This one hits hard: multiple outlets are reporting that Diane Keaton has died at 79 in California. The word is that her health had slipped in recent months, and that she had been dealing with skin cancer since her early 20s. However you heard about it, the reaction has been immediate and heartfelt across Hollywood.
How friends and collaborators are responding
Robert De Niro, who shared The Godfather universe with Keaton in Part II, told The Hollywood Reporter:
I am very sad to hear of Diane's passing. I was very fond of her and the news of her leaving us has taken me totally by surprise. I was not expecting her to leave us. She will be missed. May she rest in peace.
Side note for the movie nerds: De Niro and Keaton were both in The Godfather Part II, but in different timelines, so they never actually shared a scene.
Reese Witherspoon also spoke about Keaton on stage in Los Angeles at her Shine Away event on October 11, 2025, visibly moved as she paid tribute.
And a long list of actors posted their own remembrances and photos on Instagram, including:
- Steve Martin
- Viola Davis
- Mandy Moore
- Bette Midler
- Rosie O'Donnell
- Octavia Spencer
- Kate Hudson
- Kimberly Williams-Paisley
- Goldie Hawn
- Elizabeth Banks
Quick look back at a giant of the screen
Keaton grew up in Los Angeles and started on stage, first getting attention in the original Broadway production of Hair. Woody Allen cast her in the Broadway run of Play It Again, Sam in 1969, and that momentum carried her into film.
The big screen breakthrough was Kay Adams-Corleone in The Godfather films. She once said she hadn't expected to land the part at all, which tracks if you know how sprawling and unlikely that whole project felt at the time.
From there, she built one of the most distinctive careers of any American actor: Annie Hall (which won her the Best Actress Oscar), Reds (Oscar-nominated), The First Wives Club, Something's Gotta Give, and a ton of work that made her both a style icon and a perennial lead.
The loss
Hollywood just lost a rare kind of star: someone who could shift from nervy, offbeat comedy to razor-sharp drama without losing that unmistakable Diane Keaton energy. Her friends and collaborators clearly felt the same way, and their tributes say the quiet part out loud: she mattered to a lot of people, on and off set.