Diane Keaton, ‘Annie Hall’ star and rom-com legend, dies at 79

Academy Award-winning actress Diane Keaton has died at age 79, according to representatives.

Rizzoli, the publishing company for Keaton’s recent book on fashion, confirmed her passing to the Washington Post. People magazine first reported Keaton’s death, saying she died Saturday in her home state of California. The outlet quoted a spokesperson saying there were no further details available and that the family had asked for privacy.

“She was herself at all times and in all ways: extremely thoughtful, very funny, generous to a fault, always energetically hardworking, and just plain true to people in the best possible ways,” Rizzoli publisher and editorial director Charles Miers wrote in a statement. ” … We are so honored to have worked with her, proud of the books we still have but so sad not to be working on another with her and her contagious enthusiasm.”

Keaton may be best known for her 1977 starring role in the romantic comedy classic “Annie Hall,” directed by and co-starring Woody Allen. The two were frequent creative partners, and dated for a few years when they worked on the Broadway show “Play It Again, Sam” earlier in their careers.

“Ostensibly, ‘Annie Hall’ is a fictionalized account of that affair, a story of how acquaintances evolve into lovers and then friends,” Post film critic Gary Arnold wrote in a so-so review of the movie. The lead characters, he wrote, “are interesting only insofar as they can be confused with Allen and Keaton.”

Keaton won an Academy Award for the performance, and her career expanded far beyond Allen’s orbit. She played Kay Adams-Corleone in 1972’s “The Godfather” and its sequels, probably the most celebrated mob trilogy of all time. Al Pacino played her husband in the movies, and the two had an on-and-off relationship spanning roughly 15 years.

Rom-coms remained a Keaton specialty. She starred alongside Steve Martin in the hit 1991 comedy “Father of the Bride” and its sequel. In 2003, she earned her fourth and final Academy Award nomination for “Something’s Gotta Give,” starring as a love interest for Jack Nicholson’s misguided womanizer. She lost the Oscar to Charlize Theron.

Keaton was also something of a fashion icon. “She’s so Diane Keatonish,” Stephanie Mansfield wrote for the Post in 1987, “in her Three Blind Mice tortoiseshell sunglasses, black-and-white polka-dot scarf nervously knotted at the neck, black peplum jacket and long, skinny shirred skirt that resembles a balloon shade.”

She published a book last year about her signature styles, “Fashion First.” In an interview, Keaton told the Post she had “cultivated my creativity” by going thrifting at Goodwill with her mother.

Keaton was born Diane Hall in Los Angeles and graduated from Santa Ana High School. She told NPR she was inspired to become an actress after watching the theatricality of the “Mrs. Los Angeles” beauty pageant, which her mother won. She attended Santa Ana College and Orange Coast College before moving to New York to pursue her entertainment career. She joined the Actors’ Equity Association using her mother’s maiden name, Keaton, because another Diane Hall was already in the union for theatrical performers.

Her A-list relationships made entertainment headlines for decades. Besides Pacino and Allen, Keaton dated Warren Beatty, who played her lover in the 1981 film “Reds.” While Beatty and Keaton’s real-life relationship didn’t last, they remained longtime friends.

Keaton never married but adopted two children when she was in her 50s: her daughter Dexter in 1996 and her son Duke in 2001.