Diane Ladd

Born: November 29 1932
Where: Meridian, Mississippi, USA

The former chorus girl and 1950s pin-up is best known for her Oscar-nominated turn as Flo in Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore.

She has been nominated another two times - for Rambling Rose and Wild At Heart (all three movies starred her daughter Laura Dern).

A cousin of playwright Tennessee Williams, she was the daughter of a vet and went on to study fencing and sing with a jazz band while at finishing school in New Orleans.

She was spotted in a Gallery Circle Theatre play and starred alongside John Carradine (father of David and Keith).

Ladd went on to turn down a scholarship at Louisiana State University to study law and embarked on an acting career.

At 17 she was a Copacabana chorus girl in New York and then landed the role of Putski in the National Company of A Hatful of Rain with Ben Gazzara.

In 1961, she made her (uncredited) big screen debut in the drama Something Wild and went on to enjoy extensive TV work including Perry Mason, The Fugitive, Gunsmoke and Ironside.

(Her first daughter, born in 1961, accidentally drowned at the age of 18 months. Her second daughter, Laura Dern, was born in 1967).

In the 1970s, she returned to movies with appearances in White Lightning and a supporting role in the classic film noir Chinatown in 1974.

The following year she landed her first Oscar nomination as the sharp-tongued waitress Flo in Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore.

She continued to work solidly in TV and the occasional movies before her second Academy Award nod in David Lynch's Wild At Heart alongside her daughter Laura and Nicolas Cage.

The following year she was nominated again for Rambling Rose - again with her daughter and Robert Duvall.

(Ladd and Dern were the first and only mother-daughter acting pair nominated for the same film in Oscar history).

Subsequent big screen outings included the John Travolta comedy-drama Primary Colours and the Sandra Bullock drama 28 Days.

Recent work includes Roger Donaldson's feelgood drama The World's Fastest Indian alongside Anthony Hopkins.