Accompanied by her beloved dog Reggie, Diane Keaton showed no sign of ill health as she promoted National Pet Day with Instagram followers in April. 

But it would prove to be her last post, with the legendary actress’ sudden death at the age of 79 confirmed by a family spokesperson on Saturday evening. 

While details were not immediately available, it was known that Keaton, a Hollywood icon whose numerous screen credits include Annie Hall, The Godfather and The First Wives Club, had retreated from public life over recent years. 

Indeed, her last public appearance came at Beverly Hills restaurant Mr. Chow more than a year ago, when she attended an exclusive dinner hosted by Thom Browne and Saks Fifth Avenue. 

Dressed in a smart check trouser suit, wide buckle belt and black suede Fedora, Keaton appeared to be on form as she raised a celebratory glass of wine while posing for photos alongside Browne. 

The event followed what would ultimately be her final red carpet appearance at New York Fashion Week in September 2023, with Keaton among the celebrity guests as Ralph Lauren unveiled its latest collection at Brooklyn Navy Yard. 

The following day, she was in the stands at Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York City as Coco Gauff took on Aryna Sabalenka at the 2023 US Open tennis tournament. 

‘She declined very suddenly, which was heartbreaking for everyone who loved her,’ a friend confirmed on Saturday. ‘It was so unexpected, especially for someone with such strength and spirit.

‘In her final months, she was surrounded only by her closest family, who chose to keep things very private. 

‘Even longtime friends weren’t fully aware of what was happening.’

Just nine months before her death, Keaton was seen shopping in Brentwood, close to the sprawling property she once vowed to live in long term. 

But three months later, the cherished ‘dream home’ was up for sale, a move that surprised many given her attachment to the property. 

The actress, who had a passion for interior design and property renovation, had even written a book about her beloved home, titled The House that Pinterest Built. 

After purchasing the home, she started a nearly decade-long project to renovate the house to her taste and preference. 

The extensive eight-year renovation was completed and she only moved in back in 2017. 

However, earlier this year, she put the property on the market and listed her bespoke five-bedroom, seven-bathroom mansion for $29 million. 

In the book she wrote about her home, she revealed that the inspiration to purchase that particular property was the famous children’s fable, The Three Little Pigs. 

She recalled her mother reading her the story when she was young and decided she wanted to live in the third pig’s indestructible home, which was ‘made of bricks.’ 

She wrote: ‘I knew I was going to live in a brick house when I grew up.’

In 2017, the same year she completed renovations and moved in, she did an interview with Wine Spectator.

However, she revealed she always had ‘an interest in homes’ but had always struggled with finding a place to ‘land and stay’ permanently. 

As for her final Los Angeles home with her own personally designed renovations, she said: ‘Something’s right, because I love it.’ 

For many years, the award-winning actress kept to a steady routine at her beloved home but had stopped going on daily walks with her precious pooch in the months leading up to her death, an insider told the outlet.

‘She lived in Brentwood for many years,’ the source said. ‘She loved her neighborhood.’

The source continued: ‘Up until just a few months ago, she’d walk her dog every day. She was usually dressed the same, with a hat and her signature sunglasses regardless of the weather.’ 

The source added: ‘She was always very nice, funny and chatty. She’d talk to her dog like he was a person. She was eccentric and had this old-school Hollywood aura. She was very, very special.’ 

As fans across the world continue to mourn Keaton’s death, the actress leaves behind an incredible fortune, understood to be in excess $100million.

As well as money earned through film, her property portfolio includes the Laguna Beach home she purchased for $7.5 million in 2004 and sold just two years later, for $12.75 million.

The actress also bought a home in Pacific Palisades for $5.6 million in 2012 and sold it in 2016 for $6.9 million, making another huge profit.

In addition, she purchased a home in Tucson, Arizona, home for $1.5 million in 2018 and flipped it for $2.6 million in 2020.

The late actress had two adopted children in her 50s, daughter Dexter and son Duke, whom she raised as a single mother. She never married so it’s likely her children will inherit the vast majority of her fortune.

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.

Her star-making performances in the 1970s, many of which were in Woody Allen films, were not a flash in the pan and she would continue to charm new generations for decades thanks in part to a longstanding collaboration with filmmaker Nancy Meyers.

She played a businessperson who unexpectedly inherits an infant in Baby Boom, the mother of the bride in the beloved remake of Father of the Bride, a newly single woman in The First Wives Club, and a divorced playwright who gets involved with Jack Nicholson’s womanizing music executive in Something’s Gotta Give.

Keaton won an Oscar for Annie Hal  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.’

Keaton was born Diane Hall in January 1946 in Los Angeles. Her mother was a homemaker and photographer, and her father was in real estate and civil engineering, and both would inspire her love in the arts, from fashion to architecture.

She was drawn to theater and singing while in school in Santa Ana, California, and she dropped out of college after a year to make a go of it in Manhattan. 

Actors´ Equity already had a Diane Hall in their ranks, and she took Keaton, her mother´s maiden name, as her own.

She studied under Sanford Meisner in New York and has credited him with giving her the freedom to “chart the complex terrain of human behavior within the safety of his guidance. It made playing with fire fun.”

She started on the stage as an understudy in the Broadway production for Hair, and in Allen´s Play It Again, Sam in 1968, for which she would receive a Tony nomination.

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

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, and the film version of Play it Again, Sam. The 1977 crime-drama Looking for Mr. Goodbar also earned her raves.

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.

Keaton and Allen were also in a romantic relationship, from about 1968, when she met him while auditioning for his play, until about 1974. Afterward they remained collaborators and friends.

‘He was so hip, with his thick glasses and cool suits,’ Keaton wrote in her memoir. ‘But it was his manner that got me, his way of gesturing, his hands, his coughing and looking down in a self-deprecating way while he told jokes.’

She was also romantically linked to Pacino, who played her husband in The Godfather, and Warren Beatty who directed her and whom she co-starred with in Reds.

In 1987 she began another long-standing collaboration with Nancy Meyers, which would result in four beloved films starting with Baby Boom, directed by Charles Shyer.

Their next team-up would be in the remake of Father of the Bride, which Shyer directed and co-wrote with Meyers. She and Steve Martin played the flustered parents to the bride which would become a big hit and spawn a sequel.

In 2003, Meyers would direct her in the romantic comedy “Something´s Gotta Give.” Her character Erica Barry, with her beautiful Hamptons home and ivory outfits was a key inspiration for the recent costal grandmother fashion trend. It earned her what would be her last Oscar nomination and, later, she´d call it her favorite film.

Keaton continued working steadily throughout the 2000s, with notable roles in The Family Stone, Morning Glory, and the Book Club films.

Keaton was celebrated with an AFI Life Achievement Award in 2017.

‘I feel like it´s the wedding I never had, or the big gathering I never had, or the retirement party I never had, or all these things that I always avoided – the big bash, she told the Associated Press. 

‘It´s really a big event for me and I´m really, deeply grateful.’