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Diane Keaton, the Oscar-winning actress whose luminous presence shaped films from The Godfather to Annie Hall to Father of the Bride, died in California on Saturday at the age of 79. Her family has asked for privacy.
Born Diane Hall in Los Angeles in 1946, Keaton was the eldest of four children in a household that encouraged imagination. “Secretly in her heart of hearts she probably wanted to be an entertainer of some kind,” Keaton said of her mother in 2004. “She sang. She played the piano. She was beautiful. She was my advocate.”
Keaton’s path to stardom was never straightforward. After high school drama productions, she dropped out of college and moved to New York, adopting her mother’s maiden name for the stage. Broadway’s Hair and Woody Allen’s Play It Again, Sam marked the beginnings of her career, but success did not erase struggle. Keaton later revealed that she battled bulimia, saying in 2017, “I became a master at hiding. Hiding any evidence… You live a lifestyle that is very strange. You’re living a lie.” Therapy eventually helped her recover.
Her breakout role came in 1972 when Francis Ford Coppola cast her as Kay Adams in The Godfather. Keaton admitted years later, “I think the kindest thing that someone's ever done for me... is that I got cast to be in The Godfather and I didn't even read it. I didn't know a single thing.” The film’s monumental success launched her into Hollywood’s stratosphere, leading to a reprise in The Godfather Part II and eventually Part III.
It was her collaboration with Woody Allen that cemented Keaton as a cultural icon. Annie Hall (1977) earned her the Academy Award for Best Actress and inspired fashion trends that endure to this day. “It’s not true [the movie is about us], but there are elements of truth in it,” she told The New York Times. Despite her fame, Keaton remained candid about her insecurities, once admitting, “I just don't like the way I look and sound.”
Her career spanned decades and genres. She delighted audiences in comedies like The First Wives Club (1996) and Father of the Bride (1991), brought warmth to dramas such as Reds (1981), and even appeared in Justin Bieber’s 2021 music video “Ghost.” Keaton also directed films, including the 1987 documentary Heaven, and explored television with HBO’s The Young Pope.
Keaton’s personal life reflected her independent spirit. She never married but raised two children, Dexter and Duke, whom she adopted. “Motherhood was not an urge I couldn't resist… So I plunged in,” she said in 2008. She was romantically linked to Allen, Al Pacino, and Warren Beatty, famously noting, “Talent is so damn attractive.”
In reflecting on her life and career in 2019, Keaton said, “I don't know anything, and I haven't learned. Getting older hasn't made me wiser. Without acting I would have been a misfit.” For millions of fans, she will remain an enduring emblem of charm, wit, and fearlessness; an actress who lived boldly, on her own terms, and gave the world characters and moments that will last forever.
Keaton is survived by her children, Dexter and Duke.
With information from People.com.
