5 January: Diane Keaton

This date in 1946 saw the birth of Diane Keaton, who would have turned 80 today. 10 facts about her:

1. Her parents were Jack Hall, a civil engineer, and Dorothy Keaton, a home-maker and amateur photographer.

2. Her birth name was Diane Hall, but she couldn’t use that as an actress because there was already a Diane Hall registered in the Actors Guild, so she used her mother’s maiden name instead. She did briefly call herself Dorrie Hall, after her sister.

3. Her career started on the stage in the original Broadway production of the musical Hair in 1968. She went on to appear in Woody Allen's comic play Play It Again, Sam, for which she won a Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play.

4. Her first film was Lovers and Other Strangers in 1970 but the role which brought her to fame was as Kay Adams in Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather in 1972.

5. She never married but was in significant relationships with three of her co-stars: Woody Allen, Al Pacino and Warren Beatty. She adopted two children when she was in her 50s.

6. She was an animal lover – she adopted several Dogs and spoke out against people having big cats as pets. She became a vegetarian in 1995.

7. Another of her interests was real estate – she’d renovate Hollywood mansions and sell them on. Madonna purchased a $6.5 million Beverly Hills mansion from Keaton in 2003. She was also involved in campaigns to save and restore historic buildings with the Los Angeles Conservancy, including Ennis House in the Hollywood Hills, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.

8. In 2023, director Francis Ford Coppola did an “Ask Me Anything” session on Instagram. Keaton took that opportunity to ask, “Why on Earth did you choose me for The Godfather?” His response: “although you were to play the more straight/vanilla wife, there was something more about you, deeper, funnier and very interesting.”

9. She was also a director. One of her early directing jobs was Wildflower, a TV movie set in the 1930s, in 1991. One of the stars in that film was Reese Witherspoon, in her second ever role.

10. One of her most treasured possessions was a tile she took from James Stewart’s house when it was being demolished.

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