You were a queen among many genres, wife to Bruce Dern, mother to Laura Dern ... a warm and familiar face to so many of us.
Among your imagi-movies (as well as your avant-garde/exploitation entries), you made a striking impression in Something Wicked This Way Comes; Embryo; The Devil's Daughter; Forever; Carnosaur; Living with the Dead; Stephen King's Kingdom Hospital; George A. Romero's Deadtime Stories; The Wild Angels; The Rebel Rousers (the latter two with Bruce); in addition to David Lynch's stranger-than-strange, Wizard of Oz allegory, Wild At Heart (in which your daughter took center stage), and in Lynch's just-as-Oz-ish Inland Empire (also with Laura in the lead).
Your other features include Mrs. Munck (for which you starred with Bruce, wrote and directed), Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (and later the Alice series); Chinatown, White Lightning; The Reivers; Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me; The Last Full Measure; A Kiss Before Dying; Father Hood; National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation; Gigi and Nate; The Cemetery Club; Guyana Tragedy; The Jim Jones Story; All Night Long; Father Hood; Ghosts of Mississippi; Black Beauty 1978; Joy; Primary Colors; 28 Days; Citizen Ruth, Sophie and the Rising Sun, The Grace Kelly Story; Rock Hudson; Daddy and Them; The Siege of Ruby Ridge; Rambling Rose (the latter three also with Laura); and even more beyond that.
On television, you gathered a stunning string of swell shows, including The Fugitive; Decoy, The Naked City; Deadline; 77 Sunset Strip; Then Came Bronson; Perry Mason; Ironside; Father Dowling Mysteries; L.A. Law; ER; In the Heat of the Night; Touched by an Angel; Faerie Tale Theatre; The Big Valley; Gunsmoke; Daniel Boone; Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman; Movin' On; Grace Under Fire; The Love Boat; Hazel; Young Sheldon; and from 1971-1972, the popular soap opera, The Secret Storm, as Kitty Styles, and later as Neill O'Brien on Hallmark's Chesapeake Shores.
You lived a lot, gave a lot, and through it all, you shined, Ms. Ladd. It hurts beyond words to see you go, but as you made you mark on Earth, you'll do so on the eternal stage known as Heaven.
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