{"id":69021,"date":"2025-10-12T02:19:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-12T02:19:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/69021\/"},"modified":"2025-10-12T02:19:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-12T02:19:07","slug":"oscar-winner-diane-keaton-star-of-annie-hall-and-the-godfather-dies-at-79-reports-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/69021\/","title":{"rendered":"Oscar-winner Diane Keaton, star of \u2018Annie Hall\u2019 and \u2018The Godfather,\u2019 dies at 79, reports say"},"content":{"rendered":"

Diane Keaton<\/a>, the Oscar-winning star of \u201cAnnie Hall,\u201d<\/a> \u201cThe Godfather\u201d films and \u201cFather of the Bride,\u201d whose quirky, vibrant manner and depth made her one of the most singular actors of a generation, has died. She was 79.<\/p>\n

People Magazine reported Saturday that she died in California with loved ones, citing a family spokesperson. No other details were immediately available, and representatives for Keaton did not respond to inquiries from The Associated Press.<\/p>\n

The unexpected news was met with shock around the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was hilarious, a complete original, and completely without guile, or any of the competitiveness one would have expected from such a star,\u201d Bette Midler said in an Instagram post. She and Keaton co-starred in \u201cThe First Wives Club.\u201d<\/p>\n

Keaton was the kind of actor who helped make films iconic and timeless, from her \u201cLa-dee-da, la-dee-da\u201d phrasing as Annie Hall, bedecked in that necktie, bowler hat, vest and khakis, to her heartbreaking turn as Kay Adams,<\/a> the woman unfortunate enough to join the Corleone family.<\/p>\n

Her star-making performances in the 1970s, many of which were in Woody Allen films, were not a flash in the pan and she would continue to charm new generations for decades thanks in part to a longstanding collaboration with filmmaker Nancy Meyers.<\/p>\n

She played a businessperson who unexpectedly inherits an infant in \u201cBaby Boom,\u201d the mother of the bride in the beloved remake of \u201cFather of the Bride,\u201d a newly single woman in \u201cThe First Wives Club,\u201d and a divorced playwright who gets involved with Jack Nicholson’s womanizing music executive in \u201cSomething’s Gotta Give.\u201d<\/p>\n

Keaton won her first Oscar for \u201cAnnie Hall\u201d and would go on to be nominated three more times, for \u201cReds,\u201d \u201cMarvin’s Room,” and \u201cSomething’s Gotta Give.<\/p>\n

In her very Keaton way, upon accepting her Oscar in 1978<\/a> she laughed and said, \u201cThis is something.\u201d<\/p>\n

Keaton was born Diane Hall in January 1946 in Los Angeles. Her mother was a homemaker and photographer, and her father was in real estate and civil engineering, and both would inspire her love in the arts, from fashion to architecture.<\/p>\n

Keaton was drawn to theater and singing while in school in Santa Ana, California, and she dropped out of college after a year to make a go of it in Manhattan. Actors\u2019 Equity already had a Diane Hall in their ranks, and she took Keaton, her mother\u2019s maiden name, as her own.<\/p>\n

She studied under Sanford Meisner in New York and has credited him with giving her the freedom to \u201cchart the complex terrain of human behavior within the safety of his guidance. It made playing with fire fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

She started on the stage as an understudy in the Broadway production for \u201cHair,\u201d and in Allen\u2019 s \u201cPlay It Again, Sam\u201d in 1968, for which she would receive a Tony nomination.<\/p>\n

Keaton made her film debut in the 1970 romantic comedy \u201cLovers and Other Strangers,\u201d but her big breakthrough would come a few years later when she was cast in Francis Ford Coppola\u2019s \u201cThe Godfather,\u201d which won best picture and become one of the most beloved films of all time<\/p>\n

The 1970s were an incredibly fruitful time for Keaton thanks in part to her ongoing collaboration with Allen in both comedic and dramatic roles. She appeared in \u201cSleeper,\u201d \u201cLove and Death,\u201d \u201cInteriors,\u201d Manhattan,\u201d and the film version of \u201cPlay it Again, Sam.\u201d The 1977 crime-drama \u201cLooking for Mr. Goodbar\u201d also earned her raves.<\/p>\n

Allen and the late Marshall Brickman<\/a> gave Keaton one of her most iconic roles in \u201cAnnie Hall,\u201d the infectious woman from Chippewa Falls whom Allen\u2019s Alvy Singer cannot get over. The film is considered one of the great romantic comedies of all time, with Keaton\u2019s eccentric, self-deprecating Annie at its heart.<\/p>\n

Keaton and Allen were also in a romantic relationship, from about 1968, when she met him while auditioning for his play, until about 1974. Afterward they remained collaborators and friends.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was so hip, with his thick glasses and cool suits,\u201d Keaton wrote in her memoir. \u201cBut it was his manner that got me, his way of gesturing, his hands, his coughing and looking down in a self-deprecating way while he told jokes.\u201d<\/p>\n

She was also romantically linked to Pacino, who played her husband in \u201cThe Godfather,\u201d and Warren Beatty who directed her and whom she co-starred with in \u201cReds.\u201d She never married but did adopt two children when she was in her 50s: a daughter, Dexter, and a son, Duke.<\/p>\n

In 1987 she began another long-standing collaboration with Nancy Meyers, which would result in four beloved films starting with \u201cBaby Boom,\u201d directed by Charles Shyer.<\/p>\n

Their next team-up would be in the remake of \u201cFather of the Bride,\u201d which Shyer directed and co-wrote with Meyers. She and Steve Martin played the flustered parents to the bride which would become a big hit and spawn a sequel.<\/p>\n

In 2003, Meyers would direct her in the romantic comedy \u201cSomething\u2019s Gotta Give.\u201d Her character Erica Barry, with her beautiful Hamptons home and ivory outfits was a key inspiration for the recent costal grandmother fashion trend. It earned her what would be her last Oscar nomination and, later, she\u2019d call it her favorite film.<\/p>\n

Keaton continued working steadily throughout the 2000s, with notable roles in \u201cThe Family Stone,\u201d \u201cMorning Glory,\u201d and the \u201cBook Club\u201d films.<\/a><\/p>\n

Keaton was celebrated with an AFI Life Achievement Award in 2017.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like it\u2019s 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 \u2014 the big bash,\u201d she told the AP. \u201cIt\u2019s really a big event for me and I\u2019m really, deeply grateful.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP National Writer Hillel Italie in New York contributed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Diane Keaton, the Oscar-winning star of \u201cAnnie Hall,\u201d \u201cThe Godfather\u201d films and \u201cFather of the Bride,\u201d whose quirky,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":69022,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[49464,49523,458,49522,49336,146,49470,85,46,49520,49521,33078],"class_list":["post-69021","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-annie-hall","tag-bette-midler","tag-celebrities","tag-diane-hall","tag-diane-keaton","tag-entertainment","tag-father-of-the-bride","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-nancy-meyers","tag-the-godfather","tag-woody-allen"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69021","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69021"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69021\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}