This afternoon the media reported the death of noted actress Diane Keaton, who was 79 years old. She had her biggest years during the 1970s, when she was in a slew of top films such as Annie Hall, The Godfather (all three in the series), Sleeper, Play It Again, Sam, and Love and Death. Most of those films were directed by the now-notorious Woody Allen, who at the time had a big romance with Diane. She was also linked to actors like Al Pacino and Warren Beatty. In other words, one cannot account for bad taste or whatever. I wouldn't have been caught dead with any of them.
She won an Oscar for Annie Hall, released in 1977, and like other Woody Allen films, it wasn't really that good, but she won that award which she deserved more than Agent Orange would have the Nobel Peace Prize.
The media always made a big deal about her never having married, and being born at the beginning of the Baby Boom era, it was a big deal because so few women did it. Millions more women opted to marry right out of high school or definitely before age 25 than rejected it altogether. She didn't give a shit what other people thought, and she didn't care what they thought even less when she adopted two children when she was past fifty.
The actress was born in Los Angeles in 1946 as Diane Hall, and was the oldest of four children. Her father was a civil engineer, while her mom stayed at home.
Still, Keaton thought her mother dreamed of something bigger. "Secretly in her heart of hearts she probably wanted to be an entertainer of some kind," the actress told PEOPLE in 2004. "She sang. She played the piano. She was beautiful. She was my advocate.”
Keaton performed in plays in high school, and after graduating in 1964, she pursued drama in college. But she soon dropped out and moved to New York to try to make her way in theater. She took her mother’s maiden name, Keaton, for her professional name, because there was already a Diane Hall registered with Actors' Equity.
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Keaton, as Diane Hall, graduated from Santa Ana High School in 1963. Her extracurriculars in her senior yearbook included "Debutantes," and "Little Theatre Guild." She is mentioned as being in a school play called "Little Mary Sunshine."
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