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Legendary actress Diane Keaton has died at the age of 79.
There are no further details at this time and her family has requested privacy, a spokesperson told People magazine, which first reported the news.
Keaton was the kind of actor who helped make films iconic and timeless, from her “La-dee-da, la-dee-da” phrasing as Annie Hall, bedecked in that necktie, bowler hat, vest and khakis, to her heartbreaking turn as Kay Adams, the woman unfortunate enough to join the Corleone family in The Godfather.
Her star-making performances in the 1970s, many of which were in Woody Allen films, were not a flash in the pan either, and she would continue to charm new generations for decades thanks in part to a longstanding collaboration with filmmaker Nancy Meyers.
Keaton won her first Oscar for Annie Hall and would go on to be nominated three more times, for Reds, Marvin’s Room and Something’s Gotta Give.
In her very Keaton way, upon accepting her Oscar in 1978 she laughed and said, “This is something.”
Bette Midler, who starred with Keaton in The First Wives Club, paid tribute in a post on Instagram: “The brilliant, beautiful, extraordinary Diane Keaton has died. I cannot tell you how unbearably sad this makes me.
“She was hilarious, a complete original, and completely without guile, or any of the competitiveness one would have expected from such a star. What you saw was who she was…oh, la, lala!”
Octavia Spencer remembered Keaton as “[not] just an actress: she was a force. a woman who showed us that being yourself is the most powerful thing you can be”.
“From Annie Hall to Something’s Gotta Give, she made every role unforgettable. But beyond the screen, she brought joy, laughter, and style that was all her own. Thank you, Diane, for reminding us that authenticity never goes out of fashion,” Spencer’s tribute read.
Keaton was born Diane Hall in January 1946 in Los Angeles, though her family was not part of the film industry she would find herself in.
Her mother was a homemaker and photographer, and her father was in real estate and civil engineering.
Keaton made her film debut in the 1970 romantic comedy Lovers and Other Strangers, but her big breakthrough would come a few years later when she was cast in Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather, which won best picture and become one of the most beloved films of all time.
And yet even she hesitated to return for the sequel, though after reading the script she decided otherwise.
The 1970s were an incredibly fruitful time for Keaton thanks in part to her ongoing collaboration with Allen in both comedic and dramatic roles.
She appeared in Sleeper, Love and Death, Interiors, Manhattan, Manhattan Murder Mystery and the film version of Play it Again, Sam.
Allen and the late Marshall Brickman gave Keaton one of her most iconic roles in Annie Hall, the infectious woman from Chippewa Falls whom Allen’s Alvy Singer cannot get over.
The film is considered one of the great romantic comedies of all time, with Keaton’s eccentric, self-deprecating Annie at its heart.
– Reported with Associated Press