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Diane Ladd

Oscar-nominated character actress Diane Ladd achieved notoriety as the wisecracking waitress Flo in the feature classic "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore" (1974), only to later reestablish herself with an unhinged portrayal as an obsessed mother opposite her real-life daughter Laura Dern in "Wild at Heart" (1990). After receiving her training on the stages of New York, Ladd became a fixture on episodic television prior to landing roles in low-budget films such as "The Wild Angels" (1966), alongside her actor husband, Bruce Dern. The same year as "Alice," Ladd also appeared in the masterful "Chinatown" (1974), directed by Roman Polanski. In 1980, she revisited the gang at Mel's diner when she joined the cast of the spin-off sitcom "Alice" (CBS, 1976-1985), as the replacement for Flo, the character she had created in the original Martin Scorsese film. Ladd followed her Academy Award-nominated turn in David Lynch's "Wild at Heart" with another Oscar nod for her performance in "Rambling Rose" (1991), also alongside daughter Laura. Ladd teamed with her daughter several more times, most notably in Alexander Payne's "Citizen Ruth" (1996) and again with Lynch for "Inland Empire" (2006). Boasting an incredibly diverse array of onscreen characterizations over a career that spanned more than 50 years, Ladd remained a vibrant presence in film and television well into the 21st Century.