Beloved actress Diane Keaton passed away on October 11th at the age of 79.
Oscar-winning actress Diane Keaton dies at age 79
Diane Keaton, the Oscar-winning actress who starred in “Annie Hall” and “The Godfather,” has died at the age of 79, People and the New York Times have reported.
At the end of Annie Hall, Woody Allen’s Alvy says that love is “totally irrational, crazy, absurd,” but “we keep getting through it.” So was star Diane Keaton, who died on October 11 at the age of 79, People and the New York Times reported.
The Oscar winner grew up in Los Angeles, got her Broadway start in Hair, transitioned to film in Strangers, and went on to star in a wide range of iconic films, including Annie Hall, The Godfather and Something’s Gotta Give. Although she has never been married, she has had several high-profile relationships in Hollywood.
Diane Keaton met Woody Allen during an audition
Keaton began dating Woody Allen in the late 1960s, and she appeared in his Broadway show Play it Again, Sam. Always a shy actress, she said working with him on the comedy film helped her relax and feel more comfortable.
Their relationship didn’t last long, but she remained his supporter for decades, even after he faced sexual abuse allegations. (In 2018, she tweeted, “Woody Allen is my friend and I continue to believe in him.”)
The two starred together in eight films, but it was for Annie Hall that Keaton won the Academy Award for Best Actress.
Al Pacino caught Diane Keaton’s eye from the beginning
Keaton appeared in The Godfather before Pacino, and the two met during screen tests for the first film in the trilogy. Director Francis Ford Coppola then asked her, “What do you think of Al?” And as Keaton recalled in “The Interview,” she responded, “I think he’s great.” However, their relationship did not develop until they appeared in The Godfather Part II, and they continued to date for 15 years.
“I was mad at him,” the actress told People. “Charming, hilarious, non-stop talkative. There was a lost orphanage side to him…and oh, gorgeous.”
After their breakup, she said in an interview with CBS that he was a rather serious actor who liked reading Shakespeare together at night, but the two did not maintain a close relationship. But at Keaton’s 2017 American Film Institute Lifetime Achievement Awards ceremony, Pacino took to the stage and said, “Hi, Di, nice to meet you, I like your hat,” before going on to declare, “You’re an amazing artist. … I’ll love you forever.” And in a 2021 interview that highlighted questions from close friends, she told him: “I was in love with you. You couldn’t be more magical, interesting, and unique, all rolled into one.”
She was Warren Beatty’s on-screen and off-screen lover
Keaton began dating Warren Beatty in 1981 while filming Reds. He was her co-star and director, and their relationship continued long after filming ended, lasting five years.
“The first time I saw Warren was in ‘Splendor in the Grass’ in 1961,” Keaton told Variety in 2016. “He was, I mean, a dream come true. … Not only was he beautiful, gorgeous, sexy, seductive, mysterious and a great movie star, but he was also an incredible producer and director.”
Even after their relationship ended, they continued to have respect for each other. In 2016, Beatty told People magazine: Great sense of comedy. ”
Diane Keaton became a mom at 50
Keaton adopted two children, a daughter, Dexter, and a son, Duke, in his 50s. She often cited her mother’s sacrifices as a stay-at-home mom as the reason for her own decision to remain single, saying she “didn’t want to compromise too much.”
In her 2020 memoir, Brother & Sister, she wrote: “I wanted to be a movie star. I wanted people, people I didn’t even know, to love me.”
