Diane Keaton, who won an Academy Award and captured hearts with her quirky performance as Woody Allen's eccentric, insecure girlfriend in the 1977 romantic comedy Annie Hall, has died at the age of 79.
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Rizzoli, a publishing company that released several of Keaton's books, confirmed her death in a statement, calling her an "icon whose influence spanned film, fashion, and design"'.
Keaton, who appeared in more than 60 films, including The Godfather trilogy, The First Wives Club and eight films with Allen, stood out in Hollywood with a personal style that favoured androgynous looks, turtleneck sweaters and her trademark hats.
She earned Oscar nominations for best actress for her portrayal of journalist Louise Bryant in the 1981 political drama Reds, as a caring aunt to Leonardo DiCaprio in the 1996 family saga Marvin's Room and opposite Jack Nicholson in the 2003 romantic comedy Something's Gotta Give.
But it was Annie Hall, which Allen loosely based on his relationship with Keaton, that established her as a consummate actress.
"It was an idealised version of me, let's put it that way," Keaton said in 2004.
Annie Hall and Keaton's dramatic turn as a dedicated teacher by day and prowler of singles bars at night in Looking for Mr Goodbar landed her on the cover of Time magazine in September 1977.
Rolling Stone magazine described her as "the next (Katherine) Hepburn" in its June 30th issue that year.
Forty years later, Allen paid tribute to his early muse when Keaton received the American Film Institute Life Achievement Award for her body of work.
"The minute I met her she was a great, great inspiration to me," he said.
"Much of what I've accomplished in my life I owe for sure to her. She's really astonishing."
She was beloved by fans and fellow actors, many of whom paid tribute after news of her death broke.
Jane Fonda who starred with Keaton in Book Club described her as "unique".
Steve Martin who starred with her in Father of The Bride shared on Instagram an interview exchange in which Short asked Keaton who was sexier, him or Martin. Keaton's response: "I mean, you're both idiots."
Bette Middler who co-starred with Keaton in The First Wives Club said "she was hilarious, a complete original, and completely without guile, or any of the competitiveness one would have expected from such a star.
Keaton detailed her life in two memoirs, Then Again in 2011, in which she revealed she had suffered from the eating disorder bulimia in her 20s, and Let's Just Say it Wasn't Pretty in 2014.
She was equally famous for high-profile romances with her leading men: Allen; Warren Beatty, her co-star and director in Reds; and Al Pacino, who played her boyfriend and husband in The Godfather films.
"Each man had a different decade," she told The Telegraph in 2013.
"Woody was my twenties, Warren was my thirties and Al was borderline: late thirties/early forties."
Keaton was born Diane Hall in Los Angeles on January 5, 1946. The oldest of four children, she adopted her mother's maiden name to avoid confusion with another actress with the same moniker.
After briefly attending college in California, Keaton moved to New York to study at the Neighborhood Playhouse. She landed a role in the original Broadway rock musical Hair in 1968.
But it was an audition with Allen for the stage production of Play It Again, Sam that changed her life.
"Nothing would have happened without Woody Allen. If I hadn't been cast in that play ..." Keaton said in an interview with Vanity Fair in 2011.
Keaton won a Tony nomination for the role that sparked their romance as well as a life-long friendship and a collaboration that included many of Allen's best films such as Sleeper, Love and Death and Manhattan.
In Annie Hall, she immortalised the phrase "la-dee-da, la-dee-da, la-la," which was characteristic of her flighty, fluttered style.
Francis Ford Coppola cast Keaton as Kay Adams, Pacino's love interest in The Godfather. It was a major role for the actress in the film that won the Oscar for best picture in 1973.
As Keaton's career progressed, she moved from ingenue roles to mature career women and mothers grappling with family issues. She credits director Nancy Myers for her long-lasting career. They worked on four films together, including 1987's Baby Boom, and the 1991 remake of the 1950s film Father of the Bride.
Keaton was also nominated for a lead actress Emmy in 1995 for Amelia Earhart: The Final Flight.
In Something's Gotta Give in 2003 she begins a relationship with a playboy womaniser, played by Nicholson, while also being pursued by a younger doctor, played by Keanu Reeves.
Her character Erica Barry, with her beautiful Hamptons home and ivory outfits was a key inspiration for the recent costal grandmother fashion trend. It earned her what would be her last Oscar nomination and, later, she'd call it her favourite film.
Despite her well-publicised romances, she never married.
"I think I was really afraid of men and also very attracted to extremely talented people that were dazzling," she told Elle magazine in 2015.
"I don't think that makes for a good marriage with a person like me, someone who just didn't adjust well."
After adopting two children, Dexter and Duke, when she was in her 50s, Keaton said she found a real purpose in her life that she never had before.
"I was very heavily involved in myself forever. And this changes the whole landscape of your life. Your whole point of view in a good way," she told CBS News.
with AP