Diane Keaton reportedly faced upheaval with her health in the final months before her death at age 79.
Keaton’s spokesperson announced on Saturday, October 11, that the actress had died at age 79 without offering any further details. Her family “asked for privacy” as they grieved their immense loss.
Us Weekly reached out to Keaton’s representatives for comment on her death.
A friend of Keaton’s subsequently told People the Annie Hall star’s health “declined very suddenly” in her last few months as she withdrew from public life. While Keaton was once a fixture of her Brentwood, California, neighborhood — including taking daily walks with her dog Reggie — she suddenly stopped appearing in public earlier this year, according to her friend.
Keaton reportedly chose to keep the nature of her health issues private from many of her friends, choosing instead to surround herself only with her “her closest family.” She was the mother of two children: daughter Dexter and son Duke, whom she had adopted when they were babies.
In March, it was reported that Keaton put her 1920s-style Sullivan Canyon home on the market and even slashed $1.4 Million off the asking process in hopes of selling it quickly. The news was particularly shocking since Keaton practically rebuilt the property from the ground up.
She walked fans through her meticulous multi-year renovation in her 2017 design guide The House That Pinterest Built, in which she detailed how using Pinterest boards helped increase the 9,200 square foot residence’s value. (Keaton bought the Sullivan Canyon estate for $4.7 million in 2011, before putting it on the market for $27.5 million earlier this year.)
Speaking to Architectural Digest in 2017, Keaton mentioned how “soothing” it was to rely on other people’s design innovations from Pinterest while remodeling her home.
“I’m still in love with it; I’m still in love with Pinterest!” she exclaimed happily. “To me, it’s soothing, because you’re also on a hunt. It leads to something else, and that leads to something else, and it just goes on and on. And that’s the light you want — the light from the computer. It just makes everything look better.”
Aside from Pinterest, Keaton took surprising inspiration for the remodeling process from the classic children’s fable, The Three Little Pigs.
“[The pigs’ house] was made of bricks,” she wrote in The House That Pinterest Built. “I knew I was going to live in a brick house when I grew up.”
The Academy Award-winning actress was survived by her two children, Dexter and Duke, whom she adopted in her 50s. She never married, though she had high-profile romances with costars Woody Allen, Al Pacino and Warren Beatty in the 1970s.
Many of Keaton’s friends, co-stars and famous fans offered poignant tributes following the shocking news of the Hollywood legend’s death.
“This breaks my heart,” Keaton’s Father of the Bride costar Kimberly Williams-Paisley wrote. “Getting to work with Diane Keaton will always be one of the highlights of my life. Thank you for your kindness, your generosity, your talent, and above all, your laughter.”
Josh Gad described Keaton’s death as a “monumental loss” for Hollywood, adding: “Diane Keaton in many ways defined my love of movies. From Annie Hall to the Godfather films, from First Wives Club to Baby Boom, from Father of the Bride to Something’s Gotta Give, here [sic] resume was nothing short of iconic and hall of fame worthy.”
The Frozen actor referenced other recent deaths of Hollywood titans as he admitted there simply “are no replacements for a Gene Hackman or a Robert Redford or a Diane Keaton.”
“They were the mavericks who helped redefine movies for a generation and losing them feels like also losing a chance inactive tissue to that golden age just out of reach,” Gad concluded. “My heart goes out to Diane’s entire family during this impossible moment. RIP.”
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