When did you first fall in love with Diane Keaton? For me, it was Baby Boom in 1987. I still vividly recall staring at the poster of a brunette in a power suit and heels as she held a briefcase in one hand and a baby in the other. I was just a kid at the time, but I could clearly see that she was a strong woman trying to manage it all. Then, when my parents rented the video, I saw her in action. No ordinary heroine, Keaton’s J.C. Wiatt had the gusto to leave a big-city job and start over with a new baby. I suddenly wanted to sell jam in Vermont when I grew up too!
The thing is, Keaton fully embodied every role she played. And it’s a testament to her versatile career that other fans have different first-time favorites, from the 1971 classic film The Godfather to 2003’s rom-com Something’s Gotta Give. Maybe that’s why the Oct. 11 announcement of her death at 79 hit so hard: No matter the decade, Keaton always seemed timeless.
But beyond reflecting on her incredible résumé, there’s also a deep sadness in losing someone who was so unique, inspiring and unabashedly herself. Keaton took her menswear clothes in Annie Hall and made them her permanent off-screen fashion aesthetic. And despite high-profile relationships with several co-stars, she never married, instead finding domestic happiness in her 50s by adopting two children, daughter Dexter and son Duke. She was also a director, writer, producer, photographer and more, as you’ll see below.
As a salute to the woman who did things her way, here’s a list of 10 little-known facts that made her into a larger-than-life icon.
Get Reader’s Digest’s Read Up newsletter for more inspiring people, fun facts, humor, cleaning, travel and tech all week long.
1. Diane Keaton wasn’t her real name
She was born Diane Hall on Jan. 5, 1946, in Los Angeles. But upon moving to New York City and joining the Actors’ Equity Association, she had to change her professional surname because an actress named Diane Hall (The Ten Commandments) was already registered with the union. Solution: She took the maiden name of her photographer mother, Dorothy. Enter Diane Keaton.
And yet her original name lived on in the form of Annie Hall, which was written by Woody Allen especially for his former girlfriend and regular onscreen partner. Another fun pop-culture tidbit: It wasn’t just the Hall that he used as inspiration for that name. Diane’s nickname was actually Annie!
2. She created Annie Hall’s signature look
The free-spirited Annie Hall was the perfect foil to Allen’s neurotic Alvy Singer in the Oscar-winning romantic comedy. And to wit, her style—hats, trousers, vests, turtlenecks, scarves—perfectly captured the character’s nonconformity. It turns out that Allen, who wrote, directed and played Alvy, encouraged Keaton to make the style her own, and in the end, she was the Annie Hall aesthetic.
In her 2011 memoir Then Again, she wrote that Allen told her to “wear what you want to wear.” She explained, “So I did what Woody said: I wore what I wanted to wear, or rather, I stole what I wanted to wear from the cool-looking women on the streets of New York.”
3. She had to wait 50 years to learn why she was cast in The Godfather
In 2023, director Francis Ford Coppola did an “Ask Me Anything” session on his Instagram stories. Among those who responded was Keaton herself, who wanted to know “Why on Earth did you choose me for The Godfather?!!”
His response to why he cast her as Kay Adams-Corleone? “[Because] although you were to play the more straight/vanilla wife, there was something more about you, deeper, funnier and very interesting.” He added that he first saw her in her element during a performance of the Broadway musical Hair, in which she played a counter-culture revolutionary.
4. She never aspired to be Mrs. Al Pacino
When it came to marriage, Keaton was proud to say “I don’t.” She told People in 2017, “I remember one day in high school, this guy came up to me and said, ‘One day you’re going to make a good wife.’ And I thought, I don’t want to be a wife. No.” Still, she enjoyed long-term romances with three co-stars: Allen in the late 1960s and early 1970s, Pacino (“I was mad for him”) in the 1970s and 1980s, and Warren Beatty (“so complex and charming”) in the mid-1980s following Reds.
What’s more, the actress stayed good friends with all of them. In fact, when she received the American Film Institute’s 45th Life Achievement Award in 2017, Pacino spoke of her onstage, saying, “You’re a great artist. I love you forever.”
5. … but Jack Nicholson was convinced that she really loved him
Keaton was so convincing as lovestruck playwright Erica Berry in Something’s Gotta Give that co-star Jack Nicholson thought she was actually falling for him. After rehearsing a scene in which his character, Harry, chases after her on a street, he approached writer-director Nancy Meyers with a concern. “He goes, ‘Diane just told me she loves me,'” Meyers recalled during a talk at the 2018 Tribeca Film Festival. “I couldn’t tell if he was horrified or thrilled. So I was like, ‘Yes, I know, I wrote that line. It’s in the script, Jack.’ And he said, ‘Oh, OK.’ He thought she meant it.” She added in admiration, “That’s her.”
6. She directed Reese Witherspoon in one of her first roles
Not content to just be a movie star, Keaton also tried her hand at directing. Her first long-form effort was 1991’s Wildflower, a TV movie set in the 1930s about a pair of siblings who help a lonely, abused girl—played by a teen Reese Witherspoon in just her second role!—escape her home and ease into society.
Other credits include the 1995 drama Unstrung Heroes and the 2000 comedy Hanging Up, in which she, Lisa Kudrow and Meg Ryan played sisters. And get this: Keaton directed the totally cool music video for the 1987 Belinda Carlisle hit “Heaven Is a Place on Earth.”
7. She almost wasn’t in Father of the Bride
We know—this seems inconceivable. But Keaton explained in 1996 that she almost missed out on being the mother of the bride, Nina Banks, in the 1991 hit remake of Father of the Bride. Sure, spouses Nancy Meyers and Charles Shyer actually wrote the part with her in mind, since she’d previously shined in their comedy Baby Boom. But Disney execs were hesitant to give her the role because The Good Mother, which came out in 1988, had just flopped at the box office for the studio. “Disney didn’t want anything to do with me,” Keaton said.
But Meyers and Shyer fought for their leading lady and ultimately got their wish. “I was very fortunate,” Keaton later said, “because they were very staunchly for me.”
8. She was nominated for every EGOT award … with one exception
In addition to her Best Actress Oscar for Annie Hall, Keaton was also nominated for her performances in Reds (1981), Marvin’s Room (1996) and Something’s Gotta Give. She was also nominated for an Emmy in the Outstanding Lead Actress for a Miniseries or Special category for the made-for-TV film Amelia Earhart: The Final Flight. And way back in 1969, she got a nod for Best Featured Actress in a Play for her work in Play It Again, Sam. Alas, she came up short for the Grammy Awards—even though she did narrate the audiobooks for her own memoirs.
9. She had her own personal decor collection
Her knack for collecting, decorating and flipping amazing homes around Los Angeles was well documented (not to mention well photographed). Some of her most famous projects included two Spanish-inspired homes in Beverly Hills and Bel Air, as well as her industrial-style, 8,000-square-foot property that was spotlighted in her 2017 book, The House That Pinterest Built. And in 2024, she teamed up with Hudson Grace for the brand’s first-ever collaboration. It featured decor, kitchenware and pet accessories. She even created a woodsy and earthy candle that she described as “perfection.”
10. She was a longtime animal activist
After her death, PETA referred to the star as “a true friend to animals.” Indeed, Keaton was a vocal animal rights lobbyist whose involvement included publicly endorsing the Big Cat Public Safety Act, which bans the private ownership of big cats. And at home, she shared her space with adopted dogs, including a corgi mix and a Newfoundland rescued through a shelter. Her last Instagram post on April 11 was a National Pet Day message from Keaton with a photo of her and her beloved golden retriever, Reggie.
RELATED:
- 31 Unforgettable Robert Redford Quotes That Will Make You Miss Him Even More
- 80 of James Earl Jones’s Most Famous Lines
- 65 Favorite Friends Quotes That Couldn’t BE Any Funnier
Why trust us
At Reader’s Digest, we’re committed to producing high-quality content by writers with expertise and experience in their field in consultation with relevant, qualified experts. We rely on reputable primary sources, including government and professional organizations and academic institutions as well as our writers’ personal experiences where appropriate. We verify all facts and data, back them with credible sourcing and revisit them over time to ensure they remain accurate and up to date. Read more about our team, our contributors and our editorial policies.
Sources:
- The New York Times: “Diane Keaton’s Unmistakable Look Was Also Key to Her Art”
- The New York Times: “Diane Keaton, A Star of Annie Hall and First Wives Club, Dies at 79”
- The Hollywood Reporter: “Francis Ford Coppola Tells Diane Keaton Why He Cast Her in The Godfather: ‘There Was Something More About You'”
- Film Scouts: “Diane Keaton on First Wives Club”
- The New York Times: “Hollywood and Fans Remember Diane Keaton”
- USA Today: “Diane Keaton’s Beloved Dog Starred in her Last Instagram Post”
- People: “Diane Keaton’s Relationship History: A Look at Her Hollywood Romances, from Woody Allen to Al Pacino”
- People: “Diane Keaton Fooled Jack Nicholson Into Believing She Really Loved Him While Making ‘Something’s Gotta Give'”
- People: “Diane Keaton’s Home Decor Line Includes Nods to Her Own ‘Witty’ Style and Her Golden Retriever”
The post 10 Little-Known Facts About Diane Keaton That Celebrate Just How Iconic She Was appeared first on Reader's Digest.
from Reader's Digest https://ift.tt/7HJciMS
Comments
Post a Comment