Diane Keaton (born Diane Hall on January 5, 1946) is an American film actress, director and producer.
Born Diane Hall in Los Angeles, California, she is the oldest of four children. Keaton has one brother, Randy Hall (b. March 21, 1948) and sisters Robin Hall (b. March 27, 1951) and Dorrie Hall (b. April 1, 1953). Her mother, Dorothy (1921-2008), was a homemaker and amateur photographer, and her father, Jack Hall (1921–1990), was a real estate broker and civil engineer. Her father came from an Irish American Catholic background, and her mother came from a Methodist family. Keaton was raised a Methodist by her mother. Her first ambition to become an actor came after seeing her mother win the "Mrs. Los Angeles" pageant for homemakers. Keaton claimed that the theatricality of the event inspired her to become a stage actor. She has also credited Katharine Hepburn, whom she admires for playing strong and independent women, as one of her inspirations.
Keaton is a 1964 graduate of Santa Ana High School in Santa Ana, California. During her time there she participated in singing and acting clubs at school, and starred as Blanche DuBois in a school production of A Streetcar Named Desire. After graduation she attended Santa Ana College, and later Orange Coast College as an acting student, but dropped out after a year to pursue an entertainment career in Manhattan. Upon joining the Actors' Equity Association she adopted the surname of Keaton, her mother's birth name, as there was already a registered Diane Hall. For a brief time, she also moonlighted nightclubs with a singing act. She would later revisit her nightclub act in Annie Hall (1977) and a cameo in Radio Days (1987).
Keaton began studying acting at the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York City. She initially studied acting under the Meisner technique, an ensemble acting technique made popular in the 1920s by Sanford Meisner, a New York stage actor/acting coach/director.
In 1968, Keaton became a member of the "Tribe" and understudy to Sheila in the original Broadway production of Hair. She gained some notoriety for her refusal to disrobe in the portions of the musical when the entire cast performed nude, even though nudity in the production was optional for actors. (Those who performed nude received a $50 bonus. After acting in Hair for nine months, she auditioned for a part in Woody Allen's production of Play It Again, Sam. After nearly being passed over for being too tall (at 5 ft 8 in./1.73 m she is two inches/5 cm taller than Allen), she won the part.
After being nominated for a Tony Award for Play It Again, Sam, Keaton made her film debut in 1970s Lovers and Other Strangers. She followed with guest roles on the television series Love, American Style and Night Gallery. Between films, Keaton appeared in a series of deodorant commercials. Keaton's breakthrough role came when she was cast as Kay Adams-Corleone, the girlfriend of Michael Corleone in Francis Ford Coppola's 1972 blockbuster The Godfather. After Manhattan in 1979, Keaton and Woody Allen ended their long working relationship, and the film would be their last major collaboration until 1993. In 1978 Keaton became romantically involved with Warren Beatty, and two years later he cast her to play opposite of him in Reds. In 1987, Keaton directed and edited her first feature film, a documentary named Heaven about the possibility of an afterlife. Heaven met with mixed critical reaction, with The New York Times likening it to "a conceit imposed on its subjects." Over the next four years, Keaton went on to direct music videos for artists such as Belinda Carlisle, two television films starring Patricia Arquette, and episodes of the series China Beach and Twin Peaks.
In the 1990s she shifted to more mature roles, frequently playing matriarchs of middle-class families. Keaton's most successful film of the decade was the 1996 comedy The First Wives Club. The film was a major success grossing US$105 million at the North American box office. Keaton's first film of 2000 was Hanging Up with Meg Ryan and Lisa Kudrow. In 2001 Keaton co-starred with Warren Beatty once again in Town & Country, a critical and financial fiasco. Budgeted at an estimated US$90 million, the film opened to little notice and grossed only $7 million in its North American theatrical run. In 2001 and 2002 Keaton starred in four low-budget television films. Keaton's first major hit since 1996 came in 2003's Something's Gotta Give, directed by Nancy Meyers and co-starring Jack Nicholson. The film was a major success at the box office, grossing US$125 million in North America.
Keaton has also established herself as a real estate developer. She has resold several mansions in Southern California after renovating and redesigning them. One of her clients is Madonna, who purchased a US$6.5 million Beverly Hills mansion from Keaton in 2003. She received the Film Society of Lincoln Center's Gala Tribute in 2007.
Keaton's most famous romance was with director Woody Allen. Keaton and Allen first met during Keaton's audition for the Broadway production of Play It Again, Sam, but they did not know each other personally until having dinner after a late night rehearsal. Allen claims that Keaton's sense of humor attracted him to her. They briefly lived together during the Broadway run of Play It Again, Sam, but their relationship became less formal by the time the film version was produced in 1972. They went on to produce eight films together between 1971 and 1993. After Keaton's working relationship with Woody Allen diminished in 1979, she began dating her Reds co-star Warren Beatty. Keaton's involvement with Beatty also made her a regular subject of tabloid magazines and media at the time, a role to which she was unaccustomed. (As a result of her avoidance of the spotlight, Vanity Fair described her in 1985 as "the most reclusive star since Garbo". Beatty and Keaton separated shortly after completing Reds. Their separation was believed to have been caused by the strain of making the film, a troubled production with numerous financial and scheduling problems. Keaton still maintains contact with both Allen and Beatty, and describes Allen as one of her closest friends. Keaton also had a relationship with Al Pacino, her co-star in the Godfather Trilogy. The on-again, off-again relationship ended following the filming of the Godfather Part III. Referring to the relationship, Keaton has said "Al was simply the most entertaining man... To me, that's, that is the most beautiful face. I think Warren was gorgeous, very pretty, but Al's face is like whoa. Killer, killer face."
Keaton is the mother of two children: a daughter named Dexter (adopted in 1996) and a son named Duke (adopted in 2001).
She is not related to actor Michael Keaton. Like Diane, Michael (born Douglas) used an alternative surname to remove confusion with well-known actor Michael Douglas. In fact, Michael had decided to select "Keaton" after reading an article about Diane in 1979.
Keaton stated that she produced her 1987 documentary Heaven because, "I was always pretty religious as a kid ... I was primarily interested in religion because I wanted to go to heaven" but also stated that she considered herself an agnostic.
Raised a Methodist, Keaton stated in an October 2002 television interview with Oxygen that although she currently believes in God, she considered herself an atheist for a period of her life. Woody Allen once said of her, "(She) believes in God, but she also believes that the radio works because there are tiny people inside it".
Keaton is an advocate against plastic surgery. She told More magazine in 2004, "I'm stuck in this idea that I need to be authentic ... My face needs to look the way I feel." Keaton is also active in campaigns with the Los Angeles Conservancy to save and restore historic buildings, particularly in the Los Angeles area. Among the buildings she has been active in restoring include a former home of Frank Lloyd Wright Keaton had also been active in the failed campaign to save the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles (a hotel featured in Reservations), the location of Robert Kennedy's assassination in 1968.
Since May 2005, she has been a contributing blogger at The Huffington Post. Since summer 2006, Keaton has been the new face of L'Oréal.