I don’t even know how to begin to write about someone I loved so much as Diane Keaton. I wouldn’t even know where to start. Would it be how people told me I was like Annie Hall in high school back in the 1980s, and I had to know everything about her, dress like her, talk like her, want to be like her? Would it be all the ways I watched her on screen, from her Woody Allen comedy roles through her more serious work in Reds, or her hilarious performance in Crimes of the Heart, or in one of my all-time favorite movies, Baby Boom — I don’t know where to begin. She looms large in my mind and my heart. She shaped my entire life. There is too much to say.
But one thing is certain about Diane Keaton – there has never been anyone like her and there will never be anyone like her ever again.
She was brilliant, humble, funny, kind, introverted. She was not someone to yarn on and on about politics. She was quietly observant of human nature and she was, above all, an artist. She was nimble-minded and talented. She could act, dance, sing, write, take pictures, and even direct. She was a genius with fashion and architecture all creations of an alive and awake mind that never slowed down.
Yes of course she won Best Actress for her performance as Annie.
How could anyone not have given her that Oscar? She was so funny, so original, and unforgettable. No one can watch Annie Hall and not fall in love with her. But she’s also funny in Sleeper:
And Play it Again, Sam.
She was so good at playing tender-hearted characters who can’t quite get life right because she is one of a kind and she never fits anywhere.
She always seemed to be just outside the realm of normal human behavior, but watching her try to fit in was always both funny and heartbreaking.
I loved her in everything. The worst movies she ever made always had the benefit of featuring Diane Keaton. I watched them just to see her.
She was nominated for Reds, Marvin’s Room, and Something’s Gotta Give, which were not her best performances, in my opinion. I’d put Baby Boom, Crimes of the Heart, First Wives Club, The Good Mother, Mrs. Soffel, Shoot the Moon — ah, Shoot the Moon!
And of course The Godfather I and II — I mean…
The best things said about Diane Keaton were said by other people. Here is Meryl Streep:
And here is Woody Allen:
I used to drive by Diane Keaton almost every day. I worked at UCLA for a time, and I guess Diane’s children had to be taken to school, so I would pass her on the same road. She drove a black Mercedes SUV, and I remember thinking, there goes the woman of my dreams. Every time. It’s just that she was always who I wanted to be, and I always thought that was as good as it gets.
She never tried to stay young. She always had the best hair and allowed her face to age. Her fashion choices were and remain timeless. Her style never went out of style. She was always learning, always curious, always looking at the world with a sense of wonder.
Maybe I looked to her because I saw in her the same restless spirit as I have. A non-conformist who never married and who refused to play along with the madness of right now. Not that she was a loudmouth or a heretic or anything, but if you’ll notice, she never threw her good friend Woody under the bus.
It’s kind of hard to believe the men she loved all outlived her: Warren Beatty, Woody Allen, Al Pacino, Jack Nicholson. It seems unfair that we had to say goodbye to her at just 79. I thought we would have her longer. She was nowhere near over in any way. I hope that she died peacefully. I hope that when she died, she felt like she lived her life well and happily, as far as it goes.
I love how she’s the one person whose mouth you never know what will come out of next. You just have no idea what she will say, so you want to lean in and listen. Saying goodbye to Diane Keaton will leave us bereft. It will be like that scene in Annie Hall where they laugh while trying to cook lobsters. He knows he will never find anyone like that ever again.
Rest in peace, Great Woman. You will be missed.