Actress Diane Keaton poses at the 45th AFI Life Achievement Award Tribute to Keaton at the Dolby Theater on Thursday, June 8, 2017 in Los Angeles.
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Diane Keaton, who remained one of Hollywood’s most original and beloved actresses decades after her Oscar-winning performance in the film Annie Halldied at the age of 79.
His film producer confirmed his death to NPR on Saturday.
When I met Keaton for an interview in 2014, she sported her signature look: a bowler hat, tinted glasses and oversized clothing.
“Clothes that hide the body,” she half-joked. “There’s a lot to hide in my case, so I’m the only person left on Earth with this particular look.”
Keaton was truly a fashionista, inspiring generations of women with her unconventional lifestyle. On screen, she was known for playing endearing, unique and sometimes eccentric characters.
In one of his memoirs, Keaton wrote about aging and falling in love in Hollywood and becoming a parent late in life. She’s also been candid about some of her insecurities; she worried about aging, about her thinning hair, about her drooping eyes. But Keaton told me that later in life, she finally came to accept that all flaws were beautiful.
“I think bad can be good. It can be good in many ways,” she said. “So all those things that disappoint you can work for you.”
FILE – Academy Award winners Charles H. Joffe, best picture winner for “Annie Hall,” left, and Diane Keaton, best actress winner for “Annie Hall,” pose with presenter Jack Nicholson and producer Jack Rollins at the Academy Awards ceremony in Los Angeles on April 3, 1978.
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She was born Diane Hall in Los Angeles in 1946, the daughter of real estate broker and civil engineer Jack Hall. Her mother Dorothy was once crowned Mrs. Los Angeles.
Keaton said her mother encouraged her as she pursued her dream of becoming a singer and performer in New York. After studying at the Neighborhood Playhouse in the 1960s, Keaton became an understudy in the original Broadway production of the rock musical. Hair.
“It was wild. It was unexpected,” she said. “But I could see that I really wasn’t a hippie. I knew I wasn’t a hippie in Hair“.
Keaton refused to go on stage naked for the final scene of Hair.
Then came Woody Allen, with whom she had a romantic relationship. Allen threw her away Play it again, Samhis play, then his film. Also his film comedies Sleeper, love and death, Manhattanand of course, Annie Hall.
Keaton’s wacky, offbeat role as Annie Hall and her “lah-de-dah” charm won her the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1978. She thanked Woody Allen in her acceptance speech and later, for her entire career. She supported him throughout the controversy over allegations that Allen molested his daughter, which the director denies.
“That will never change,” Keaton said of his support for Allen. “He’s my very, very good friend.”
In Annie HallKeaton showed off his comedy And singing chops. But she also played dramatic roles in the cinema, notably in The godfather trilogy. His character marries into the Corleone mafia family.
Her Godfather her costar, Al Pacino, was one of her boyfriends in real life. Another true love of hers, Warren Beatty, directed her in his 1981 film. Reds.
FILE – Filmmaker Woody Allen, left, welcomes actress Diane Keaton on stage to present her with the 45th AFI Life Achievement Award, June 8, 2017, in Los Angeles.
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In the historical drama about journalist John Reed, Keaton played his love interest, activist Louise Bryant.
“I loved her position in life,” Keaton said of her character, who she said played supporting role to Reed (played by Beatty.) “And she wanted to be great. She wanted greatness in her. And to fight for herself, and to fail and to fail. I loved her for that. I loved her for her flaws. She was a difficult person who wasn’t very likeable, and yet I loved her.”
Jack Nicholson was also present Reds. He teamed up with Keaton again in 2003 for the comedy Something has to give. In this film, Keaton also starred alongside Keanu Reeves.
Diane Keaton never married, although in films she was one of the few older American actresses still landing romantic lead roles. It was something that actress Carol Kane, Keaton’s longtime friend, raved about at the time.
“She plays the love interest role a lot,” Kane said. “You know, kissing passionately and rushing to the bedroom…at an age where most people just say, ‘OK, well, that part’s over.’ I mean, she’s getting more and more beautiful because she’s more and more herself.”
Diane Keaton attends the premiere of “Book Club: The Next Chapter” at AMC Lincoln Square on Monday, May 8, 2023, in New York.
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For years, Keaton starred in films such as Looking for Mr. Goodbar, The First Wives Club And Baby boom. She directed the documentary Heaven in 1987. She has also written books about her life, architecture, photography and beauty; she collected photos of handsome men, she renovated beautiful homes, and, as a single mother, raised two beautiful children. At the age of 50, she adopted her daughter Dexter and five years later, her son Duke.
“It’s an unconventional life, it’s true,” she told me. “But I don’t really see it that way, because I just think that everyone has a pretty… is there a life that doesn’t have a story that isn’t pretty amazing? I’ve never met anyone that doesn’t have one. I just made my way through the life that I have because I had a goal and it was very simple: I wanted to be in movies.”
Keaton told me it was a late bloomer. But his fans could say that death came to him far too soon.
