Diane Keaton, the quirky US actress who won an Academy Award and captured hearts with her performance as Woody Allen’s eccentric, insecure girlfriend in the 1977 romantic comedy “Annie Hall,” has died at the age of 79.
Rizzoli, a publishing company that released several of Keaton’s books, confirmed her death in a statement, calling her an “icon whose influence spanned film, fashion, and design.” A representative for Keaton could not be immediately reached. Her death was first reported by People magazine.
Keaton, who appeared in more than 60 films, including “The Godfather” trilogy, “The First Wives Club” and eight films with Allen, stood out in Hollywood with a personal style that favored androgynous looks, turtleneck sweaters and her trademark hats.
Annie Hall established Keaton
She earned Oscar nominations for best actress for her portrayal of US journalist Louise Bryant in the 1981 political drama “Reds,” as a caring aunt to Leonardo DiCaprio in the 1996 family saga “Marvin’s Room” and opposite Jack Nicholson in the 2003 romantic comedy “Something’s Gotta Give.”
But it was “Annie Hall,” which Allen loosely based on his relationship with Keaton, that established her as a consummate actress. “It was an idealised version of me, let’s put it that way,” Keaton said about the film in an interview with CBS News in 2004.
“Annie Hall” and Keaton’s dramatic turn as a dedicated teacher by day and prowler of singles bars at night in “Looking for Mr. Goodbar” landed her on the cover of “Time” magazine in September 1977. Rolling Stone magazine described her as “the next (Katherine) Hepburn” in its June 30th issue that year.
Forty years later, Allen paid tribute to his early muse when Keaton received the American Film Institute Life Achievement Award for her body of work. “The minute I met her she was a great, great inspiration to me,” he said. “Much of what I’ve accomplished in my life I owe for sure to her. She’s really astonishing.”
Keaton was also a director, writer, producer, and photographer and had a passion for restoring California mansions. She detailed her life in two memoirs, “Then Again” in 2011, in which she revealed she had suffered from the eating disorder bulimia in her 20s, and “Let’s Just Say it Wasn’t Pretty” in 2014.
She was equally famous for high-profile romances with her leading men: Allen; Warren Beatty, her co-star and director in “Reds”; and Al Pacino, who played her boyfriend and husband in “The Godfather” films. “Each man had a different decade,” she told The Telegraph in 2013. “Woody was my twenties, Warren was my thirties and Al was borderline: late thirties/early forties.”
La-Dee-Da, La-Dee-Da, La-La
Keaton was born Diane Hall in Los Angeles on January 5, 1946. The oldest of four children, she adopted her mother’s maiden name to avoid confusion with another actress with the same moniker. Her father, a civil engineer, and her housekeeper mother moved the family to suburban Santa Ana when Keaton was a child.
After briefly attending college in California, Keaton moved to New York to study at the Neighbourhood Playhouse. She landed a role in the original Broadway rock musical “Hair” in 1968. The shy actress, who spent years in therapy, refused to appear nude in the production. But it was an audition with Allen for the stage production of “Play It Again, Sam” that changed her life.
“Nothing would have happened without Woody Allen. If I hadn’t been cast in that play …” Keaton said in an interview with Vanity Fair in 2011. Keaton won a Tony nomination for the role that sparked their romance as well as a life-long friendship and a collaboration that included many of Allen’s best films such as “Sleeper,” “Love and Death” and “Manhattan.”
In “Annie Hall,” she immortalised the phrase “la-dee-da, la-dee-da, la-la,” which was characteristic of her flighty, fluttery style. Keaton stood by Allen years later after the filmmaker’s adopted daughter accused him of sexually assaulting her when she was a child. Allen has denied the allegations and has never been charged.
“I still love him – there are some people who stay in your life and it matters and they are in for the long haul,” she said about Allen in an interview with The Telegraph in 2013. After seeing her in “Lovers and Other Strangers” and intrigued by her kooky, nervous demeanor, Francis Ford Coppola cast Keaton as Kay Adams, Pacino’s love interest in “The Godfather.” It was a major role for the actress in the film that won the Oscar for best picture in 1973.
As Keaton’s career progressed, she moved from ingenue roles to mature career women and mothers grappling with family issues. She credits director Nancy Myers for her long-lasting career. They worked on four films together, including 1987’s “Baby Boom,” and the 1991 remake of the 1950s film “Father of the Bride.”
Keaton was also nominated for a lead actress Emmy in 1995 for “Amelia Earhart: The Final Flight” and directed several films, television episodes and two music videos for singer Belinda Carlisle. Despite her well-publicized romances, she never married.
“I think I was really afraid of men and also very attracted to extremely talented people that were dazzling,” she told Elle magazine in 2015. “I don’t think that makes for a good marriage with a person like me, someone who just didn’t adjust well.” After adopting two children, Dexter and Duke, when she was in her 50s, Keaton said she found a real purpose in her life that she never had before.
“I was very heavily involved in myself forever. And this changes the whole landscape of your life. Your whole point of view in a good way,” she told CBS News. “In a nice way … I just think they are both miracles.”
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