Diane Keaton

Background

Diane Hall Keaton was born in Los Angeles, California as Diane Hall. His mother is Dorothy Keaton, a housewife, and amateur photographer while her father, John Newton Ignatius “Jack” Hall, was a real estate broker and civil engineer. Her mother raised Keaton as a Free Methodist. Her mother won the “Mrs. Los Angeles” pageant for housewives. According to Keaton, she first wanted to be an actor and wanted to work on stage because of how theatrical the event was. She has also cited Katharine Hepburn as an inspiration for her portrayal of strong and independent women.

Keaton graduated from Santa Ana High School in Santa Ana, California in 1964. During her time there, she was a member of the school’s singing and acting clubs, and she played Blanche DuBois in a school production of “A Streetcar Named Desire.” She attended Santa Ana College and later Orange Coast College as an acting student after graduation, but dropped out after a year to pursue a career in the entertainment industry in Manhattan. When she joined the Actors’ Equity Association, she changed her surname to Keaton, her mother’s maiden name, because the name Diane Hall was already registered as an actress.

Two years later, in Francis Ford Coppola’s 1972 film “The Godfather,” Keaton was cast as Kay Adams, the girlfriend and eventual wife of Michael Corleone played by Al Pacino. Coppola stated that he first noticed Keaton in “Lovers and Other Strangers” and cast her because of her reputation for eccentricity, which he desired for the role. Her performance in the film was loosely based on her real-life experience making the film, which she described as being “the woman in a world of men.” “The Godfather” achieved unparalleled levels of both critical and financial acclaim, topping box office receipts for the year and earning the Best Picture Oscar in 1972. Keaton also performed a singing act in nightclubs for a short time, reprising her nightclub act in “Annie Hall” in 1977. She made a cameo in “Radio Days” in 1987 and starred in “And So It Goes” in 2014. In 2017, Keaton co-starred in the British dramedy film “Hampstead with Brendan Gleeson.” She co-starred in “Book Club” with Jane Fonda, Candice Bergen, and Mary Steenburgen in 2018. The romantic comedy received mixed reviews but went on to become her most commercially successful film since “Something’s Gotta Give.” In 2019, Keaton starred in the comedy “Poms” as a cancer patient who forms a cheerleading squad with the help of other female residents of a retirement home.