Diane Ladd’s cause of death has been revealed.
The Oscar-nominated actor died at her California home on November 3 at the age of 89, and two weeks after she died, it has been confirmed that she lost her life because of acute on chronic hypoxic respiratory failure, which occurs when there isn’t enough oxygen in the blood, often because of a lung condition.
And according to the death certificate obtained by People magazine, the document noted Ladd had also had interstitial lung disease for several years.
In addition, oesophageal dysmotility was listed as another significant contributing condition to her death.
The Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore actor was cremated on November 10, the certificate confirmed.
Diane’s death was announced earlier this month by her daughter, actor Laura Dern.
She said in a statement: “My amazing hero and my profound gift of a mother, Diane Ladd, passed with me beside her this morning, at her home in Ojai, CA.
“She was the greatest daughter, mother, grandmother, actress, artist and empathetic spirit that only dreams could have seemingly created.
“We were blessed to have her. She is flying with her angels now.”
The Jurassic Park star’s father, Bruce Dern – who was married to Diane between 1960 and 1969 – later praised his “wonderful” former spouse in a touching statement.
He said: “Diane was a tremendous actress and I feel like, a bit of a ‘hidden treasure’ until she ran into David Lynch.
“When he cast her as Laura‘s mom in Wild at Heart it felt like the world then really understood her brilliance. She was a great value as a decades-long board member of SAG, giving a real actress’ point of view.
“She lived a good life. She saw everything the way it was. She was a great teammate to her fellow actors. She was funny, clever, gracious.
“But most importantly to me, she was a wonderful mother to our incredible wunderkind daughter. And for that I will be forever grateful to her.”
As well as Laura, they were also parents to another daughter, Diane, who drowned aged 18 months in 1962.
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