Diane Keaton, the Oscar-winning star of “Annie Corridor,” “The Godfather” movies and “Father of the Bride,” whose quirky, vibrant method and depth made her some of the singular actors of a era, has died. She was 79.
Individuals Journal reported Saturday that she died in California with family members, citing a household spokesperson. No different particulars had been instantly obtainable, and representatives for Keaton didn’t instantly reply to inquiries from The Related Press.
Rizzoli, a publishing firm that launched a number of of Keaton’s books, confirmed her dying in an announcement, calling her an “icon whose affect spanned movie, style, and design.”
Throughout a prolific profession, Keaton was identified for long-running collaborations with two distinguished Jewish filmmakers, Woody Allen and Nancy Meyers. 1977’s “Annie Corridor,” for which Keaton received an Oscar, is taken into account a basic of American Jewish humor.
The surprising information of her dying was met with shock around the globe.
“She was hilarious, an entire unique, and fully with out guile, or any of the competitiveness one would have anticipated from such a star. What you noticed was who she was…oh, la, lala!” Bette Midler stated in a publish on Instagram. She and Keaton co-starred in “The First Wives Membership.”
Oscar winners pose with their statuettes on the Academy Awards presentation in Los Angeles, April 3, 1978, from left: Richard Dreyfuss, finest actor for “The Goodbye Lady”; Charles H. Joffe, finest image for “Annie Corridor”; Diane Keaton, finest actress for “Annie Corridor”; presenter Jack Nicholson, and producer Jack Rollins of United Artists. (AP Picture)
Keaton was the type of actor who helped make movies iconic and timeless, from her “La-dee-da, la-dee-da” phrasing as Annie Corridor, bedecked in that necktie, bowler hat, vest, and khakis, to her heartbreaking flip as Kay Adams, the girl unlucky sufficient to affix the Corleone household in “The Godfather.
Her star-making performances within the Seventies, lots of which had been in Allen’s movies, weren’t a flash within the pan both, and she or he would proceed to attraction new generations for many years thanks partly to her longstanding collaboration with Meyers.
She performed a businessperson who unexpectedly inherits an toddler in “Child Growth,” the mom of the bride within the beloved remake of “Father of the Bride,” a newly single lady in “The First Wives Membership,” and a divorced playwright who will get concerned with Jack Nicholson’s music govt in “One thing’s Gotta Give.”
Keaton received her first Oscar for “Annie Corridor,” for finest actress, and would go on to be nominated three extra instances, for “Reds,” taking part in the journalist and suffragist Louise Bryant, “Marvin’s Room,” as a caregiver who out of the blue wants care herself, and “One thing’s Gotta Give,” as a middle-aged divorcee who’s the item of a number of males’s affections.
In her very Keaton method, upon accepting her Oscar in 1978, she laughed and stated, “That is one thing.”
Keaton was born Diane Corridor in January 1946 in Los Angeles, although her household was not a part of the movie trade. Her mom was a homemaker and photographer, and her father was in actual property and civil engineering, and each would encourage her love of the humanities, from style to structure.
Keaton was drawn to theater and singing whereas in class in Santa Ana, California, and she or he dropped out of school after a 12 months to make a go of it in Manhattan. Actors’ Fairness already had a Diane Corridor of their ranks, and she or he took Keaton, her mom’s maiden identify, as her personal.
Woody Allen stands with then-US first girl Betty Ford, second from proper, and Diane Keaton, second from left. (AP Picture)
She studied below Sanford Meisner in New York and has credited him with giving her the liberty to “chart the advanced terrain of human conduct inside the security of his steering. It made taking part in with hearth enjoyable.”
She began on the stage as an understudy within the Broadway manufacturing of “Hair,” and in Allen’s “Play It Once more, Sam” in 1968, for which she would obtain a Tony nomination. And but she remained deeply self-conscious about her look and battled bulimia in her 20s.
Keaton made her movie debut within the 1970 romantic comedy “Lovers and Different Strangers,” however her large breakthrough would come a number of years later when she was forged in Francis Ford Coppola’s “The Godfather,” which received finest image and have become some of the beloved movies of all time. And but even she hesitated to return for the sequel, although after studying the script she determined in any other case.
The Seventies had been an extremely fruitful time for Keaton, thanks partly to her ongoing collaboration with Allen in each comedic and dramatic roles. She appeared in “Sleeper,” “Love and Dying,” “Interiors,” Manhattan,” and the movie model of “Play it Once more, Sam.” The 1977 crime-drama “Searching for Mr. Goodbar” additionally earned her raves.
Allen and the late Marshall Brickman gave Keaton one in all her most iconic roles in “Annie Corridor,” the infectious lady from Chippewa Falls whom Allen’s Alvy Singer can’t recover from. The movie is taken into account one of many nice romantic comedies of all time, with Keaton’s eccentric, self-deprecating Annie at its coronary heart.
Performing trainer Sanford Meisner, proper, greets his former pupil Diane Keaton at a celebration held in his honor by his college students on the Neighborhood Playhouse Faculty in New York Metropolis, October 8, 1980. (AP Picture)
She acknowledged parallels between Annie Corridor and actual life, whereas additionally downplaying them.
“My final identify is Corridor. Woody and I did share a major romance, in accordance with me, anyway,” she wrote. “I did need to be a singer. I used to be insecure, and I did grope for phrases.”
Keaton and Allen had been additionally in a romantic relationship from about 1968, when she met him whereas auditioning for his play, till about 1974. Afterward, they remained collaborators and associates. She later appeared in “Radio Days,” in 1987, and “Manhattan Homicide Thriller,” in 1993.
“He was so hip, together with his thick glasses and funky fits,” Keaton wrote in her memoir. “Nevertheless it was his method that bought me, his method of gesturing, his palms, his coughing and looking out down in a self-deprecating method whereas he instructed jokes.”
She was additionally romantically linked to Pacino, who performed her husband in “The Godfather,” and Warren Beatty, who directed her and with whom she co-starred in “Reds.” She by no means married however did undertake two kids when she was in her 50s: a daughter, Dexter, and a son, Duke.
In 1987, she’d start one other long-standing collaboration with Nancy Meyers, which might lead to 4 beloved movies.
After “Child Growth,” their subsequent team-up can be within the remake of “Father of the Bride.” She and Steve Martin performed the flustered mother and father to the bride in a movie that will develop into an enormous hit and spawn a sequel.
Director Nancy Meyers poses for photographers upon arrival on the European premiere of the movie ‘The Intern’ in London, Sunday, September 27, 2015. (Picture by Joel Ryan/Invision/AP)
In 2003, Meyers would direct Keaton in “One thing’s Gotta Give,” a romantic comedy through which she begins a relationship with a playboy womanizer, performed by Jack Nicholson, whereas additionally being pursued by a youthful physician, performed by Keanu Reeves. It earned her what can be her final Oscar nomination, and, later, she’d name it her favourite movie.
She additionally directed sometimes, with works together with an episode of “Twin Peaks,” a Belinda Carlisle music video, and the sister dramedy “Hanging Up,” which Nora Epron and Delia Ephron co-wrote, and through which she starred alongside Meg Ryan and Lisa Kudrow.
Keaton continued working steadily all through the 2000s, with notable roles in “The Household Stone,” as a dying matriarch reluctant to present her ring to her son, in “Morning Glory,” as a morning information anchor, and within the “E book Membership” movies.
She wrote a number of books as properly, together with memoirs “Then Once more” and “Let’s Simply Say It Wasn’t Fairly,” and an artwork and design e book, “The Home that Pinterest Constructed.”
Reuters contributed to this report.
