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Laura Dern paid tribute to her late mother, actress Diane Ladd, on what would have been her 90th birthday.
Dern shared the message on Instagram on Saturday, Nov. 29, along with a vintage black-and-white photographic portrait of Rudd.
“Happy Birthday to my hero, the most special person I’ve ever known, who turns 90 today,” Dern, 58, began her post.
She added: “As an artist and as a human being, you were always loving, always dreaming, always creating and always serving everyone. I love you, Mom.”
Rudd passed away on November 23rd at the age of 89 from hypoxic respiratory failure. Dern announced her mother’s death in a statement obtained by PEOPLE at the time.
“Diane Ladd, my great hero and profound gift as a mother, passed by me this morning at her home in Ojai, California,” Dern said in a statement.
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“She was the best daughter, mother, grandmother, actress, artist and empathetic spirit that only a dream could create,” she added. “We were blessed to have her. She is now flying with the angels.”
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In a joint interview with PEOPLE in 2023, the two said they had become very close over the past few years. This is in no small part due to health concerns, as doctors told him in 2019 that he might only have six months to live.
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“We were both anxious to talk about the things we had left unsaid in our lives,” Dern said, recalling her mother’s diagnosis. “It’s a place we didn’t go to because we didn’t want to hurt each other by bringing up heartbreak and trauma.”
Ms Rudd added: “Laura and I told each other everything because we thought we were going to die. It was a great start, just repairing ourselves and our relationship.”
During the interview, Rudd also said that he considers growing older a “gift.”
“I don’t believe in age. The number of times you’ve gone around the sun doesn’t tell you how much feel your bones have or how much wisdom you have. Aging is a gift if you’re ready for it. It’s only when the blinders you’ve been wearing all your life start to come off that you start to see the whole picture,” she said.
Rudd’s numerous film and television credits include Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (and the 1974 TV comedy Alice, based on the film), Wild at Heart, and Rambling Rose. She received three Oscar nominations and three Emmy nominations.
