Diane Keaton, Oscar-winning star of ‘Annie Hall’ and ‘The Godfather,’ dies at 79
Diane Keaton, the Oscar-winning star of “Annie Hall,” “The Godfather” and “Father of the Bride” whose quirky, vibrant style and depth made her one of the most distinctive actors of all time, has died. She was 79 years old.
People magazine reported on Saturday that she died in California with her loved ones, citing a family spokesman. No other details were immediately available, and Keaton’s representatives did not immediately respond to inquiries from The Associated Press.
The unexpected news was met with shock around the world. Keaton was the kind of actor who helped make films iconic and timeless, from her “La-dee-da, la-dee-da” catchphrase as Annie Hall, dressed in tie, bowler hat, jacket and khakis, to her heartbreaking turn as Kay Adams, the woman unfortunate enough to join the Corleone family.
Her star-making performances in the 1970s, many of them in Woody Allen films, were hardly a blip on the horizon either, and would continue to enchant new generations for decades, thanks in part to a long-standing collaboration with director Nancy Meyers.
She played a businessman who unexpectedly inherits a baby boy in “Baby Boom,” a mother-of-the-bride in the beloved remake of “Father of the Bride,” a newly single woman in “First Wives Club,” and a divorced playwright who becomes involved with Jack Nicholson’s musical director in “Something’s Gotta Give.”
Keaton won her first Oscar for “Annie Hall” and was nominated three more times for “Reds,” “Marvin’s Room” and “Something’s Gotta Give.”
And in her own Keaton fashion, when she accepted her Oscar in 1978, she laughed and said, “That’s something.”
Keaton was born Diane Hall in January 1946 in Los Angeles, although her family was not part of the film industry in which she found herself. Her mother was a homemaker and photographer, and her father worked in real estate and civil engineering.
Keaton was drawn to theater and singing while at school in Santa Ana, California, and left college after a year so she could study in Manhattan. Actors’ Equity already has Diane Hall in their ranks, and she has taken Keaton, her mother’s maiden name, as her own.
She studied under Sanford Meisner in New York and credits him with giving her the freedom to “map the complex terrain of human behavior under his safe guidance. He made playing with fire fun.”
“More than anything else, Sanford Meisner helped me learn to appreciate the dark side of behavior,” she wrote in her 2012 memoir, “Then Again.” “I have always had a talent for sensing it, but I have not yet had the courage to delve into such a dangerous and illuminating area.”
She began on stage as an understudy in the Broadway production of “Hair” and in Allen’s 1968 play “Play It Again, Sam,” for which she received a Tony nomination.
Keaton made her film debut in the 1970 romantic comedy “Lovers and Other Strangers,” but her big break came a few years later when she was cast in Francis Ford Coppola’s “The Godfather,” which won Best Picture and became one of the most beloved films of all time. However, she hesitated to return for the sequel, although she decided otherwise after reading the script.
The 1970s were an incredibly productive time for Keaton, thanks in part to her continued collaboration with Allen in both comedic and dramatic roles. She appeared in “Sleeper”, “Love and Death”, “Interiors”, “Manhattan”, “Manhattan Murder Mystery” and the film version of “Play it Again, Sam”.
Allen and the late Marshall Brickman gave Keaton one of her most iconic roles in “Annie Hall,” the infectious woman from Chippewa Falls whom Allen’s Alvy Singer can’t get over. The film is considered one of the greatest romantic comedies of all time, with Keaton’s eccentric, self-deprecating character at its heart.
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2025-10-11 20:24:00
