Diane Keaton has died in California at the age of 79.
Her filmography includes more than 60 titles including eight Woody Allen films, The First Wives Club, The Godfather saga, Reds and Father of the Bride, but it was her lead actress role in Annie Hall that won her an Oscar in 1977.
Keaton, who never married, is survived by the two children she adopted when she was in her 50s, daughter Dexter and son Duke.
Goldie Hawn says her First Wives Club co-star Diane Keaton left 'memories beyond imagination'
"We aren’t ready to lose you. We agreed to grow old together, and one day, maybe live together with all our girlfriends. Well, we never got to live together, but we did grow older together. Who knows… maybe in the next life. Shine your fairy dust up there, girlfriend. I’m going to miss the hell out of you,” Hawn wrote on Instagram.
Another of the movie's leading trio, Bette Midler, says she's 'unbearably sad' at her death and “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.”
I will always remember how incredibly generous she was with her time on and off camera and her warmth and how genuine she was shows in this chat. You always remember the good ones and she definitely was one of them!
Hampstead is a romance tale about a widow (Diane Keaton) who is introduced to a man (Brendan Gleeson) living largely in nature. When developers want to destroy his home because of the land he lives on, she helps him fight to maintain his unique way of life.
Steve Martin, who portrayed Keaton’s husband in 1991’s Father of the Bride and the sequel, paid tribute online sharing a clip from Interview Magazine, which has Martin Short asking Keaton, “Who’s sexier, me or Steve Martin?” Her reply: “I mean, you’re both idiots.” In a caption, Martin said, “it sums up our delightful relationship with Diane.”
Reese Witherspoon also gave tribute to Keaton while on stage at an event in Los Angeles today, addressing a crowd saying, “She really took the time to pull me aside and say, ‘Stand up straight, okay?’ I want you to have good posture. If you’re gonna be an actress, you gotta work on your posture, okay?’ And I was like, ‘Okay, Miss Keaton,’” she recalled.
"It’s hard to believe...or accept…that Diane has passed. She was always a spark of life and light, constantly giggling at her own foibles, being limitlessly creative…in her acting, her wardrobe, her books, her friends, her homes, her library, her world view. Unique is what she was. And, though she didn’t know it or wouldn’t admit it, man she was a fine actress!" wrote Jane Fonda who co-starred with Keaton in Book Club and its sequel Book Club: The Next Chapter
Cynthia Nixon co-starred in the 2014 film 5 Flights Up with Keaton and said, "When I was a kid, Diane Keaton was my absolute idol. I loved her acting. I loved her vibe. I loved her everything. Starting with when I was 12, I tried to dress like her. I wore my hair long. I sported men’s hats and vests and (even though my eyes were fine) I wore bookish glasses because I thought they made me look more like her. A little more than a decade ago I got to be in a movie called Five Flights Up with her and it was like a dream come true. I was very shy around her, but I think she liked me and that meant everything to me."
Keaton's death was first reported by People magazine and a spokesperson for the Los Angeles Fire Department told CNN that they received a call for medical assistance this morning at Keaton’s address and paramedics transferred a person to a hospital. The law enforcement source confirmed the person transported was Keaton.
The cause of death was not immediately available.
