Hollywood’s quirky main woman, Diane Keaton, dies aged 79 : NPR

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Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP Diane Keaton, who remained one in every of Hollywood's quirkiest and most beloved actors many years after her Academy Award-winning efficiency within the film Annie Corridor, has died aged 79.

Her movie producer confirmed her dying to NPR Saturday.

After I met Keaton for an interview in 2014, she was sporting her trademark look: a bowler hat, tinted glasses and outsized garments.

"Clothes that really hides the physique," she half-joked. "There's so much to cover in my case, so I am the one remaining individual on Earth with this specific look."

Keaton was actually one thing of a fashionista, inspiring generations of girls along with her unconventional life-style. Onscreen, she was identified for enjoying endearing, distinctive and typically eccentric characters.

In one in every of her memoirs, Keaton wrote about growing older and love in Hollywood and changing into a guardian late in life. She was additionally upfront about a few of her insecurities; she fretted about growing older, her hair thinning, her eyes drooping. However Keaton advised me that later in life, she had lastly come to just accept that every one flaws are lovely.

"I really feel that flawed may be proper. It may be proper in plenty of methods," she stated. "So all these issues that you simply're upset with in your self can be just right for you."

<img src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/3000x2000+0+0/resize/1100/quality/50/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F6a%2F7f%2Feb06ae684aaea3bd954da9ac502d%2Fap25284764143900.jpg" data-template="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/3000x2000+0+0/resize/{width}/quality/{quality}/format/{format}/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F6a%2F7f%2Feb06ae684aaea3bd954da9ac502d%2Fap25284764143900.jpg" class="img" alt="FILE - Oscar winners Charles H. Joffe, winner of best picture for "Annie Hall," left, and Diane Keaton, winner of best actress for "Annie Hall," poses with presenter Jack Nicholson, and producer Jack Rollins at the Academy Awards in Los Angeles on April 3, 1978. (AP Photo, File)" loading="lazy"/> FILE - Oscar winners Charles H. Joffe, winner of finest image for "Annie Corridor," left, and Diane Keaton, winner of finest actress for "Annie Corridor," poses with presenter Jack Nicholson, and producer Jack Rollins on the Academy Awards in Los Angeles on April 3, 1978. Uncredited/AP cover caption

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Uncredited/AP She was born Diane Corridor in Los Angeles in 1946, the daughter of actual property dealer and civil engineer Jack Corridor. Her mom Dorothy was as soon as topped Mrs. Los Angeles.

Keaton stated her mother cheered her on as she pursued her goals of changing into a singer and performer in New York. After finding out on the Neighborhood Playhouse within the 1960's, Keaton ended up an understudy within the authentic Broadway manufacturing of the rock musical Hair.

"It was wild. It was sudden," she stated. "However I might see that I actually wasn't a hippie. I knew that I wasn't a hippie in Hair."

Keaton famously refused to go onstage nude for the ultimate scene of Hair.

Then, alongside got here Woody Allen, with whom she had a romantic relationship. Allen solid her in Play It Once more, Sam, his play, then his film. Additionally his movie comedies Sleeper, Love and Demise, Manhattan, and, in fact, Annie Corridor.

Keaton's kooky, quirky position as Annie Corridor and her "lah-de-dah" allure gained her a finest actress Oscar in 1978. She thanked Woody Allen in her acceptance speech and later, for her complete profession. She stood by him all through the controversy over allegations that Allen as soon as molested his daughter, which the director denies.

"That is by no means going to alter," Keaton stated of her assist for Allen. "He is my very, superb buddy."

In Annie Corridor, Keaton confirmed off her comedy and singing chops. However she additionally had dramatic movie roles, most famously in The Godfather trilogy. Her character marries into the Corleone mafia household.

Her Godfather costar, Al Pacino, was one in every of her boyfriends in actual life. One other of her actual life loves, Warren Beatty, directed her in his 1981 movie Reds.

<img src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/3112x2156+0+0/resize/1100/quality/50/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F6c%2Fff%2F59730a194bdf84efcf6f81809a3a%2Fap25284737521700.jpg" data-template="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/3112x2156+0+0/resize/{width}/quality/{quality}/format/{format}/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F6c%2Fff%2F59730a194bdf84efcf6f81809a3a%2Fap25284737521700.jpg" class="img" alt="FILE - Filmmaker Woody Allen, left, greets actress Diane Keaton onstage to present her with the 45th AFI Life Achievement Award on June 8, 2017, in Los Angeles." loading="lazy"/> FILE - Filmmaker Woody Allen, left, greets actress Diane Keaton onstage to current her with the forty fifth AFI Life Achievement Award on June 8, 2017, in Los Angeles. Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP cover caption

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Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP Within the historic drama about journalist John Reed, Keaton performed his love curiosity, activist Louise Bryant.

"I liked her place in life," Keaton stated of her character, which she stated performed second fiddle to Reed (performed by Beatty.) "And he or she needed to be nice. She needed greatness in her. And combating for herself, and failing and failing. I liked her for that. I liked her for her flaws. She was a troublesome one who wasn't very likable, but I liked her."

Jack Nicholson was additionally in Reds. He teamed up with Keaton once more in 2003 for the comedy One thing's Gotta Give. In that film, Keaton additionally performed reverse Keanu Reeves.

Diane Keaton by no means married, although in movies, she was one of many only a few older American actresses who nonetheless obtained main romantic roles. That was one thing actress Carol Kane, Keaton's long-term buddy, raved about on the time.

"She's enjoying the love curiosity so much," Kane stated. "You understand, type of passionately kissing and swooping into the bed room…at an age when most individuals simply form of say, 'OK, properly, that half is over.' I imply, she simply will get an increasing number of lovely as a result of she's an increasing number of herself."

<img src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/3250x2258+0+0/resize/1100/quality/50/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Ff8%2F4e%2Fcc7f348f4a5297e741014b355cf3%2Fap23129147763809.jpg" data-template="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/3250x2258+0+0/resize/{width}/quality/{quality}/format/{format}/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Ff8%2F4e%2Fcc7f348f4a5297e741014b355cf3%2Fap23129147763809.jpg" class="img" alt="Diane Keaton attends the premiere of "Book Club: The Next Chapter" at AMC Lincoln Square on Monday, May 8, 2023, in New York." loading="lazy"/> Diane Keaton attends the premiere of "Guide Membership: The Subsequent Chapter" at AMC Lincoln Sq. on Monday, Might 8, 2023, in New York. Evan Agostini/Invision/AP cover caption

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Evan Agostini/Invision/AP For years, Keaton acted in such movies as Wanting For Mr. Goodbar, The First Wives Membership and Child Growth. She directed the documentary Heaven in 1987. She additionally wrote books about her life, about structure, pictures and wonder; she collected images of lovely males, she renovated lovely homes, and as a single mom, raised two lovely youngsters. When she turned 50, she adopted her daughter, Dexter and 5 years later, her son Duke.

"It is an unconventional life, it is true," she advised me. "However I do not actually see it that manner, as a result of I simply suppose everyone has a reasonably– is there a life that does not have a narrative that is not fairly astonishing? I've by no means come throughout anyone who hasn't. I simply labored my manner into the life that I've as a result of I had a purpose and it was quite simple: I needed to be within the motion pictures."