Diane Keaton, Oscar-winning star of Annie Hall and The Godfather, dies aged 79

 

Diane Keaton, Oscar-winning star of Annie Hall and The

 Godfather, dies aged 79

Stories All Online

Sat 11 Oct 2025 22:15 BST

Diane Keaton, one of the best-loved film stars of the past 50 years, has died at the

 age of 79 in California. The news was confirmed by People magazine. Further

 details are not available at this time, and her loved ones have asked for privacy,

 according to a family spokesperson. 

Her death came as a shock across Hollywood and the wider world. The legendary

 actor best known for her many collaborations with Woody Allen, as well as films

 including Reds, The First Wives Club, and Book Club, has died.

A life in film, style, and spirit: Early years and breakthrough

Born Diane Hall on January 5, 1946, in Los Angeles, she later adopted her mother’s

 maiden name, Keaton, as her stage name. 

She grew up among four children in a home that valued creativity, but also bore its

 struggles: her father worked as a civil engineer, while her mother was a homemaker

 who Keaton described later as her “heart of everything that was best.” 

Her earliest steps in performance were on stage. She appeared in the original 1968

 production of Hair on Broadway, and soon after was cast in Woody Allen’s play

 Play It Again, Sam, earning her a Tony nomination in 1971. 

That stage association with Allen would blossom into one of Hollywood’s most

 enduring creative partnerships.

Rise to stardom: The Godfather & Annie Hall

Keaton’s first major cinematic break came in Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather

 (1972), where she played Kay Adams, the young woman who becomes entwined

 with the Corleone family. 

She would reprise that role in The Godfather Part II and Part III. 

But her defining triumph arrived with Woody Allen’s Annie Hall (1977). In that role

 she captured the quirky, neurotic, intellectual woman — eccentric in fashion,

 vulnerable in love — and won the Academy Award for Best Actress. 

The character's style — often sporting a tie, wide trousers, turtlenecks and a bowler

 or fedora hat — became emblematic, and the phrase “La-dee-da, la-dee-da”

 entered movie lore. 

Her approach to roles was never safe. As the obituary in The Guardian notes: “Her

 keen self-deprecation, gift for comedy and distinctive dress sense – rarely seen

 without a hat, turtleneck or man’s tie and wide trousers – made her both highly

 unique and impossible to emulate.” 

A career of range and risk

Beyond her Allen and Coppola associations, Keaton’s filmography is wide-ranging.

 She earned Oscar nominations for Reds (1981), Marvin’s Room (1996), and

 Something’s Gotta Give (2003). 

In Reds, she played the journalist Louise Bryant opposite Warren Beatty, and in

 Something’s Gotta Give she brought warmth and wit opposite Jack Nicholson. 

On the dramatic side, she took on challenging, sometimes unlikable characters in

 films such as Looking for Mr. Goodbar, Shoot the Moon, and The Good Mother. 

In doing so, she demonstrated she was unafraid to delve into darker emotional

 territory.

Her collaborations with Woody Allen lasted eight films over decades, including

 Sleeper (1973), Love and Death (1975), Manhattan (1979), and Manhattan Murder

 Mystery (1993) — the latter a role she accepted (initially intended for Mia Farrow)

 despite the turbulence of the Allen–Farrow connection. 

In the wake of controversies surrounding Allen, Keaton remained a vocal supporter. 

Her comedic side resonated in hits like Baby Boom, Father of the Bride (and its

 sequels), The First Wives Club, and Book Club. 

In Book Club: The Next Chapter (2023), she continued to reflect on why she kept

 working:

“It gives me an opportunity to get to know more people in a different realm … It’s

 never dull, ever, life.” 

She was also passionate about life beyond film — she collected photography

 (especially of doors and abandoned shops, which she described poignantly: “life is

 haunting … things going up and down!”), lent her name to lifestyle products, and

 pursued real estate and homeware ventures. 

Her final screen appearance came in the 2024 comedy Summer Camp, which she

 also produced.

The personal side: motherhood, care, relationships

Keaton’s private life was as rich and sometimes as turbulent as her public one. In

 1996, she adopted a daughter, Dexter, named after Cary Grant’s character in The

 Philadelphia Story, and in 2001, adopted a son, Duke. 

She often remarked, “Motherhood has completely changed me … It’s just … the most

 completely humbling experience I’ve ever had.” 

Though she had high-profile relationships with the likes of Al Pacino and Warren

 Beatty, she never married. 

She was deeply involved in caring for her mother, who suffered from Alzheimer’s

 1993 until her death in 2008, and for her brother Randy, who battled mental health

 issues and passed away in 2021. 

She described her mother as “everything to me … the example for what you can do

 with life.” 

Her compassion extended outward: over the years she quietly supported causes,

 signed petitions, and maintained a generous, empathetic presence among

 colleagues.

Tributes, reactions & legacy

News of Keaton’s passing triggered an outpouring of grief and admiration from

 across the industry and beyond. 

Stars such as Bette Midler, Kimberly Williams-Paisley, Rosie O’Donnell, Elizabeth

 Perkins and Octavia Spencer paid public tribute, lauding her as a “national

 treasure,” a daring artist, a friend, and inspiration. 

Bette Midler described her as “brilliant, beautiful, extraordinary.” 

Elizabeth Perkins called her “a modern heroine… gutsy, fully self-deprecating but

 assured.” 

Octavia Spencer praised her as a “true original … a force of nature.” 

Ben Stiller tweeted: “One of the greatest film actors ever. An icon of style, humor

 and comedy.” 

Director Paul Feig called her “amazingly kind and creative … she has been taken

 from us far too soon.” 

Her influence as an actor, style icon, and trailblazer for nuanced female leads in

 Hollywood will be felt for decades.

Reflections on style, risk, and authenticity

Diane Keaton’s signature look—her bowler or fedora hat, turtleneck sweaters, wide

 trousers, and menswear touches—was not a costume, but a statement of identity.

 Even after her death, people remark on how “rarely seen without a hat, turtleneck

 or man’s tie.” Her aesthetic challenged norms of femininity and turned fashion into

 a personal signature.

Her self-deprecating humor and willingness to inhabit flawed, eccentric characters

 made her both intensely relatable and unrepeatable. She resisted being boxed in

 as just comedic or dramatic; she traversed both with confidence.

In interviews, she often returned to metaphors of movement and space. One she

 shared while promoting the Book Club sequel:

“It gives me an opportunity to get to know more people in a different realm. I love it.

 It’s all interesting. It’s never dull, ever, life.” 

And on her love of photographing doors:

“Life is haunting! You have an idea … what it should be, or what it could be. But it’s

 not that at all! It’s just things going up and down!” 

These lines reflect not just her creative vision, but her sensitivity to impermanence,

 beauty, and change.

Final performance, final notes

Her last film, Summer Camp (2024), marked a soft goodbye to her decades-long on-

screen presence. 

She also had an eclectic late-career presence: she released a Christmas single, First

 Christmas, in 2024; her final public social media post — in April 2025 — featured

 her golden retriever, Reggie, on National Pet Day, with a simple caption and a

 photo. 

She looked content in that last post — “happy, healthy,” some observed — offering,

 in retrospect, a gentle farewell. 

A life well-lived, a legacy immortal

Diane Keaton’s passing at 79 leaves a void in cinema, fashion, and the hearts of

 countless admirers. Her ability to make neuroses funny, heartbreak true, style

personal, and emotional risk accessible was rare. As The Guardian obituary put it:

 “An enduring and singular icon of cinema … her death came as a shock across

 Hollywood and the rest of the world.” 

She redefined what it meant to be a leading actress in Hollywood — not as simply

 glamorous, but as complex, stylish, fearless. She showed that women could lead

 comedies, dramas, ensemble pieces, and character studies — and do so on their

 own terms.

We will remember Diane Keaton not just for Annie Hall or The Godfather, but for a

 life that embraced art, identity, family, loss, reinvention, and wit. May her memory

 live on in her films, her style, and the countless artists she inspired.