1946–2025
Diane Keaton News: Oscar Winner Dies at Age 79
Oscar-winning actor Diane Keaton, known for her acclaimed performances in Annie Hall and The First Wives Club, died in California on October 11. She was 79 years old. The Los Angeles Fire Department confirmed their units responded to a call for medical assistance at Keaton’s home on Saturday and transported her to the hospital.
Keaton’s health had rapidly declined in recent months and she was surrounded by only her closest loved ones, People magazine reported. Her cause of death has not yet been made public.
Keaton had a storied career, taking on a number of roles that featured her unique style of comedy and androgynous fashion. The actor cemented her status as Hollywood’s quirky leading lady with Woody Allen’s 1977 film Annie Hall, for which she won an Academy Award for Best Actress in 1978.
After taking a dramatic turn in Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather franchise and Reds (1981), she starred in such notable comedies as 1991’s Father of the Bride with Steve Martin, and 1996’s The First Wives Club with Goldie Hawn and Bette Midler. That same year, Keaton co-starred with Meryl Streep in the family drama Marvin’s Room, before stunning audiences with her performances in the 2003 Nancy Myers comedy Something’s Gotta Give and the 2005 holiday drama The Family Stone.
Keaton went on to appear in a number of other films over the years, making a brief foray into television in 2016 with the mini-series The Young Pope. She made her final appearance in the 2024 film Summer Camp.
While Keaton never married, she was a mother to two children, whom she adopted in the late 1990s and early 2000s. She is survived by her daughter, Dexter, and her son, Duke.
Who Was Diane Keaton?
Diane Keaton was an Academy Award-winning actor known for her roles as a quirky leading lady. A versatile performer, the Los Angeles native shot to fame in the 1970s for her work in several Woody Allen films, including Annie Hall, which won her an Oscar for Best Actress. In addition to her comedic work in films like Father of the Bride, The First Wives Club and Something's Gotta Give, Keaton's decades-long career has included memorable dramatic roles in films such as The Godfather series, Reds and Marvin's Room. She died at age 79 in October 2025.
Quick Facts
FULL NAME: Diane Keaton
BORN: January 5, 1946
DIED: October 11, 2025
BIRTHPLACE: Los Angeles, California
CHILDREN: Dexter and Duke
ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Capricorn
Early Life and Career
Diane Hall was born on January 5, 1946, in Los Angeles, California, to Dorothy and Jack Hall. The oldest of four children, she was raised in Santa Ana with her siblings Randy, Dorrie, and Robin. Keaton graduated from the local high school in 1963. Having shown an early fondness for acting, she moved to New York City to study at the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre, a full-time conservatory. She eventually took on her mother’s maiden name, Keaton, to avoid confusion with a Diane Hall who was already in the Screen Actors Guild (SAG).
While not an overnight success, Keaton's talent earned notice. She eventually landed a spot in the original Broadway run of Hair (1968), in which she famously refused to take off her clothes during the finale, and then opposite Woody Allen in his Broadway production of Play It Again Sam, which earned Keaton a Tony Award nomination.
Movies and TV Shows
Oscar Win for Annie Hall
The Keaton-Allen relationship proved to be a fruitful one. As Allen made his mark as a director, Keaton was right there alongside him, starring in several of his films including Sleeper (1973), Manhattan (1979) and most famously, Annie Hall (1977), a love story that appeared to be an autobiographical look at Keaton and Allen's own off-screen romance. For her performance, Keaton earned an Academy Award for Best Actress.
The same year Keaton starred in Allen's Annie Hall, she also appeared in Richard Brooks' critically acclaimed drama Looking for Mr. Goodbar. Keaton played Theresa Dunn, a school teacher with low self-esteem who finds herself increasingly drawn into a promiscuous double-life that ultimately leads to her horrific demise.
The Godfather Franchise and Reds
Keaton also starred in director Francis Ford Coppola's Godfather series (1973, 1974 and 1990), playing Kay Adams, the girlfriend and eventual wife of Michael Corleone (Al Pacino). Then in 1981, she teamed up with Warren Beatty, with whom she was dating off-screen, in Reds (1981). The Academy Award-nominated epic, which followed at an American couple who adopt Communism and immigrate to Russia, earned Keaton another Oscar nomination for Best Actress.
Baby Boom
After a short string of less successful films in the early 1980s, Keaton bounced back with Baby Boom (1987), a comedy that portrayed the struggles of a working, single mom. Around this time, Keaton also began directing, including music videos for pop singer Belinda Carlisle, as well as several television projects, including a stint directing an episode of the David Lynch cult series Twin Peaks. In 1995, Keaton made her film directorial debut with Unstrung Heroes, starring Andie MacDowell and John Turturro.
Father of the Bride, The First Wives Club, and Marvin's Room
Comedies proved to be part of Keaton’s formula for success. In 1991 she appeared with Steve Martin in a remake of the Vincente Minnelli classic Father of the Bride, which also spawned a 1995 sequel.
She reteamed with Allen for 1993’s Manhattan Murder Mystery and later co-starred with Goldie Hawn and Bette Midler in 1996’s The First Wives Club, showcasing a trio of women taking control of their fortunes after dealing with philandering hubbies. First Wives was a smash, earning more than $181 million at the worldwide box office. a family drama centering on two alienated sisters for which Keaton received her third Oscar nod.
Something's Gotta Give and The Family Stone
Keaton continued to star in big-screen comedies including Town & Country (2001), in which she was reunited with Beatty, and Something's Gotta Give (2003), an over-50 romantic comedy directed by Nancy Meyers and co-starring Jack Nicholson and Keanu Reeves as her love interests. The hit film earned Keaton her fourth Best Actress Oscar nomination.
Not quite seeing herself as a celebrity, Keaton told CBS News' 48 Hours in February 2004 that she views herself as ordinary. “I'm like this person that was kind of not expected to do much of anything in life. And I feel like I'm very much an ordinary woman... Except, it turns out, I'm not. Because I had all these opportunities... And it's just amazing.”
Other big-screen projects of the decade included The Family Stone (2005), in which she played a free-thinking matriarch, and Mad Money (2008), a heist caper co-starring Queen Latifah and Katie Holmes.
And So It Goes and The Big Wedding
More comedies followed for Keaton with outings like The Big Wedding (2013) and And So It Goes (2014). She and Morgan Freeman played a loving couple looking to sell their Brooklyn home in 2015’s 5 Flights Up, and she appeared in the ensemble holiday flick Love the Coopers premiering later that year.
Book Club and Poms
As she grew older, Keaton embraced her age, choosing not to dye her hair and taking on age-appropriate roles. She starred as Sister Mary in HBO's 2016 mini-series The Young Pope before starring alongside Jane Fonda and Candice Bergen in 2018's Book Club, about four friends who find romance later in life after reading 50 Shades of Grey. The sequel, Book Club: The Next Chapter, came out in 2023.
In 2019, Keaton appeared in the film Poms, a romp about a group of women who from a cheerleading squad in their retirement community, and lent her voice to the animated series Green Eggs and Ham.
Maybe I Do and Summer Camp
In her later years, she landed roles in the romantic comedies Love, Weddings, and Other Disasters (2020) and Mack & Rita (2022) before starring in 2023's Maybe I Do with Richard Gere, William H. Macy, Emma Roberts, and Susan Sarandon. Her final appearance was in the 2024 comedy Summer Camp, which followed a group of best friends who reunite at their childhood summer camp.
Personal Life and Children
Outside of acting, Keaton demonstrated a passion for photography, architecture and building preservation. She was a member of America's National Trust for Historic Preservation and has rehabbed several buildings in her home city of Los Angeles. Keaton was also known for her distinctive attire, crafting a series of looks over the years that blend eclectic bohemianism with more tailored sensibilities.
Her romantic life was also the subject of significant media talk. She had relationships with Woody Allen and leading men like Warren Beatty, Jack Nicholson, and Al Pacino. Keaton was also the mother of two adopted children. In 1996, she adopted her daughter, Dexter, who born in December 1995. Five years later, in 2001, Keaton adopted her son, Duke, who was born the previous February.
Keaton remained unmarried throughout her life, describing only one person as the “love of my life”—her highly supportive mother, Dorothy, who passed away in 2008. She detailed her life with her mom as well as other family and career remembrances in the 2011 bestselling memoir Then Again. This was followed by another bestselling memoir in 2014 focusing on society’s obsessions with looks—Let’s Just Say It Wasn’t Pretty.
Death
Keaton died in Los Angeles on October 11, 2025. Her cause of death has not been made public. She is survived by her children, Dexter and Duke.
Net Worth
At the time of her death in October 2025, Keaton had an estimated net worth of $100 million, according to Celebrity Net Worth.
Quotes
- I think that people who are famous tend to be underdeveloped in their humanity skills.
- To have a child, you've got to stop messing around.
- Being in love, brought out the worst in me. The thing for me with men has probably always been How much do they love me? As opposed to How much do I love them?
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