Diane Keaton, the woman who was our eyes and ears on the Corleone family in The Godfather and winner of the Best Actress Oscar in 1977 for her role in the comedy Annie Hall, has died at the age of 79.
People confirmed today that the actress died in California, leaving behind an incredible career marked by iconic roles, many of which have become comedy classics. In addition to her award-winning role in Annie Hall, Keaton also starred opposite Steve Martin and Martin Short in Father of the Bride, and shared the screen with Goldie Hawn and Bette Midler in The First Wives Club, to name a few.
After this statement, Midler proceeded to Instagram saying: “The brilliant, beautiful, extraordinary Diane Keaton has died. I can't tell you how incredibly sad this makes me. She was funny, completely original and completely devoid of guile or any of the competition that you would expect from such a star. What you saw was who she was… oh, la, lala!”
However, her most notable role was that of Kay Adams, the friend and future wife of Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) in The Godfather, who forever found herself on the outskirts of the family she married into. For Keaton, the role was a significant risk as she did not know what the film would be about before signing the contract, but she expressed great gratitude for being part of one of the greatest films ever made.
“I think the kindest thing anyone ever did for me… was getting me cast in The Godfather and I hadn't even read it. “I didn’t know anything,” she admitted. People. “I just went to the audition. I think it was amazing for me. And then I had to kind of read the book.”
However, years later, Keaton couldn't help but ask her former director Francis Ford Coppola why he hired her (via Vanity Fair). “I cast you because although you were supposed to play the more straight forward/vanilla wife,” he said. “There was something bigger, deeper, funny and very interesting about you. (I was right).”
