Ladd had her big break in 1974 as the waitress Flo in "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore," for which she was nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress.
She was nominated for the same award two more times for supporting roles in "Wild at Heart" (1990) and "The Night with Rose" (1991) – films in which her daughter Laura Dern also starred.
"She was the best daughter, mother, grandmother, actress, artist and empathetic soul that only dreams could seemingly create," daughter Dern wrote in a statement.
Diane Ladd had a long career, starring in several television series before her breakthrough on the big screen. She has been praised for her talent for improvisation, writes the Hollywood Reporter.
"In her first scene, she was far from the text that I had written. She captured the spirit of the scene perfectly, but she didn't recreate a single word," director David Lynch said of Diane Ladd's participation in "Wild at Heart" in an interview with the French magazine Positif.
