LOS ANGELES – Diane Keaton, the beloved and unconventional actress who won an Oscar for her quirky, trendsetting role in “Annie Hall” and charmed audiences for over five decades in films from “The Godfather” to “Something’s Gotta Give,” has died. She was 79.
Her death was confirmed to CNN on Saturday by producer Dori Rath, who had worked with Keaton.
No cause of death has been made public at this time. A spokesperson for the Los Angeles Fire Department confirmed to CNN that paramedics responded to a call for medical assistance at Keaton’s home on Saturday morning and transported a person to a local hospital.
The news was first reported by People magazine. CNN’s requests for comment from Keaton’s representatives have not yet been returned.
Keaton was a prolific and celebrated force in Hollywood, a rare talent who moved seamlessly between screwball comedy and profound drama. Her career was launched into the stratosphere with her 1977 Academy Award-winning performance as the free-spirited, “La-Dee-Da” title character in Woody Allen’s “Annie Hall.” The role not only cemented her as a comedic powerhouse but also introduced the world to her inimitable, gender-nonconforming fashion sense. Her signature look of men’s vests, slacks, and bowler hats became an instant style phenomenon and a trademark she proudly maintained throughout her life.
While comedy was her home, Keaton delivered powerful dramatic performances, most notably as Kay Adams-Corleone, the long-suffering wife of Al Pacino’s Michael Corleone in Francis Ford Coppola’s masterpiece “The Godfather” and its sequels.
Born Diane Hall in Los Angeles in 1946, she was inspired to perform after seeing her mother, a homemaker, win a Mrs. Los Angeles pageant. After an early stage career that included a notable role in the original Broadway production of “Hair,” she broke into film with 1972’s “The Godfather.” Her on-screen and off-screen partnership with Woody Allen defined much of the 1970s, producing classics like “Sleeper” and “Play It Again, Sam.”
Her career never waned, with each decade bringing new iconic roles. In the 1980s, she starred opposite Warren Beatty in the epic “Reds,” earning another Oscar nomination, and delighted audiences in the working-mother comedy “Baby Boom” (1987). The 1990s saw her team up with Goldie Hawn and Bette Midler for the blockbuster revenge comedy “The First Wives Club” (1996), a smash hit that proved the box office power of mature female stars.
She earned two more Best Actress Oscar nominations later in her career: one for the 1996 family drama “Marvin’s Room” and another for the 2003 romantic comedy “Something’s Gotta Give,” opposite Jack Nicholson. More recently, she found new success with the “Book Club” films, starring alongside Jane Fonda, Candice Bergen, and Mary Steenburgen.
Keaton, who also directed and produced, never married. “I didn’t want to give up my independence,” she told Interview magazine in 2021, tracing the feeling back to watching her mother sacrifice her own dreams for her family.
In her 50s, she adopted two children, a daughter, Dexter, and a son, Duke, who survive her. Motherhood, she said, fundamentally changed her. “Before kids, if I worried, it was only about myself,” she told Life Magazine in 2005. “But that’s all you do is worry as a parent.”
Reflecting on life at 69, Keaton told AARP Magazine, “At this age, everything seems much more astonishing… There’s a magical aspect, a wonder, to being on this planet.” It was a wonder she shared with the world through a lifetime of unforgettable performances.
