Film News
RIP To Veteran Hollywood Actress Diane Keaton
Goodbye To A Unique Hollywood Figure
Yesterday the sad news reached us that actress Diane Keaton, with a career than included the likes of The Godfather films and Woody Allen’s Annie Hall, has died at the age of 79. Here’s her obituary from our friends at The Hollywood Reporter…
Diane Keaton, who sparkled in her Oscar-winning turn as the titular quirky woman in Woody Allen’s Annie Hall and portrayed the outsider Kay Adams-Corleone in Francis Ford Coppola’s three Godfather films, has died. She was 79.
Her death in California was reported by People magazine. TMZ said an ambulance arrived at her home shortly after 8 a.m. Saturday and transported her to a hospital.
Keaton also starred as a playwright/mother who becomes involved with a nefarious womanizer (Jack Nicholson) in Something’s Gotta Give (2003), good for her fourth best actress Oscar nomination. She was nominated for her work as a writer-activist in Warren Beatty’s Reds (1981) and as a woman with leukemia in Marvin’s Room (1996) as well.
Keaton had an acclaimed performance as a Catholic school teacher who frequents singles bars in the dark Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977), starred in the thriller The Little Drummer Girl (1984) and co-starred with Jessica Lange and Sissy Spacek in the emotional Crimes of the Heart (1986).
She also played warm, off-center mothers in such comedies as Baby Boom (1987) and the two Father of the Bride films of 1991 and ’95 and delighted in The First Wives Club (1996), with Goldie Hawn and Bette Midler, and the two Book Club movies, with Jane Fonda, Candice Bergen and Mary Steenburgen, of 2018 and ’23.
Allen wrote the iconic, insecure “la-di-dah” role in Annie Hall (1977) specifically for her, based on their real-life romance. (In THR‘s original review, Arthur Knight said Keaton “has to be the consummate actress of our generation.”)
She also starred for Allen in the film version of Play It Again, Sam (1972), Sleeper (1973), Love and Death (1975), Interiors (1978), Manhattan (1979), Radio Days (1987) and Manhattan Murder Mystery (1993). The filmmaker credited her as his muse during a very important portion of his career.
With her idiosyncratic wardrobe in Annie Hall, complete with menswear, ties, vests, fedoras and baggy pants, she inspired a “look.” And she could sing; who doesn’t admire her silky rendition of “Seems Like Old Times” in the film.
Throughout her life and career, the treasured Keaton was a fun, adorable interview, charming everyone with her half-completed sentences, eruptive giggles and shy warbles.
courtesy of the Everett Collection
On the eve of Keaton accepting the American Film Institute’s Life Achievement Award in 2017, THR’s Sheri Linden praised the actress’ “singular mix of intellect and heart, innocence and yearning that has infused dozens of roles over the past 45 years.”
Her “self-questioning honesty, familiar to anyone who has seen her interviewed or read her memoirs, is also essential to her distinctive work as an actor, whether she’s spoofing it up in a wacky satire, bringing a historical figure to full-blooded life or exploring the recognizable challenges of parenthood and marriage.
“She doesn’t need to stake a claim on centre stage, even when she’s playing the title character — the immortal Annie Hall — in a movie that’s a valentine to her talent and spirit. She draws us in effortlessly.”
Asked by THR’s Mia Galuppo in a 2023 interview what makes a character one she would want to play, she replied: “It’s someone who has issues that are pulsing in her being. It’s also about the people, the actors and the directors [you work with]. It all depends.
“[Certain people] will let you be partially this or feel better about whatever you’re doing, as opposed to you worrying about how it’s all going to bear up. But I’ve been around a long time, and I still like it.”
Born Diane Hall — the oldest of four children — in Los Angeles on Jan. 5, 1946, she was inspired to become an actress by her mom, Dorothy, who was once named “Mrs. Los Angeles” in a pageant for homemakers. “I was a 6-year-old watching my mother in the Highland Park Theatre, which is still there, and I watched her win,” she said.
She performed in productions at Santa Ana College, and after a short stint at USC moved to New York, where she studied at The Neighborhood Playhouse under Sanford Meisner and changed her surname to Keaton (her mother’s maiden name) because another actress had that name.
Everyone at Tripwire offer our sincere condolences to her family and friends.
Read the whole article here.
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