Diane Keaton, the Hollywood legend known for Annie Hall and The Godfather, has died at the age of 79.
The news was confirmed by a family spokesperson in a statement to People, in which they asked for privacy at this time. No details about the cause of death have been provided.
Keaton won an Oscar for her performance in the title role of Woody Allen’s Annie Hall in 1977 and was nominated three more times, for Reds (1981), Marvin’s Room (1996) and Something’s Gotta Give (2003).
Known as a master of both comedy and drama, she landed an early role as Kay Adams-Corleone, the wife of Al Pacino’s Michael Corleone, in Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather. The same year, she starred in Play It Again, Sam, opposite Allen, with whom she would make a total of eight feature films, including Manhattan, Sleeper and Love And Death.
Keaton was born on January 5, 1946 in Los Angeles and studied drama at the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York, where she began performing on stage. She gained notice in the 1968 Broadway production of Hair and made her screen debut in 1970’s Lovers And Other Strangers.
After winner the Oscar for Annie Hall, she pivoted to more serious work, including playing the feminist and political activist Louise Bryant in Warren Beatty’s Reds and a leukemia patient in Marvin’s Room.
She continued to show off her comic talents, in titles such as The First Wives Club, Baby Boom, Father Of The Bride and Something’s Gotta Give and found success later in her career with Morning Glory, Book Club and Hampstead.
Keaton also directed the video for Belinda Carlisle’s ‘Heaven Is A Place On Earth’ in 1987, the same year as her directorial debut film Heaven was released, a documentary about the afterlife.
She is survived by her adopted daughter Dexter and son Duke.
