(Exclusive) “IT WAS A MENTAL ILLNESS” The TRAGIC cause of Diane Keaton’s D.E.A.T.H WAS REVEALED, America was SH0CKED
The actress’ legendary career also included other films like Annie Hall, Something’s Gotta Give and The Godfather.
Diane Keaton has died. She was 79.
PEOPLE can confirm the legendary actress died in California on Saturday, Oct. 11. “There are no further details available at this time, and her family has asked for privacy in this moment of great sadness,” a spokesperson says.
The Los Angeles Fire Department confirms they responded to Keaton’s home at 8:08 a.m. local time and transported a 79-year-old woman to a local hospital.
Keaton rose to fame in the 1970s thanks to her role in The Godfather films and her collaborations with director Woody Allen. She won an Oscar for Best Actress for 1977’s Annie Hall. Her long career included movies like The First Wives Club, multiple collaborations with director Nancy Meyers and the Book Club franchise.
The actress was born in Los Angeles in 1946 as Diane Hall, and was the oldest of four children. Her father was a civil engineer, while her mom stayed at home.
Still, Keaton thought her mother dreamed of something bigger. “Secretly in her heart of hearts she probably wanted to be an entertainer of some kind,” the actress said in 2004. “She sang. She played the piano. She was beautiful. She was my advocate.”
Keaton performed in plays in high school, and after graduating in 1964, she pursued drama in college. But she soon dropped out and moved to New York to try to make her way in theater. She took her mother’s maiden name, Keaton, for her professional name, because there was already a Diane Hall registered with Actors’ Equity.
In 1968, Keaton was cast in Broadway’s Hair as the understudy for Sheila. In 2017, Keaton said that she struggled with bulimia during this time after the director of the show told her she needed to lose weight, though she didn’t blame him for her illness. “Believe me, it had to do with an overabundant need for more. Too much. It was a mental illness,” she said.
“I became a master at hiding. Hiding any evidence — how do you make sure no one knows? You live a lifestyle that is very strange. You’re living a lie,” she explained about her illness. She eventually recovered thanks to therapy, but said bulimia also robbed her of the ability to enjoy her time on Broadway.
Next, Keaton starred in Allen’s Broadway show Play It Again, Sam, which premiered in 1969. She received a Tony nomination for the role.
Her film debut was in 1970’s Lovers and Other Strangers, but her big break came when Francis Ford Coppola cast her as Kay Adams, the girlfriend of Al Pacino’s Michael Corleone, in The Godfather, released in 1972. The movie was based on the novel by Mario Puzo but Keaton didn’t read the bestseller before her audition and didn’t really know what the film was about.
“I think the kindest thing that someone’s ever done for me … is that I got cast to be in The Godfather and I didn’t even read it. I didn’t know a single thing,” she said in 2022. “I just was going around auditioning.”
The film was a massive success and won Best Picture at the Oscars. Keaton reprised her role in 1974’s The Godfather Part II and returned for 1990’s The Godfather Part III.
Keaton also continued to collaborate with Allen, appearing in Play It Again, Sam, Sleeper (1973) and Love and Death (1975). Despite her early success, Keaton’s insecurities still plagued her, and she would never watch her own films. “I just don’t like the way I look and sound,” she said in 1975.
In 1977, Keaton starred in Allen’s Annie Hall as the title character. She won the Oscar for Best Actress for the role. Annie’s wardrobe mimicked Keaton’s own, full of menswear, vests, and structured trousers, and the film cemented the actress’s place as a style icon.
Many speculated that the movie was based on Keaton and Allen’s relationship. “It’s not true, but there are elements of truth in it,” she said in 1977.
Keaton would collaborate with Allen again in Interiors (1978), Manhattan (1979) and Manhattan Murder Mystery (1993). She also defended Allen in the wake of allegations from his stepdaughter Dylan Farrow. “I love him,” she said in 2014.
Keaton’s other film roles included Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977), Reds (1981), Shoot the Moon (1982) and The Little Drummer Girl (1984). She worked with Nancy Meyers for the first time on 1987’s Baby Boom. They would reunite in Father of the Bride (1991), Father of the Bride Part II (1995) and Something’s Gotta Give (2003), which garnered another Oscar nomination for Keaton. Asked which of these projects she loved the most, Keaton said in 2020, “Honestly, you can think it’s sappy, but I love the Father of the Bride movies.”
She starred with Goldie Hawn and Bette Midler in 1996’s The First Wives Club. Later roles for Keaton included The Family Stone, Because I Said So, Finding Dory, Book Club (and its sequel) and Poms. She made a rare TV appearance with a starring role in HBO’s 2016 miniseries The Young Pope. Keaton also worked as a director, helming the 1987 documentary Heaven, 2000’s Hanging Up and an episode of Twin Peaks.
In 2021 Keaton starred in Justin Bieber’s music video “Ghost.” She was also a prolific Instagram user, posting updates on her life, reflections on her career and friendships and praising those she loved.
Looking back on her career, Keaton said in 2019, “I don’t know anything, and I haven’t learned. Getting older hasn’t made me wiser. Without acting I would have been a misfit.”
Keaton never married. “I’m really glad I didn’t get married. I’m an oddball,” she said in 2019. She was romantically linked to Allen, Pacino and Warren Beatty over the years. “Talent is so damn attractive,” she noted.
Keaton had two children, daughter Dexter and son Duke, whom she adopted in 1996 and 2001, respectively. “Motherhood was not an urge I couldn’t resist, it was more like a thought I’d been thinking for a very long time. So I plunged in,” she said.
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