Diane Keaton, the quirky U.S. actress who gained an Academy Award and captured hearts along with her endearing efficiency as Woody Allen’s eccentric, insecure girlfriend within the 1977 romantic comedy “Annie Corridor,” has died on the age of 79, Individuals reported on Saturday (October 11, 2025), citing a household spokesperson.
A consultant for Keaton couldn’t instantly be reached.
Keaton, who appeared in additional than 60 movies, together with “The Godfather” trilogy, “The First Wives Membership” and eight movies with Allen, stood out in Hollywood with a private type that favoured androgynous seems, turtleneck sweaters and her trademark hats.
She earned Oscar nominations for finest actress for her portrayal of U.S. journalist Louise Bryant within the 1981 political drama “Reds,” as a caring aunt to Leonardo DiCaprio within the 1996 household saga “Marvin’s Room” and reverse Jack Nicholson within the 2003 romantic comedy “One thing’s Gotta Give.”
However it was “Annie Corridor,” which Allen loosely based mostly on his relationship with Keaton, that established her as a consummate actress.
“It was an idealized model of me, let’s put it that approach,” Keaton mentioned concerning the movie in an interview with CBS News in 2004.
“Annie Corridor” and Keaton’s dramatic flip as a devoted instructor by day and prowler of singles bars at night time in “On the lookout for Mr. Goodbar” landed her on the quilt of “Time” journal in September 1977.
Rolling Stone journal described her as “the subsequent (Katherine) Hepburn” in its June thirtieth challenge that yr.
Forty years later Allen paid tribute to his early muse when Keaton obtained the American Movie Institute Life Achievement Award for her physique of labor.
“The minute I met her she was an incredible, nice inspiration to me,” he mentioned. “A lot of what I’ve completed in my life I owe for positive to her. She’s actually astonishing.”
Keaton was additionally a director, author, producer, and photographer and had a ardour for restoring California mansions. She detailed her life in two memoirs, “Then Once more” in 2011, during which she revealed she had suffered from the consuming dysfunction bulimia in her 20s, and “Let’s Simply Say it Wasn’t Fairly” in 2014.
She was equally well-known for high-profile romances along with her main males: Allen; Warren Beatty, her co-star and director in “Reds”; and Al Pacino, who performed her boyfriend and husband in “The Godfather” movies.
“Every man had a unique decade,” she advised The Telegraph in 2013. “Woody was my twenties, Warren was my thirties and Al was borderline: late thirties/early forties.”
‘LA-DEE-DA, LA-DEE-DA, LA-LA’
Keaton was born Diane Corridor in Los Angeles on January 5, 1946. The oldest of 4 kids, she adopted her mom’s maiden title to keep away from confusion with one other actress with the identical moniker.
Her father, a civil engineer, and her housekeeper mom moved the household to suburban Santa Ana when Keaton was a baby.
After briefly attending faculty in California, Keaton moved to New York to review on the Neighborhood Playhouse. She landed a task within the authentic Broadway rock musical “Hair” in 1968. The shy actress, who spent years in remedy, refused to look nude within the manufacturing.
However it was an audition with Allen for the stage manufacturing of “Play It Once more, Sam” that modified her life.
“Nothing would have occurred with out Woody Allen. If I hadn’t been forged in that play …” Keaton mentioned in an interview with Self-importance Honest in 2011.
Keaton gained a Tony nomination for the function that sparked their romance in addition to a life-long friendship and a collaboration that included a lot of Allen’s finest movies resembling “Sleeper,” “Love and Dying” and “Manhattan.”
In “Annie Corridor,” she immortalized the phrase “la-dee-da, la-dee-da, la-la,” which was attribute of her flighty, fluttered type.
Keaton stood by Allen years later after the filmmaker’s adopted daughter accused him of sexually assaulting her when she was a baby. Allen has denied the allegations and has by no means been charged.
“I nonetheless love him – there are some individuals who keep in your life and it issues and they’re in for the lengthy haul,” she mentioned about Allen in an interview with The Telegraph in 2013.
After seeing her in “Lovers and Different Strangers” and intrigued by her kooky, nervous demeanor, Francis Ford Coppola forged Keaton as Kay Adams, Pacino’s love curiosity in “The Godfather.” It was a serious function for the actress within the movie that gained the Oscar for finest image in 1973.
As Keaton’s profession progressed she moved from ingenue roles to mature profession ladies and moms grappling with household points. She credit director Nancy Myers for her long-lasting profession. They labored on 4 movies collectively, together with 1987’s “Child Growth,” and the 1991 remake of the Nineteen Fifties movie “Father of the Bride.”
Keaton was additionally nominated for a lead actress Emmy in 1995 for “Amelia Earhart: The Last Flight” and directed a number of movies, tv episodes and two music movies for singer Belinda Carlisle.
Regardless of her well-publicized romances, she by no means married.
“I believe I used to be actually afraid of males and likewise very interested in extraordinarily gifted those that had been dazzling,” she advised Elle journal in 2015. “I don’t suppose that makes for a great marriage with an individual like me, somebody who simply didn’t modify nicely.”
After adopting two kids, Dexter and Duke, when she was in her 50s, Keaton mentioned she discovered an actual objective in her life that she by no means had earlier than.
“I used to be very closely concerned in myself eternally. And this adjustments the entire panorama of your life. Your complete viewpoint in a great way,” she advised CBS News. “In a pleasant approach. … I simply suppose they’re each miracles.”
Printed – October 12, 2025 01:02 am IST