Hollywood legend Bruce Dern is paying tribute to his ex-wife, Diane Ladd. Ladd, who wed Dern in 1960, passed away on Monday at 89.

They share a daughter, Laura Dern, who announced Ladd’s passing. The couple divorced in 1969.

“Diane was a tremendous actress,” Dern, 89, said in a statement shared by PEOPLE.

Dern said the late actress was “a bit of a ‘hidden treasure’ until she ran into David Lynch. When he cast her as Laura’s mom in Wild at Heart, “the world then really understood her brilliance.”

Ladd starred alongside her daughter, now 58, in Lynch’s 1990 film, portraying a mother-daughter duo at odds. They later co-starred in another Lynch project, the 2006 experimental film Inland Empire, and 1991’s Rambling Rose. Ladd earned Oscar nominations for her supporting roles in Alice Doesn’

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