Hollywood legend Diane Keaton, who was best known for her role as Kay Adams in The Godfather and collaborations with Woody Allen, died at the age of 79 in California
Hollywood great Diane Keaton died of pneumonia, her family has said today.
Heartbroken relatives paid tribute to the actress, best known for her role as Kay Adams in The Godfather and collaborations with Woody Allen, in an emotional statement this morning following her death aged 79. They celebrated Diane’s huge love for animals and nature.
But the respect also confirmed Diane, who won an Oscar for Allen’s influential film Annie Hall, passed away following a short battle with pneumonia. The poignant tribute reads: “The Keaton family are very grateful for the extraordinary messages of love and support they have received these past few days on behalf of their beloved Diane, who passed away from pneumonia on October 11.
“She loved her animals and she was steadfast in her support of the unhoused community, so any donations in her memory to a local food bank or an animal shelter would be a wonderful and much appreciated tribute to her.”
Following Diane’s death on Saturday in California, a string of actors and directors, including Goldie Hawn, Bette Midler, Paul Feig and Ben Stiller, remembered the actress, whose career spanned more than five decades.
The family’s tribute is one of the latest in a string of heartbreaking words celebrating Diane’s life. One friend has also paid their respects, praising Diane’s “strength and spirit”. However, they added the star’s health had “declined very suddenly” and was “heartbreaking for everyone who loved her.”
They told People: “It was so unexpected, especially for someone with such strength and spirit. In her final months, she was surrounded only by her closest family, who chose to keep things very private. Even longtime friends weren’t fully aware of what was happening.”
The Los Angeles Fire Department responded to reports of a “person down” at Diane’s residence around 8am on Saturday. The Godfather actress had been transported to a nearby hospital by ambulance where she was later pronounced dead.
After the news emerged, American filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola, who knew the charismatic performer, said: “Words can’t express the wonder and talent of Diane Keaton. Endlessly intelligent, so beautiful.
“From her earliest performances in ‘Hair’ and throughout her amazing career, she was an extraordinary actor. I saw her in the film ‘Lovers and Other Strangers’ and knew I had to have her play Kay in The Godfather, (which she told me she based on my wife Ellie) and her wonderful work in ‘Annie Hall’ while simultaneously setting a new fashion trend. Everything about Diane was creativity personified.”
Diane made her film debut in 1970’s Lovers And Other Strangers but shot to fame in 1972 after playing Kay, the girlfriend and then wife of Al Pacino’s Michael Corleone in Coppola’s The Godfather – a role which she reprised in 1974’s The Godfather Part II and 1990’s The Godfather Part III.
She went on to have a long career as a film actress, appearing in Father Of The Bride, The Family Stone, Something’s Gotta Give and The Book Club movies. Her final films were Summer Camp and Arthur’s Whisky in 2024, and it appears she had not started filming anything else.