Diane Keaton

Diane Keaton (born January 5, 1946) is a veteran American stage and screen actress.

Diane Keaton Biography

Early acting career

A California native, Diane studied Drama at Santa Ana College before dropping out to study at the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York. After appearing in summer stock for several months, she got her first major stage role in the Broadway rock musical "Hair". As understudy to the lead, she gained attention by not removing any of her clothing. In 1970, Woody Allen cast her in his Broadway play "Play It Again, Sam", which had a successful run. It was during this time that she became involved with Allen and appeared in a number of his films. The first one was Play It Again, Sam (1972), the screen adaptation of the stage play. That same year Francis Ford Coppola cast her as Kay in the Oscar-winning The Godfather (1972) and she was on her way to stardom. She reprised that role in the film's first sequel, The Godfather: Part II (1974). She then appeared with Allen again in Sleeper (1973) and Love and Death (1975).

Late 1970's-1980's

In 1977 she broke away from her comedy image to appear in the chilling Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977), which won her a Golden Globe nomination. It was the same year that she appeared in what many regard as her best performance, in the title role of Annie Hall (1977), which Allen wrote specifically for her (her real last name is Hall, and her nickname is Annie), and what an impact she made. She won the Oscar and the British Award for Best Actress and Allen won the Directors Award from the DGA. She started a fashion trend with her unisex clothes and was the poster girl for a lot of young males. Her mannerisms and awkward speech became almost a national craze. The question being asked, though, was, "Is she just a lightweight playing herself, or is there more depth to her personality?". For whatever reason, she appeared in but one film a year for the next two years and those films were by Allen. When they broke up she was next involved with Warren Beatty and appeared in his film Reds (1981), as the bohemian female journalist Louise Bryant. For her performance she received nominations for the Academy Award and the Golden Globe. For the rest of the 1980s she appeared infrequently in films, but won nominations in three of them. Attempting to break the typecasting she had fallen into, she took on the role of a confused, somewhat naive woman who becomes the tool of Middle Eastern terrorists in The Little Drummer Girl (1984). To offset her lack of movie work, Diane began directing. She directed the documentary Heaven (1987), as well as some music videos. For television she directed an episode of the popular, but strange, "Twin Peaks" (1990).

1990's-2000's

In the 1990s she began to get more mature rules, though she reprised the role of Kay Corleone in the third "Godfather" epic, The Godfather: Part III (1990). She appeared as the wife of Steve Martin in the hit Father of the Bride (1991) and again in Father of the Bride Part II (1995). In 1993 she once again teamed with Woody Allen in Manhattan Murder Mystery (1993), which was well received. In 1995 she received high marks for Unstrung Heroes (1995), her first major feature as a director.

2000's-present works

eaton's first film of 2000 was Hanging Up with Meg Ryan and Lisa Kudrow. Keaton also directed the film, despite claiming in a 1996 interview that she would never direct herself in a film, saying "as a director, you automatically have different goals. I can't think about directing when I'm acting." The film was a drama about three sisters coping with the senility and eventual death of their elderly father, played by Walter Matthau. Hanging Up rated poorly with critics and grossed a modest US$36 million at the North American box office.

In 2008, Diane appeared alongside Katie Holmes and Queen Latifah in the crime-comedy film Mad Money, directed by Callie Khouri. Based on the British television drama Hot Money (2001), the film revolves around three female employees of the Federal Reserve who scheme to steal money that is about to be destroyed. As with Keaton's previous projects, the film bombed at the box offices with a gross total of US$26.4 million, and was universally panned by critics, ranking third in the New York Post's Top 10 Worst Movies of 2008 overview.

n 2010, Diane starred alongside Rachel Mcadams and Harrison Ford in Roger Michell's comedy Morning Glory, playing the veteran TV host of a fictional morning talk show which desperately needs to boost its lagging ratings. Portraying a narcisstic character that would do anything to please the audience, Keaton described her role as "the kind of woman you love to hate." Inspired by Neil Simon's 1972 Broadway play The Sunshine Boys, the film became a moderate success at the box office for a worldwide total of almost $59 million. Though some critics found that Keaton was underused in the film, the actress was generally praised for performance, with James Berardinelli of ReelViews noting that "Diane Keaton is so good at her part that one can see her sliding effortlessly into an anchor's chair on a real morning show."

In fall 2010, Diane joined the production of the comedy Darling Companion by Lawrence Kasdan, which is due to 2012. Co-starring Kevin Kline and Dianne Wiest and set in Utah, the film follows a woman, played by Keaton, whose husband loses her much-beloved dog at a wedding held at their vacation home in the Rocky Mountains, resulting into search party to find the pet.

In 2011, Keaton began production on Justin Zackham's independent ensemble comedy The Big Wedding in which she, along with Robert De Niro, will play a long-divorced couple who, for the sake of their adopted son's wedding and his very religious biological mother, pretend they're still married. In addition, Keaton has been cast in the family comedy One Big Happy alongside Steve Martin, and The Look of Love, an independent romance film, with Ed Harris.