What Was Diane Keaton’s Cause of Death? Oscar-Winning Actress Dies at 79

Diane Keaton, the beloved actress celebrated for her Oscar-winning performance in Annie Hall and her iconic role in The Godfather films, has died at the age of 79.

 According to People, a family spokesperson confirmed that Keaton passed away Saturday in California. He added that the details remain private at the request of her loved ones. Keaton is survived by her two children, Dexter and Duke.

Keaton rose to prominence through her long collaboration with director Woody Allen, most notably as Annie Hall, the quirky and charming girlfriend of Allen’s character Alvy Singer. The 1977 film won four Oscars — including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay — establishing Keaton as one of Hollywood’s most distinctive actresses and a trendsetting style icon.

Throughout her career, she appeared in eight of Allen’s films, beginning with Play It Again, Sam (1972) and continuing through Manhattan (1979) and Manhattan Murder Mystery (1993).

Her dramatic range shone in The Godfather trilogy, where she portrayed Kay Adams, the girlfriend and later wife of Al Pacino’s Michael Corleone. Beyond her work with Allen, audiences cherished her role as Steve Martin’s devoted wife in the 1991 comedy Father of the Bride, a heartwarming tale of parents navigating their daughter’s wedding plans.

Later in life, Keaton embraced stories centered on aging and reinvention. She starred in Book Club (2018), which celebrated love at any age, and Poms (2019), about a woman who turns a retirement home into a cheerleading hub.

A winner of BAFTA and Golden Globe awards, Keaton earned three additional Oscar nominations for Reds, Marvin’s Room, and Something’s Gotta Give.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences paid tribute, writing, “Some actors play emotions. Diane Keaton lived inside them.”

Honored with the American Film Institute’s Life Achievement Award in 2017, Keaton was hailed as “unconventional, iconoclastic, and left-of-center.”

Fellow actress Andie MacDowell, who worked with Keaton on Unstrung Hero (1995), expressed heartbreak, saying, “I feel so lucky to have spent any time with this marvelous woman, and I’m heartbroken that she is gone.”

Bette Midler, her co-star in The First Wives Club (1996), described Keaton as “hilarious, a complete original, and completely without guile.” Goldie Hawn, who also appeared in the film, added that Keaton “left us with a trail of fairy dust, filled with particles of light and memories beyond imagination.”

In 2018, as Hollywood faced a reckoning over sexual harassment, Keaton publicly defended Woody Allen amid renewed accusations from his adoptive daughter, Dylan Farrow. “Woody Allen is my friend and I continue to believe him,” she tweeted.

Despite decades in Hollywood, Keaton told AFP in 2019 that she had never experienced harassment: “Maybe I just wasn’t harassment material,” she joked.

Her radiant smile and playful, menswear-inspired wardrobe became her trademarks — a reflection of the free-spirited personality audiences adored since Annie Hall.

Speaking about aging, Keaton once said, “Life gets easier because what have you got to lose? It’s the truth — you face it, and we talk about it.”

Born Diane Hall on January 5, 1946, in Los Angeles, she was romantically linked to Allen, Pacino, and Warren Beatty but never married. “I am a failure,” she once quipped, before adding that perhaps she had “missed out on something — but nobody can have everything, right?”

Read More: Who Is Aurora Griffo? Influencer Responds After Bakery Accuses Her of Demanding Free Food