Diane Keaton, who remained one of Hollywood’s quirkiest and most beloved actors decades after her Academy Award-winning performance in the movie Annie Hall, has died aged 79.
Diane Keaton, who remained one of Hollywood’s quirkiest and most beloved actors decades after her Academy Award-winning performance in the movie Annie Hall, has died aged 79.
Her film producer confirmed her death to NPR Saturday.
When I met Keaton for an interview in 2014, she was sporting her trademark look: a bowler hat, tinted glasses and oversized clothes.
«Clothing that actually hides the body», she half-joked. «There’s a lot to hide in my case, so I’m the only remaining person on Earth with this particular look.»
Keaton was really something of a fashionista, inspiring generations of women with her unconventional lifestyle. Onscreen, she was known for playing endearing, unique and sometimes eccentric characters.
In one of her memoirs, Keaton wrote about aging and love in Hollywood and becoming a parent late in life. She was also upfront about some of her insecurities; she fretted about aging, her hair thinning, her eyes drooping. But Keaton told me that later in life, she had finally come to accept that all flaws are beautiful.
«I feel that wrong can be right. It can be right in a lot of ways», she said. «So all those things that you’re disappointed with in yourself can work for you.»
She was born Diane Hall in Los Angeles in 1946, the daughter of real estate broker and civil engineer Jack Hall. Her mother Dorothy was once crowned Mrs. Los Angeles.
Keaton said her mom cheered her on as she pursued her dreams of becoming a singer and performer in New York. After studying at the Neighborhood Playhouse in the 1960’s, Keaton ended up an understudy in the original Broadway production of the rock musical Hair.
