A Hollywood icon is opening up about a pain that has haunted him for decades. In 1962, Bruce Dern's oldest daughter, Diane Elizabeth, drowned at their home.
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Dern had Diane and later Laura Dern with his ex-wife Diane Ladd. The two were married from 1960 to 1969. The Hollywood actor opened up about the tragedy in the new documentary Dernsie: The Amazing Life of Bruce Dern.
"My wife was at a Dodgers game; I was at a track meet at the Coliseum," Bruce said. "I was told over the loudspeaker to go to the desk, and some plainclothes cop said to me, 'Are you Bruce Dern?' And I said 'Yes,' and he said, 'You should go home right now, because your child just drowned in a swimming pool.'"
His daughter, Diane Elizabeth, was with the family maid. While she answered the phone, Diane used a spoon to open the gate to the family's pool.
"So I go home. I went into the bedroom, and I looked at the little girl on the bed, and it's the only time in my life, I think, that it broke my heart," he said. "I felt ashamed that it was on my watch. I never got over it. You never get over it."
Hollywood Icon Talks Tragedy
The tragedy ultimately affected their marriage as well.
"Because Diane and I shared a tragedy, we stayed together longer than we should have, but out of it, five years later, came Laura," Bruce says in the film. "About a month later, it was over for Diane and I, and we never really talked it out. She wasn't there. I wasn't there."
Ladd and Dern separated after Laura was born. She ultimately passed away last November. Before her death, Ladd opened up about telling Laura about her sister's passing.
She said, "The worst was to talk to her about her sister's death, which I hadn't really done because I didn't want to put her through that. But I wasn't doing her a favor by not sharing that—to go back there and talk about a pain that one never truly ever gets over. The actuality of what it felt like and what her father and I went through. We were starving actors with no money to pull any shades down to keep the ugliness out. It was a horrendous time in our lives. Also the divorce, which is divorce no matter how much you are friends."
