Diane Keaton, ‘Annie Hall’ Star and Style Icon, Dies at 79

Keaton accepted her Academy Award in signature style—a taupe blazer pinned with a pink carnation, a swaggeringly long skirt and clumpy ankle boots. She earned three more Best Actress Oscar nominations for Reds (1981), Marvin’s Room (1996) and Something’s Gotta Give (2003), for which she scooped a Golden Globe. Her performance as feminist Louise Bryant in Reds was feted as “nothing less than splendid” by The New York Times.

A face of L’Oréal since 2006, Keaton was a family favourite in Father of the Bride (1991), Father of the Bride Part II (1995) and The First Wives Club (1996). She later starred in The Family Stone (2005), Hampstead (2017), Book Club (2018) and voiced Dory’s goldfish mother in Finding Dory (2016). She directed Unstrung Heroes (1995), Hanging Up (2000), starring Lisa Kudrow and Meg Ryan, an episode of Twin Peaks (1991) and music videos including Belinda Carlisle’s 1987 hit Heaven Is a Place on Earth.

Keaton starred in eight Woody Allen films, including Manhattan, Sleeper (1973), Love and Death (1975), Radio Days (1987) and Manhattan Murder Mystery (1993), which earned her a Best Actress Golden Globe Award nomination. The couple first met—and dated for many years after—in 1968 when Keaton auditioned for Allen’s Broadway production of Play It Again, Sam at the Broadhurst Theatre, New York. She landed the lead part as the neurotic Linda Christie and reprised the role in Allen’s 1972 screen version. “She’d come in every day with an absolutely spectacularly imaginative combination of clothes. They were just great,” Allen told Rolling Stone in 1977. “Oh, she would—she was the type that would come in with, you know, a football jersey and a skirt… and combat boots and, you know… you know, oven mittens.” Allen predicted then that she “could be the biggest female star in the country.” The New York Times review read, “The supporting cast, especially Miss Keaton, is excellent.”