Diane Keaton, one of the best-loved film stars of the past 50 years, has died at the age of 79 in California.
The news was confirmed by People magazine. Further details are not available at this time and her loved ones have asked for privacy, according to a family spokesperson.
Keaton’s death came as a shock across Hollywood and the rest of the world. The actor had not been in the public eye for some months, but no illness had been announced.
An enduring and singular icon of cinema since her Oscar-winning turn in 1977’s Annie Hall – which her director, writer, co-star and former boyfriend Woody Allen based heavily on her own life – Keaton starred in some of the key movies of the last half century.
Her keen self-deprecation, gift for comedy and distinctive dress sense – rarely seen without a hat, turtleneck or man’s tie and wide trousers – made her both highly unique and impossible to emulate.
With Allen in Annie Hall. Photograph: Pictorial Press Ltd/Alamy
Her first major film role was opposite Al Pacino in Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather – she reprised the role of Michael Corleone’s wife in the two sequels. Other Oscar nominations were earned for her performances in Reds (1981), Marvin’s Room (1996) and Something’s Gotta Give (2003).
Meanwhile, dramas such as Looking for Mr Goodbar, Shoot the Moon and The Good Mother established her as an actor unafraid of playing difficult and unlikable women.
Keaton and Allen first collaborated on the stage version of Play It Again, Sam, for which she was Tony nominated in 1971, before going on to work together for eight films, including Sleeper (1973), Love and Death (1975) and Manhattan (1979).
In 1993, Keaton took on the role written for Mia Farrow in Manhattan Murder Mystery and remained a staunch supporter of Allen after the accusation by Farrow that he had abused their adopted daughter, Dylan.
Other popular and landmark comedies include Baby Boom, Father of the Bride (and its sequels), The First Wives Club and Book Club.
The sequel to that film, Book Club: The Next Chapter, released in 2023, looks set to be one of the last projects featuring Keaton. Speaking to the Guardian to promote it, she addressed why she chose to remain so prolific, making seven films since the start of the pandemic.
“It gives me an opportunity to get to know more people in a different realm,” she said. “I love it. It’s all interesting. It’s never dull, ever, life.”
She also explained her love for photographing doors and abandoned shops, which she said she found poignant “because life is haunting! You have an idea in your mind of what it is, or what it should be, or what it could be. But it’s not that at all! It’s just things going up and down!”
Diane Keaton in a scene from The Godfather (1972). Photograph: Landmark Media/Alamy
In 1996, Keaton adopted a daughter, Dexter (named after Cary Grant’s character in The Philadelphia Story), and, four years later, a son, Duke. “Motherhood has completely changed me,” she said. “It’s just about like the most completely humbling experience that I’ve ever had.” Despite well-publicised relationships with some of her co-stars including Pacino and Warren Beatty, she remained unmarried.
Keaton cared for her own mother from her diagnosis with Alzheimer’s in 1993 until her death in 2008, and devoted much of her own autobiographies to recounting her mother’s life and publishing her diaries.
“She was everything to me,” she said of her mother. “She was wonderful. She was my example for what you can do with life. She was the heart of everything that was best.”
Keaton was also the chief care-giver to her brother, Randy, who died in 2021, after years of mental-health problems.
As well as acting primarily for the big screen, Keaton did some TV work, including as a scheming nun in Jude Law TV series The Young Pope. She also had a sideline flipping properties in the US, as well as lending her name and creativity to ranges of homeware, clothing, glasses and wine.
In 2017, she was given a lifetime achievement award by the American Film Institute, in which she thanked her collaborators and sang Seems Like Old Times, the song her character sings in Annie Hall.
In December 2024, in what seems likely to be her final performance shared with the public, Keaton released her first single, a festive song called First Christmas. An enthusiastic adopter of social media, her last Instagram post was in April to mark National Pet Day, and featured a photograph of the actor with her beloved golden retriever, Reggie.
More to follow
