This comes as a huge shock to me: Diane Keaton has passed away at the age of 79. It feels so shocking because Diane was one of the most vivacious and upbeat celebrities out there – an optimistic oddball, in the best way. She won the Best Actress Oscar for Annie Hall in 1977. I know Woody Allen is thoroughly canceled and everything, but she was great in Annie Hall. She also received Oscar nominations for Reds, Marvin’s Room and Something’s Got to Give (one of my favorite performances from her). She also played Kay in the Godfather trilogy (iconic). Baby Boom is probably my favorite Diane Keaton film – she’s just perfect in it, sassy, neurotic and funny, but she also brought so much sweetness to the movie. Diane was survived by her two children.
Diane Keaton has died. She was 79. PEOPLE can confirm the legendary actress died in California. “There are no further details available at this time, and her family has asked for privacy in this moment of great sadness,” a spokesperson tells PEOPLE.
Keaton rose to fame in the 1970s thanks to her role in The Godfather films and her collaborations with director Woody Allen. She won an Oscar for Best Actress for 1977’s Annie Hall. Her long career included movies like The First Wives Club, multiple collaborations with director Nancy Meyers and the Book Club franchise.
The actress was born in Los Angeles in 1946 as Diane Hall, and was the oldest of four children. Her father was a civil engineer, while her mom stayed at home. Still, Keaton thought her mother dreamed of something bigger. “Secretly in her heart of hearts she probably wanted to be an entertainer of some kind,” the actress told PEOPLE in 2004. “She sang. She played the piano. She was beautiful. She was my advocate.”
Keaton never married. “Today I was thinking, I’m the only one in my generation of actresses who has been a single woman all her life,” she explained to PEOPLE in 2019. “I’m really glad I didn’t get married. I’m an oddball. I remember in high school, this guy came up to me and said, ‘One day you’re going to make a good wife.’ And I thought, ‘I don’t want to be a wife. No.’”
She was romantically linked to Woody Allen, Al Pacino and Warren Beatty throughout her life. “Talent is so damn attractive,” she noted to PEOPLE.
Keaton had two children, daughter Dexter and son Duke, whom she adopted in 1996 and 2001, respectively. “Motherhood was not an urge I couldn’t resist, it was more like a thought I’d been thinking for a very long time. So I plunged in,” she told Ladies’ Home Journal in 2008. Keaton is survived by her children.
I’m glad her kids are adults, and we’re thinking about them during this difficult time. She was right – she was the only major actress out of her generation to never marry. She never made a big deal about it, and it was pretty genuine – she really didn’t want to be anyone’s wife. Bless her.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, WENN.com/Wenn/Avalon.
