\u201cShe was hilarious, a complete original, and completely without guile, or any of the competitiveness one would have expected from such a star. What you saw was who she was\u2026oh, la, lala!\u201d Bette Midler said in a post on Instagram. She and Keaton co-starred in \u201cThe First Wives Club.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Oscar winners pose with their statuettes at the Academy Awards presentation in Los Angeles, April 3, 1978, from left: Richard Dreyfuss, best actor for \u201cThe Goodbye Girl\u201d; Charles H. Joffe, best picture for \u201cAnnie Hall\u201d; Diane Keaton, best actress for \u201cAnnie Hall\u201d; presenter Jack Nicholson, and producer Jack Rollins of United Artists. (AP Photo)<\/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, the woman unfortunate enough to join the Corleone family in \u201cThe Godfather.<\/p>\n
Her star-making performances in the 1970s, many of which were in Allen\u2019s films, were not a flash in the pan either, and she would continue to charm new generations for decades thanks in part to her longstanding collaboration with 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\u2019s music executive in \u201cSomething\u2019s Gotta Give.\u201d<\/p>\n
Keaton won her first Oscar for \u201cAnnie Hall,\u201d for best actress, and would go on to be nominated three more times, for \u201cReds,\u201d playing the journalist and suffragist Louise Bryant, \u201cMarvin\u2019s Room,\u201d as a caregiver who suddenly needs care herself, and \u201cSomething\u2019s Gotta Give,\u201d as a middle-aged divorcee who is the object of several men\u2019s affections.<\/p>\n
In her very Keaton way, upon accepting her Oscar in 1978, she laughed and said, \u201cThis is something.\u201d<\/p>\n
Keaton was born Diane Hall in January 1946 in Los Angeles, though her family was not part of the film industry. Her mother was a homemaker and photographer, and her father was in real estate and civil engineering, and both would inspire her love of 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
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Woody Allen stands with then-US first lady Betty Ford, second from right, and Diane Keaton, second from left. (AP Photo)<\/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 of \u201cHair,\u201d and in Allen\u2019s \u201cPlay It Again, Sam\u201d in 1968, for which she would receive a Tony nomination. And yet she remained deeply self-conscious about her appearance and battled bulimia in her 20s.<\/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 became one of the most beloved films of all time. And yet even she hesitated to return for the sequel, though after reading the script she decided otherwise.<\/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\u00a0late Marshall Brickman\u00a0gave 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
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Acting teacher Sanford Meisner, right, greets his former student Diane Keaton at a party held in his honor by his students at the Neighborhood Playhouse School in New York City, October 8, 1980. (AP Photo)<\/p>\n
She acknowledged parallels between Annie Hall and real life, while also downplaying them.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy last name is Hall. Woody and I did share a significant romance, according to me, anyway,\u201d she wrote. \u201cI did want to be a singer. I was insecure, and I did grope for words.\u201d<\/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. She later appeared in \u201cRadio Days,\u201d in 1987, and \u201cManhattan Murder Mystery,\u201d in 1993.<\/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 with whom she co-starred 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\u2019d begin another long-standing collaboration with Nancy Meyers, which would result in four beloved films.<\/p>\n
After \u201cBaby Boom,\u201d\u00a0 their next team-up would be in the remake of \u201cFather of the Bride.\u201d She and Steve Martin played the flustered parents to the bride in a film that would become a big hit and spawn a sequel.<\/p>\n
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Director Nancy Meyers poses for photographers upon arrival at the European premiere of the film \u2018The Intern\u2019 in London, Sunday, September 27, 2015. (Photo by Joel Ryan\/Invision\/AP)<\/p>\n
In 2003, Meyers would direct Keaton in \u201cSomething\u2019s Gotta Give,\u201d a romantic comedy in which she begins a relationship with a playboy womanizer, played by Jack Nicholson, while also being pursued by a younger doctor, played by Keanu Reeves. It earned her what would be her last Oscar nomination, and, later, she\u2019d call it her favorite film.<\/p>\n
She also directed occasionally, with works including an episode of \u201cTwin Peaks,\u201d a Belinda Carlisle music video, and the sister dramedy \u201cHanging Up,\u201d which Nora Epron and Delia Ephron co-wrote, and in which she starred alongside Meg Ryan and Lisa Kudrow.<\/p>\n
Keaton continued working steadily throughout the 2000s, with notable roles in \u201cThe Family Stone,\u201d as a dying matriarch reluctant to give her ring to her son, in \u201cMorning Glory,\u201d as a morning news anchor, and in the \u201cBook Club\u201d films.<\/p>\n
She wrote several books as well, including memoirs \u201cThen Again\u201d and \u201cLet\u2019s Just Say It Wasn\u2019t Pretty,\u201d and an art and design book, \u201cThe House that Pinterest Built.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reuters contributed to this report.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Diane Keaton, the\u00a0Oscar-winning star of \u201cAnnie Hall,\u201d\u00a0\u201cThe Godfather\u201d films and \u201cFather of the Bride,\u201d whose quirky, vibrant manner…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":218662,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[236,88],"class_list":["post-218661","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218661","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=218661"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218661\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/218662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=218661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=218661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=218661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}