Diane Keaton

Diane Keaton Hall (January 5, 1946 – October 11, 2025) was an American actress. Her career spanned more than five decades, during which she rose to prominence in the New Hollywood movement. She collaborated frequently with Woody Allen, appearing in eight of his films. Keaton's accolades include an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, and two Golden Globe Awards, along with nominations for two Emmy Awards and a Tony Award. She was honored with the Film at Lincoln Center Gala Tribute in 2007 and the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2017.

Keaton's career began on stage, acting in the ensemble of the original Broadway production of the musical Hair (1968) and the romantic interest in Woody Allen's comic play, Play It Again, Sam (1969), the latter of which earned her a nomination for a Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play. She made her screen debut with a small role in Lovers and Other Strangers (1970) before rising to prominence with her first major film role as Kay Adams in Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather (1972), a role she reprised in the sequels Part II (1974) and Part III (1990). She frequently collaborated with Allen establishing herself as a comic actress acting in the film adaptation of Play It Again, Sam (1972) followed by Sleeper (1973), Love and Death (1975), and Annie Hall (1977). The latter won her the Academy Award for Best Actress.

Keaton was also Oscar-nominated for her roles as activist Louise Bryant in the historical epic Reds (1981), a leukemia patient in the family drama Marvin's Room (1996), and a dramatist in the romantic comedy Something's Gotta Give (2003). She was known for her roles in dramatic films such as Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977), Interiors (1978), Shoot the Moon (1982), and Crimes of the Heart (1986), as well as comedic roles in Manhattan (1979), Baby Boom (1987), Father of the Bride (1991), its 1995 sequel, Manhattan Murder Mystery (1993), The First Wives Club (1996), The Family Stone (2005), Finding Dory (2016), Book Club (2018), and its 2023 sequel. As a filmmaker, she directed three films and a documentary, Heaven (1987).

On television, she portrayed Amelia Earhart in the TNT film Amelia Earhart: The Final Flight (1994), which earned her nominations for the Primetime Emmy Award, Golden Globe Award, and Screen Actors Guild Award, and later a nun in the HBO limited series The Young Pope (2016). Keaton was also known for her distinct style and was often labeled a fashion icon and wrote four books, including her memoir Then Again (2011).

Early life

Diane Hall was born on January 5, 1946, in Los Angeles to Dorothy Deanne (née Keaton; 1921–2008) and John Newton Ignatius "Jack" Hall (1922–1990), She was the eldest of their four children. Dorothy was a homemaker and amateur photographer; Jack was a real estate broker and civil engineer. Through his matriline, Jack was half-Irish. Keaton was raised a Free Methodist by her mother. Her mother won the "Mrs. Los Angeles" pageant for homemakers; Keaton said that the theatricality of the event inspired her first impulse to become an actress and ultimately her desire to work on stage. She also credited Katharine Hepburn, whom she admired for playing strong and independent women, as one of her inspirations.

Keaton was a 1963 graduate of Santa Ana High School in Santa Ana, California. During her time there, she participated in singing and acting clubs at school, and starred as Blanche DuBois in a school production of A Streetcar Named Desire. After graduation, she attended Santa Ana College and later Orange Coast College as an acting student, but dropped out after a year to pursue an entertainment career in Manhattan. After joining the Actors' Equity Association, she changed her surname to Keaton, which was her mother's maiden name, as there was already an actress registered under the name of Diane Hall. For a brief time she also moonlighted at nightclubs with a singing act. She revisited her nightclub act in Annie Hall (1977), And So It Goes (2014), and a cameo in Radio Days (1987).

Keaton began studying acting at the Neighborhood Playhouse in Midtown Manhattan, New York. She initially studied acting under the Meisner technique, an ensemble acting technique first evolved in the 1930s by Sanford Meisner, a New York stage actor, acting coach and director who had been a member of The Group Theater (1931–1940). She said that her acting technique was "only as good as the person you're acting with... As opposed to going it on my own and forging my path to create a wonderful performance without the help of anyone. I always need the help of everyone!" According to fellow actor Jack Nicholson, "She approaches a script sort of like a play in that she has the entire script memorized before you start doing the movie, which I don't know any other actors doing that."

Career

1968–1979: The Godfather films and stardom with Annie Hall

In 1968, Keaton became an understudy for the part of Sheila in the original Broadway production of Hair. She gained some notoriety for her refusal to disrobe at the end of Act I when the cast performs nude, even though nudity in the production was optional for actors (those who performed nude received a $50 bonus). After acting in Hair for nine months, she auditioned for a part in Woody Allen's production of Play It Again, Sam. After nearly being passed over for being too tall (at 5 ft 8 in (173 cm), she was 2 inches (5 cm) taller than Allen), she won the part. She went on to receive a Tony Award nomination for a Best Featured Actress in a Play for her performance in the play.

In 1970, Keaton appeared in a deodorant commercial for Hour After Hour. That same year, she made her film debut in Lovers and Other Strangers. She followed with guest roles on the television series Love, American Style; Night Gallery; and Mannix.

Keaton's breakthrough role came two years later when she was cast as Kay Adams, the girlfriend and eventual wife of Michael Corleone (played by Al Pacino) in Francis Ford Coppola's 1972 film The Godfather. Coppola noted that he first noticed Keaton in Lovers and Other Strangers, and cast her because of her reputation for eccentricity that he wanted her to bring to the role (Keaton claimed that at the time she was commonly referred to as "the kooky actress" of the film industry). Her performance in the film was loosely based on her real-life experience of making the film, both of which she described as being "the woman in a world of men." The Godfather was an unparalleled critical and financial success, becoming the highest-grossing film of the year and winning the 1972 Academy Award for Best Picture. She reprised her role as Kay Adams in The Godfather Part II (1974). She was initially reluctant, saying, "At first, I was skeptical about playing Kay again in the Godfather sequel. But when I read the script, the character seemed much more substantial than in the first film." In Part II, her character changed dramatically, becoming more embittered about her husband's criminal empire. Even though Keaton received widespread exposure from the films, some critics felt that her character's importance was minimal. Time wrote that she was "invisible in The Godfather and pallid in The Godfather Part II, but according to Empire magazine, Keaton "proves the quiet lynchpin which is no mean feat in [the] necessarily male dominated films."

Keaton's other notable films of the 1970s included many collaborations with Woody Allen. She played many eccentric characters in several of his comic and dramatic films, including Sleeper; Love and Death; Interiors; Manhattan; Manhattan Murder Mystery and the film version of Play It Again, Sam, directed by Herbert Ross. Allen credited Keaton as his muse during his early film career. In 1976, Keaton starred Off-Broadway in the world premier of the Israel Horovitz play Primary English Class at Circle in the Square Theatre. The New York Times review noted, "Keaton gives a delightful portrait of a woman sinking slowly out of control."