Diane Keaton Amy Sussman/Getty Images Share on Facebook Share on X Share to Flipboard Send an Email Show additional share options Share on LinkedIn Share on Pinterest Share on Reddit Share on Tumblr Share on Whats App Print the Article Post a Comment Diane Keaton, who won an Academy Award for best actress for her portrayal of the titular quirky character in Annie Hall and portrayed Kay Adams-Corleone in the three Godfather films, has died. She was 79. Her death in California was reported by People magazine. Further details were not immediately available. 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 also was nominated for her work in Reds (1981) and Marvin's Room (1996). Related Stories Music Fede Dorcaz, Argentine Singer, Dies at 29 in Motorcycle Drive-By Shooting in Mexico City Music John Lodge, Longtime Moody Blues Bassist, Dies at 82 Keaton had an acclaimed turn 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 three Father of the Bride films and sparkled in The First Wives Club (1996) and the two Book Club movies. Woody Allen wrote the role in Annie Hall (1977) specifically for her, based on their real-life romance. She also starred for him in the film version of Play It Again, Sam (1972), Sleeper (1973) Love and Death (1975), Interiors (1978), Manhattan (1979) and Radio Days (1987). Allen credited her as his muse during that portion of his career. With her idiosyncratic wardrobe in Annie Hall, complete with fedora hat and baggy pants, she inspired a "look." Early in her career, Keaton was a charismatic, adorable talk-show guest, charming viewers with her half-completed sentences, eruptive giggles and shy warbles. On the eve of Keaton accepting the American Film Institute's Lifetime Achievement Award in 2017, THR's Sheri Linden wrote that the actress' "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 center 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 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 in Los Angeles on Jan. 5, 1946, she studied drama at Santa Ana College and was inspired to become an actress by her mother, who was once named "Mrs. Los Angeles" in a pageant for homemakers. "I was a 6-year-old watching my mother in Highland Park Theatre, which is still there, and I watched her win," she said. MIA She performed in stock company productions at Santa Ana College, and after a short stint at USC, moved to New York City, where she studied at The Neighborhood Playhouse under Sanford Meisner and changed her surname to Keaton because another actress had the name. (Subsequently, a young actor, inspired by her name change, changed his name from Michael Douglas to Michael Keaton.) Her first professional role came in 1968 was as a replacement in the original Broadway production of Hair, though it was said she refused to disrobe during the performances. After nine months in the musical, she auditioned for Allen's Play It Again, Sam and earned a Tony nomination. She said a big milestone for her was getting a 1970 commercial for Hour After Hour deodorant. "That was the biggest job I ever had at the time," she said. "That sealed the deal. I would be nervous, anxious, try to work and then do the job. It got more and more normal." Keaton made her motion picture debut in Lovers and Other Strangers in 1970 before being cast as Michael Corleone's (Al Pacino) WASP girlfriend in The Godfather (1972). "She played a non-Sicilian in a Mafia clan, a Baptist among Catholics, a woman in a man's world, an outsider looking in," Linden noted. Getting cast by Francis Ford Coppola made her "terrified," she said. "I didn't understand why me," she told Galuppo. "I mean, I went up to the audition. I didn't even really - I hadn't read it. See, this is bad