Oscar-winning actress Diane Keaton dead at age 79
Oscar-winning actress Diane Keaton, star of “Annie Hall” and “The Godfather,” has died at 79, according to People and The New York Times.
Diane Keaton, the Oscar-winning actress, filmmaker and author beloved for her movies roles in “Annie Hall,” the “Godfather” films and more recently the “Book Club” franchise, has died at age 79, according to People and The New York Times.
Keaton broke through in Hollywood during the 1970s with her role as Kay Adams-Corleone in “The Godfather” franchise, playing girlfriend and later wife to Al Pacino’s iconic gangster Michael Corleone.
Her prestigious career also included roles in “The First Wives Club,” “Manhattan” and “Annie Hall,” which landed her a best actress Oscar in 1978. She found fans through her career in Hollywood but became known for her blend of emotion and eccentric likability in comedies such as “Baby Boom” in the 1980s, “Father of the Bride” in the 1990s and “Something’s Gotta Give” in the 2000s.
“I wanted to be a movie star. I wanted people – lots of people I didn’t know – to love me,” Keaton wrote in her 2020 memoir “Brother & Sister.”
USA TODAY has reached out to Keaton’s representatives for confirmation and comment.
Born Jan. 5. 1946, in Los Angeles, she grew up the oldest of four children as Diane Hall before opting for a new last name as hers was already taken by someone else in Actors’ Equity.
Her mother was a stay-at-home wife with acting aspirations who even donned the name “Mrs. Los Angeles” in a pageant for homemakers, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Keaton studied drama at Santa Ana College in Orange County and briefly continued her education at the University of Southern California before leaving LA for the Neighborhood Playhouse drama school in New York City.
In 1968, Keaton was in the original Broadway production of the musical “Hair” and a year later was the lead in the Woody Allen play “Play It Again, Sam,” sparking a short-lived romance but a longtime professional collaboration that would define both artists’ early careers.
After appearing in Francis Ford Coppola’s first “Godfather” in 1972 and its 1974 sequel, Keaton starred in a string of Allen’s big-screen comedies including “Sleeper” (1973) and “Manhattan” (1979), though it was 1977’s “Annie Hall” – about a comedian (Allen) trying to figure out his failed relationship with a nightclub singer (Keaton) – that won the actress her Academy Award and put her on the map.
That same year, she also began to show her dramatic side, as Keaton starred in “Looking for Mr. Goodbar” and following it up with a Oscar-nominated turn as a journalist opposite Warren Beatty in 1982’s “Reds.” The Academy nominated her again in 1997 for “Marvin’s Room” and in 2004 for “Something’s Gotta Give.”
In the 1987, Keaton starred in the hit comedy “Baby Boom” as a businesswoman who’s bequeathed a 14-month-old child after a cousin’s death, plus reunited with Allen that same year for “Radio Days” and for 1993’s “Manhattan Murder Mystery.” She starred opposite a number of legends as well, including Steve Martin in the popular 1991 family comedy “Father of the Bride,” Jack Nicholson in Nancy Meyers’ “Something’s Gotta Give” and Harrison Ford in 2010’s “Morning Glory.”
Throughout her hefty career, she never grew tired of being on people’s screens. She recently took on roles in 2018’s “Book Club” and its sequel, 2022’s “Mack & Rita” as well as last year’s “Summer Camp.”
“I’m the luckiest woman ever!” she told USA TODAY in a 2022 interview. “Other women my age are better than me as actresses. … But just in general, it drifts away a little, because of course you aren’t wanted as much, but you do want to be active and involved in your life.”
Keaton also directed movies, including 2000’s “Hanging Up,” and an author, penning the 2011 memoir “Then Again.” In “Brother & Sister,” she examined her upbringing with her only brother, Randy Hall, and his struggles with mental illness.
“I think a lot of families go through this, and it’s sort of unwritten and unexplored,” Keaton told USA TODAY. “And why shouldn’t it be explored? That I think is my question. Why didn’t I explore it more, why did I explore it too late?”
Keaton never married but is survived by two children she adopted in her 50s: daughter Dexter, 29. and son Duke, 25.
Contributing: Erin Jensen and Barbara VanDenburgh
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