Diane Keaton, the Oscar-winning star of Annie Hall, The Godfather films and Father of the Bride, has died aged 79.

People Magazine reported on Saturday US time that she died in California with loved ones, citing a family spokesperson. 

A representative for Keaton could not immediately be reached.

Keaton, who appeared in more than 60 films, including The Godfather trilogy, The First Wives Club and eight films with Woody Allen, stood out in Hollywood with a personal style that favoured androgynous looks, turtleneck sweaters and her trademark hats.

Diane Keaton sits with her arms cross on a chair at a desk in a brightly lit home.

Diane Keaton in her role as Erica in Something’s Gotta Give. (Supplied: Warner Bros)

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.

A smiling, older woman with long, silver hair – Diane Keaton – waves while wearing a long-sleeved black dress and sunglasses.

Keaton at The Grove for the Los Angeles premiere of Love the Coopers in 2015. (AP: Richard Shotwell/Invision)

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 30 issue that year. 

In the New York Times, critic Vincent Canby wrote: “As Annie Hall, Miss Keaton emerges as Woody Allen’s Liv Ullman. His camera finds beauty and emotional resources that somehow escape the notice of other directors. Her Annie Hall is a marvellous nut.”

Forty years later, Allen paid tribute to his early muse when Keaton received the American Film Institute Life Achievement Award.

“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.”Richard Dreyfuss, Charles H Joffe, Diane Keaton and Jack Nicholson posing with gold Academy Award statues.

Keaton received an Academy Award in 1978 when Annie Hall won Best Picture. (AP)

Hollywood pays tribute to ‘icon’

The unexpected news of her passing was met with shock around the world.

“She was hilarious, a complete original, and completely without guile, or any of the competitiveness one would have expected from such a star,” Bette Midler said in a post on Instagram. 

She and Keaton co-starred in The First Wives Club.

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In a tribute on X, Steve Martin, who co-starred with Keaton in Father of the Bride, posted an interview exchange involving her and Martin Short in which she was asked which of the two men was sexier.

“I mean, you’re both idiots,” Keaton said in the interview.

Cynthia Nixon, who worked with Keaton on 5 Flights Up, described her as her “absolute idol”.

“I loved her acting. I loved her vibe. I loved her everything,” she said on Instagram.

Mandy Moore, who starred opposite Keaton in the 2007 film Because I Said So said working with her was “an honour of a lifetime”.

Ben Stiller described Keaton as “one of the greatest film actors ever”.

Keaton was also a director, writer, producer and photographer and had a passion for restoring Californian 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, including 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.

Diane Keaton wearing a blue bowler hat and black, plaid turtleneck while smiling

Keaton was known for wearing her trademark turtleneck style and had a broad range of hats. (AP: Gregorio Borgia)

“Woody was my 20s, Warren was my 30s and Al was borderline — late 30s/early 40s.”

Keaton was celebrated with an AFI Life Achievement Award in 2017, telling the AP at the time that it was a surreal experience.

“I feel like it’s the wedding I never had, or the big gathering I never had, or the retirement party I never had, or all these things that I always avoided — the big bash,” she said. 

“It’s really a big event for me and I’m really, deeply grateful.”

In 2022, she “cemented” her legacy with a hand and footprint ceremony outside the TCL Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles, with her children looking on.

Hand and footprints pressed in wet concrete on a red carpet, signed by Diane Keaton on August 11, 2022

Keaton’s legacy in the entertainment industry was solidified in 2022, when she was honoured with a cement-cast at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles. (Reuters: Mario Anzuoni)

“I don’t think about my film legacy,” she said at the event. 

“I’m just lucky to have been here at all in any way, shape or form. I’m just fortunate. I don’t see myself anything other than that.”

Keaton is survived by her two children, Dexter and Duke.

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