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Diana Keatonhe Oscar-winning star for “Annie Hall” The “Godfather” and “Father of the Bride” films, whose quirky, vibrant manner and depth made her one of the most unique actresses of a generation, are dead. She was 79 years old.
People magazine reported Saturday that he died in California with loved ones, citing a family spokesperson. No further details were immediately available and Keaton’s representatives did not immediately respond to questions from The Associated Press.
The unexpected news caused shock throughout the world.
“He was hilarious, completely original and without any of the cleverness or competitiveness that one would have expected from a star like that. What you saw was who he was… oh, la, lala!” said Bette Midler in a post on Instagram. She and Keaton co-starred in “The First Wives Club.”
Keaton was the kind of actress who helped make iconic, timeless movies, from her “La-dee-da, la-dee-da” line as Annie Hall, adorned in that tie, bowler hat, vest and khaki pants, to her heartbreaking turn as Kay Adams, the woman who was unlucky enough to join the Corleone family.
His stellar performances in the 1970s, many of which were in Woody Allen films, were not fleeting either, and he would continue to delight new generations for decades thanks in part to a long collaboration with filmmaker Nancy Meyers.
She played a businessman who unexpectedly inherits a baby in “Baby Boom,” a mother of the bride in the beloved remake of “Father of the Bride,” a newly single woman in “The First Wives Club” and a divorced playwright who becomes involved with Jack Nicholson’s music executive in “Something’s Gotta Give.”
Keaton won her first Oscar for “Annie Hall” and would be nominated three more times, for “Reds,” “Marvin’s Room” and “Something’s Gotta Give.”
In the manner of Keaton, accepting his Oscar in 1978 She laughed and said, “This is something.”
A son of Hollywood bursts into New York
Keaton was born Diane Hall in January 1946 in Los Angeles, although her family was not part of the film industry she would find herself in. His mother was a housewife and photographer, and his father was dedicated to real estate and civil engineering.
Keaton was drawn to theater and singing while in school in Santa Ana, California, and dropped out of college after a year to try it in Manhattan. Actors’ Equity already had a Diane Hall in its ranks, and she adopted Keaton, her mother’s maiden name, as her own.
He studied under Sanford Meisner in New York and credits him with giving him the freedom to “map the complex terrain of human behavior within the safety of his guide. He made playing with fire fun.”
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“More than anything, Sanford Meisner helped me learn to appreciate the darker side of behavior,” he wrote in his 2012 memoir, “Then Again.” “I always had the ability to feel it, but I didn’t yet have the courage to delve into such dangerous and illuminating territory.”
He began on stage as an understudy in the Broadway production of “Hair” and in Allen’s “Play It Again, Sam” in 1968, for which he would receive a Tony nomination. And yet, she remained deeply self-conscious about her appearance and battled bulimia in her 20s.
Becoming a star with “The Godfather” and Woody Allen
Keaton made her film debut in the 1970 romantic comedy “Lovers and Other Strangers,” but her breakthrough would come 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. And yet, even she hesitated to return for the sequel, although after reading the script she decided otherwise.
She recapped her role as Kay, a “role she never identified with” although she savored memories of acting with Al Pacino.
The 1970s were an incredibly fruitful time for Keaton thanks in part to his continued collaboration with Allen in both comedic and dramatic roles. He 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 Chippewa Falls woman whom Allen’s Alvy Singer can’t forget. The film is considered one of the great romantic comedies of all time, with Keaton’s eccentric and self-deprecating Annie at its center.
In the New York Times, critic Vincent Canby wrote: “As Annie Hall, Miss Keaton emerges as Woody Allen’s Liv Ullman. Her camera finds beauty and emotional resources that somehow escape the attention of other directors. Her Annie Hall is a wonderful madwoman.”
He recognized the parallels between Annie Hall and real life, although he also downplayed them.
“My last name is Hall. Woody and I share a major romance, according to me, anyway,” she wrote. “I wanted to be a singer. I felt insecure and was fumbling for words.”
Keaton and Allen also maintained a romantic relationship, from approximately 1968, when she met him while auditioning for his play, until approximately 1974. They remained collaborators and friends afterward.
“He was so modern, with his thick glasses and cool suits,” Keaton wrote in his memoirs. “But it was his manner that caught me, his way of gesticulating, his hands, his coughing and his self-deprecating downward gaze while he told jokes.”
She was also romantically linked to Pacino, who played her husband in “The Godfather,” and Warren Beatty, who directed her and with whom she co-starred in “Reds.” She never married, but adopted two children when she was 50: a daughter, Dexter, and a son, Duke.
“I thought the only way to realize my number one dream of becoming a true Broadway musical comedy star was to remain a doting daughter. Loving a man, a man, and becoming a wife, would have to be put aside,” she wrote in her memoirs.
“The names changed, from Dave to Woody, then Warren, and finally Al. Could I have made a lasting commitment to them? It’s hard to say. Subconsciously I must have known it could never work, and because of this, they would never stand in the way of me achieving my dreams.”
When Keaton met Nancy Meyers
Not all of Keaton’s roles were home runs, such as his foray into action in George Roy Hill’s John le Carré adaptation of “Little Drummer Girl.” But in 1987 he would begin another long-running collaboration with Nancy Meyers, resulting in four beloved films. Reviews for that first film, “Baby Boom,” directed by Charles Shyer, might have been mixed at the time, but Pauline Kael even described Keaton’s as a “glorious comedy performance that glosses over a lot of the silliness.”
Their next team-up would be on the remake of “Father of the Bride,” which Shyer directed and co-wrote with Meyers. She and Steve Martin played the bride’s nervous parents, which would become a huge hit and spawn a sequel.
In 2003, Meyers would direct her in “Something’s Gotta Give,” a romantic comedy in which she begins a relationship with a womanizing playboy, played by Jack Nicholson, while also being pursued by a younger doctor, played by Keanu Reeves. Her character Erica Barry, with her beautiful Hamptons home and ivory outfits, was a key inspiration for the recent coastal grandmother fashion trend. It earned him what would be his last Oscar nomination, and he would later call it his favorite film.
He also occasionally directed, with work including an episode of “Twin Peaks,” a Belinda Carlisle music video and the sister comedy-drama “Hanging Up,” which he co-wrote with Delia Ephron and starred in alongside Meg Ryan and Lisa Kudrow.
Keaton continued to work steadily throughout the 2000s, with notable roles in “The Family Stone,” as a dying matriarch reluctant to give her ring to her son, in “Morning Glory,” as a morning news anchor, and in “Book Club” Movies.
He also wrote several books, including the memoirs “Then Again” and “Let’s Say It Wasn’t Pretty,” and an art and design book, “The House That Pinterest Built.”
Keaton was celebrated with a AFI Life Achievement Award in 2017, He told the AP at the time that it was a surreal experience.
“I feel like it’s the wedding I never had, or the big reunion I never had, or the retirement party I never had, or all those things I always avoided: the big party,” she said. “It’s really a great event for me and I’m very, deeply grateful.”
In 2022, he “cemented” his legacy with a hand and footprint ceremony in front of the TCL Chinese Theater in Los Angeles, as his children looked on.
“I don’t think about my film legacy,” he said at the event. “I’m just lucky to have been here in any way, shape or form. I’m just lucky. I don’t see myself any other way than that.”
