Diane Keaton, whose legendary career spanned decades and included iconic films like The Godfather and crowd pleasers like The First Wives Club, has died.
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PEOPLE confirmed the 79-year-old actress’s death in California. No further details were immediately available, with a family spokesperson requesting privacy.
She is survived by her two children, daughter Dexter (29) and son Duke (25).
Keaton rose to fame in the 1970s for her roles in The Godfather films and collaborations with director Woody Allen. Born Diane Hall, she won an Oscar for Best Actress for 1977’s Annie Hall.
Keaton was born on Jan. 5, 1946, in Los Angeles. She studied acting at Santa Ana College before moving to New York City to train at the Neighborhood Playhouse, where she developed her passion for performance.
Keaton made her stage debut in the original 1968 Broadway cast of Hair. Her charisma and unique charm were immediately apparent.
Her first film role came two years later in Lovers and Other Strangers, but it was The Godfather in 1972 that launched her to stardom. As Kay Adams-Corleone, the conflicted wife of Al Pacino’s Michael Corleone, Keaton became a key part of one of cinema’s greatest sagas, reprising the role in both sequels.
Her career soared in 1977 with Annie Hall. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress, solidifying her status as a compelling and relatable star. “Of course, my favorite is the obvious one,” she once told PEOPLE about her Oscar-winning turn. “Woody didn’t know if it would work. He didn’t trust it — he’d say, ‘It’s just another sitcom.'”
Diane Keaton Also Enjoyed a Career as a Writer and Photographer
Over the next decades, Keaton showed her versatility. She gave a fierce performance in Warren Beatty’s Reds (they also had a five-year romance). She then delivered a warm, comedic turn in Baby Boom, playing a career woman whose life changes with sudden motherhood.
Keaton enjoyed success through the ’90s and 2000s with popular Nancy Meyers films like Father of the Bride and Something’s Gotta Give, starring alongside Jack Nicholson.
Off-screen, Keaton adopted two children, Dexter and Duke, in her 50s. She never married, despite high-profile relationships with Woody Allen, Warren Beatty, Al Pacino, and Jack Nicholson. Keaton stated she valued the freedom of living life on her own terms.
She published the bestselling memoirs Then Again (2011), Let’s Just Say It Wasn’t Pretty (2015), and Brother and Sister (2020). Since the 1970s, she was also an avid photographer, with her work collected in Reservations, and she edited several photo collections. Additionally, she was active in preserving historic houses.
In 2017, Keaton was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Film Institute.