as Regina Van Praagh
A man begins to have disturbing visions of dead people, among whom are his mother and victims of a local serial killer. All telling their story of how...

Redemption of the Ghost
2002
When convicted embezzler Witt Hampton (Gene Bicknell) escapes from prison, a lonely barn serves as the perfect hideout -- until a pair of tykes stumbl...

Daddy and Them
2001
as Jewel
Ruby and her husband Claude are a working-class couple who live in suburban Arkansas. As crazy as they are for each other, their relationship is far f...

Rain
2001
as Audrey Turnquick
A tragedy that tells the story of murder, sex and redemption against the backdrop of a dead-end town.

Can't Be Heaven
2000
as Nona Gina
Everyone eventually meets the love of their lives. Sometimes, like Danny and Julia, that person comes along when you are 13 years old. Other times, li...

The Law of Enclosures
2000
as Bea
Story of the same couple, first in their teenage years and then in their twilight years, paradoxically set in the same time during the backdrop of the...

Sharing the Secret
2000
as Nina's Mother
A teenage girl, who feels she must always seem happy for her parents and friends, secretly binges and purges.

28 Days
2000
as Bobbie Jean
After getting into a car accident while drunk on the day of her sister's wedding, Gwen Cummings is given a choice between prison or a rehab center. Sh...

Best Actress
2000
as Self
A Hollywood writer becomes embroiled while investigating into the lives of five fictitious actresses all nominated for the Academy Award for best actr...

More Than Puppy Love
2000
as Aunt Edna
This is the story of a girl, her dog, and a man who needs to regain his self-reliance. Curtis Peterson, a strong, vital man in his late twenties, and ...

The Staircase
1998
as Sister Margaret
A mysterious carpenter appears just as a church is in need of repair.

Primary Colors
1998
as Mamma Stanton
In this adaptation of the best-selling roman à clef about Bill Clinton's 1992 run for the White House, the young and gifted Henry Burton is tapped to ...

James Dean: Race with Destiny
1997
as Mama Pierangeli
Casper Van Dien of Starship Troopers stars as James Dean, whose remarkable talent and rebel attitude took Hollywood by storm. But as Dean's star begin...

The Westing Game
1997
as Berthe Erica Crow
A girl is angry about having to move to the city, but gets involved in a mystery when a rich neighbor is found dead. His will suggests that one of the...

Breach of Faith: A Family of Cops II
1997
as Aunt Shelly
The family of cops is back, this time dealing with the murder of a priest tied in with the Russian Mafia, who proceed to try to draw the family off th...

Ghosts of Mississippi
1996
as Grandma Caroline Moore
A Mississippi district attorney and the widow of Medgar Evers struggle to bring a white supremacist to justice for the 1963 murder of the civil rights...

Citizen Ruth
1996
as Ruth's Mother (uncredited)
"Citizen Ruth" is the story of Ruth Stoops, a woman who nobody even noticed -- until she got pregnant. Now, everyone wants a piece of her. The film is...

The Siege at Ruby Ridge
1996
as Irma Coulter
A mini-series dramatization of the controversial 1992 attack by federal agents on the Idaho home of Randy Weaver, a white seperatist. The ten-day sieg...

Raging Angels
1995
as Sister Kate
Two musicians are unknowingly drawn into a supernatural scheme.

Mrs. Munck
1995
as Mrs. Munck
A wronged woman takes revenge on her wheelchair bound father-in-law.

Mother
1995
as Olivia Hendrix
Weisser is a young college bound man whose future is threatened when his mother interferes with his love life and a pending scholarship. He also disco...

Mother
1995
Co-Producer
Weisser is a young college bound man whose future is threatened when his mother interferes with his love life and a pending scholarship. He also disco...

Mrs. Munck
1995
Screenplay, Director
A wronged woman takes revenge on her wheelchair bound father-in-law.

Hush Little Baby
1994
as Edie
Eddie's baby girl, Susan, was taken from her arms when she was put into a mental hospital for attempted murder on her baby daughter! Thirty five years...

Father Hood
1993
as Rita
Deadbeat dad kidnaps his kids from the bus to an abusive foster home and they go on a run. The cops are after them, they bicker constantly and his ide...

Carnosaur
1993
as Dr. Jane Tiptree
After being driven to extinction, great bloodthirsty dinosaurs come back to life with the assistance of a demented genetic scientist. She plans to rep...

The Cemetery Club
1993
as Lucille Rubin
The story of three Pittsburgh widows who meet every year to visit their husband's graves and talk about perspectives in their lives.

Spies, Inc.
1992
as Alice
Spies from different nationalities stationed in a small Asian island work out a plot to create an international incident taking profit from it. Defrau...

Hold Me Thrill Me Kiss Me
1992
as Lucille
Eli is a burglar who is caught in the act by Twinkle, an heiress who coerces him into a sexual relationship. Their violent break-up makes him a fugiti...

Forever
1992
as Mabel Normand
A hot-shot music video director moves into a haunted house, where he's seduced and possessed by two alluring and sexy women. One, a beautiful ghost, t...

Rambling Rose
1991
as Mrs. Hillyer
Rose is taken in by the Hillyer family to serve as a 1930s housemaid so that she can avoid falling into a life of prostitution. Her appearence and per...

Shadow of a Doubt
1991
as Emma Spencer Newton
Charlie is a young woman who is thrilled that her favorite Uncle Charlie is coming home for good. But she soon discovers that her namesake, a "Wall St...

A Kiss Before Dying
1991
as Mrs. Corliss
Infatuated with the idea of becoming rich, college student Jonathan Corliss secretly dates Dorothy Carlsson to gain the approval of her wealthy father...

The Lookalike
1990
as Mary Helen Needam
A mentally disturbed woman is further tormented after discovering a girl who closely resembles her recently deceased daughter

Wild at Heart
1990
as Marietta Fortune
Young lovers Sailor and Lula hit the road to start a new life together away from the wrath of Lula’s deranged, disapproving mother, who has hired a te...

Rock Hudson
1990
as Kay
Biography of actor Rock Hudson focuses on his struggle with his homosexuality. Based on the book by his ex-wife, Phyllis Gates, and on the court recor...

National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation
1989
as Nora
It's Christmastime, and the Griswolds are preparing for a family seasonal celebration. But things never run smoothly for Clark, his wife Ellen, and th...

Plain Clothes
1988
as Jane Melway
To prove his brother's innocence, undercover officer Nick enrolls in high school again, dealing with crushes, bullies, humiliations, popularity swings...

Bluegrass
1988
as Verna Howland
A woman tries to be successful in the male-dominated horse racing business. Intrigue, greed, power games and love trying to put stones in her way.

Black Widow
1987
as Etta
Federal agent Alexandra Barnes believes that Catherine Petersen is a serial killer who marries rich men and then murders them for their money. But sin...

Crime of Innocence
1985
as Rose Hayward
Two teenage girls are locked up for a minor offence by a harsh judge who thinks a night in jail will do them good. It's a traumatizing experience that...

I Married a Centerfold
1984
as Jeanette Bryan
Tenacious young engineer flips over the centerfold model he spots on television and embarks on a romantic adventure on a bet with his buddies.

Little Red Riding Hood
1983
as Mother
A sheltered but adventurous young woman finds trouble when she encounters a wolf.

Something Wicked This Way Comes
1983
as Mrs. Nightshade
In a small American town, a diabolical circus arrives, granting wishes for the townsfolk, but twisted as only the esteemed Mr. Dark can make them. Can...

Grace Kelly
1983
as Margaret Kelly
The fairy tale story of the actress who became a princess is told in this biography that traces her rise from Philadelphia socialite to Hollywood movi...

Desperate Lives
1982
as Carol Cameron
A brother and sister get caught up in the drug scene in their local high school, with tragic results.

All Night Long
1981
as Helen Dupler
Executive George Dupler loses his temper and is demoted to the night manager at a 24 hour drugstore. After he suggests to his teenage son Freddie that...

Willa
1979
as Mae
A truck-stop waitress, determined to make a better life for her young children after being abandoned by her husband, leaves hash-slinging behind her t...

Thaddeus Rose and Eddie
1978
as Carlotta
The adventures of two good old boys from Texas, no-account buddies who are finally forced to face reality for themselves and for their girlfriends.

The November Plan
1977
as Laura Taylor
A hard-nosed private detective investigates a suspected overthrow of the U.S. government. Loosely based on The Business Plot of 1933.

Embryo
1976
as Martha Douglas
A scientist doing experiments on a human fetus discovers a method to accelerate the fetus into a mature adult in just a few days.

Addie and the King of Hearts
1976
as Irene Davis
Addie becomes jealous when her widowed father starts to woo a beautician.

Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore
1974
as Flo
After her husband dies, Alice and her son, Tommy, leave their small New Mexico town for California, where Alice hopes to make a new life for herself a...

Chinatown
1974
as Ida Sessions
Private eye Jake Gittes lives off of the murky moral climate of sunbaked, pre-World War II Southern California. Hired by a beautiful socialite to inve...

White Lightning
1973
as Maggie
An ex-con teams up with federal agents to help them with breaking up a moonshine ring.

The Devil's Daughter
1973
as Alice Shaw
A young girl whose mother had sold her soul to Satan when she was born is told by Satan that she must marry a fellow demon.

The Steagle
1971
as Mrs. Roberta Forbes
In the midst of the Cuban missile crisis, a mild-mannered professor decides to live out all of his daydreams, travelling across the country and adopti...

Macho Callahan
1971
as Girl
A man tricked into enlisting in the Confederate army is later thrown into a hellish stockade on desertion charges. He eventually breaks out of the pri...

Rebel Rousers
1970
as Karen
In a small, US costal town with many Spanish speakers, a motorcycle gang arrives on holiday. Also in town to try to reconnect with his pregnant girlfr...

The Reivers
1969
as Phoebe
In turn-of-the-century Mississippi, an 11-year-old boy comes of age as two mischievous adult friends talk him into sneaking the family car out for a t...

The Wild Angels
1966
as Gaysh
A motorcycle gang arrives in a small town in search of a motorcycle that has been stolen by a rival gang; but, pursued by the police, one of its membe...

40 Pounds of Trouble
1962
as Honeymoon Bride
Hilarity ensues when a casino manager spends a day at Disneyland with a cute but troublesome little girl.

Murder, Inc.
1960
as Showgirl
Chronicles the rise and fall of the organised crime syndicate known as Murder, Incorporated, focusing on powerful boss Lepke and violent hit man Reles...