On Wednesday, Laura Dern and her children joined their father Bruce Dern for a rare family red carpet appearance at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival.
The Big Little Lies actress and her children – son Ellery, 24, and daughter Jaya, 21 – cheered on Bruce, 89, at the premiere of Mike Mendez’s documentary Dernsey: The Amazing Life of Bruce Dern.
Bruce wore a black tuxedo and bow tie and clung to Laura, 59, and Ellery on the red carpet. He also wore a Los Angeles Dodgers baseball cap and smiled broadly for the camera.
Laura, on the other hand, looked glamorous in a silver dress with a sheer overlay. Jaya was all smiles next to her mother in a black and white striped dress, while Ellery looked just like her grandfather in a black tuxedo with a stylish skinny tie.
“Dernsey” chronicles Bruce’s legendary acting career and personal life.
The “Nebraska” actor has been married three times, first to Marie Dawn Pierce from 1957 to 1959 and then to the late actress Diane Ladd from 1960 to 1969. He married Andrea Beckett the same year he divorced Rudd and they have been together ever since.
Bruce and Rudd had two children during their marriage, Laura and their eldest daughter Diane Elizabeth, but she tragically died in 1962 at just one year old.
Bruce told ‘Dernsey’ how he learned the shocking news of his eldest daughter’s death. Diane Elizabeth was with her maid when she opened the swimming pool gate while she answered the phone.
“My wife went to the Dodgers game and I went to the track meet at the Coliseum,” Bruce recalls in the film, according to People magazine. “I was told to go to the desk over the loudspeaker, and a plainclothes officer said, ‘Are you Bruce Dern?’ And I said, ‘Yes,’ and he said, ‘You better go home now, because your kid just drowned in the pool.'”
Bruce said he “never got over it” and said it also affected his relationship with Rudd.
“Diane and I stayed together longer than we should because we went through the same tragedy, and five years later Laura was born,” he said. “After about a month, it was over for Diane and I. And we never really talked about it. She wasn’t there. I wasn’t there either.”
Mr. Rudd passed away in November 2025 at the age of 89. Laura told The Hollywood Reporter at the time in a statement: “She was the best daughter, mother, grandmother, actress, artist and empathetic spirit that only a dream could create.”
Laura has two children with her ex-husband, singer Ben Harper. The two married in 2005, but divorced in 2013 after about eight years of marriage.
