Keaton began studying acting at the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York City. She initially studied acting under the Meisner technique, an ensemble acting technique first evolved in the 1930s by Sanford Meisner, a New York stage actor/acting coach/director who had been a member of The Group Theater (1931–1940). She has described her acting technique as, "[being] only as good as the person you're acting with ... As opposed to going it on my own and forging my path to create a wonderful performance without the help of anyone. I always need the help of everyone!" According to Jack Nicholson, "She approaches a script sort of like a play in that she has the entire script memorized before you start doing the movie, which I don't know any other actors doing that."

In 1968, Keaton became a member of the "Tribe" and understudy to Sheila in the original Broadway production of Hair. She gained some notoriety for her refusal to disrobe at the end of Act I when the cast performs nude, even though nudity in the production was optional for actors (Those who performed nude received a $50 bonus). After acting in Hair for nine months, she auditioned for a part in Woody Allen's production of Play It Again, Sam. After nearly being passed over for being too tall (at 5 ft 8 in./1.73 m she is two inches/5 cm taller than Allen), she won the part.

Career

1970s

After being nominated for a Tony Award for Play It Again, Sam, Keaton made her film debut in Lovers and Other Strangers (1970). She followed with guest roles on the television series Love, American Style and Night Gallery, and Mannix. Between films, Keaton appeared in a series of deodorant commercials.

Keaton's breakthrough role came two years later when she was cast as Kay Adams, the girlfriend and eventual wife of Michael Corleone (played by Al Pacino) in Francis Ford Coppola's 1972 film The Godfather. Coppola noted that he first noticed Keaton in Lovers and Other Strangers, and cast her because of her reputation for eccentricity that he wanted her to bring to the role (Keaton claims that at the time she was commonly referred to as "the kooky actress" of the film industry). Her performance in the film was loosely based on her real life experience of making the film, both of which she has described as being "the woman in a world of men." The Godfather was an unparalleled critical and financial success, becoming the highest grossing film of the year and winning the Best Picture Oscar of 1972.

Two years later she reprised her role as Kay Adams in The Godfather Part II. She was initially reluctant, stating that, "At first, I was skeptical about playing Kay again in the Godfather sequel. But when I read the script, the character seemed much more substantial than in the first movie." In Part II, her character changed dramatically, becoming more embittered about her husband's activities. Even though Keaton received widespread exposure from the films, her character's importance was minimal. Time wrote that she was "invisible in The Godfather and pallid in The Godfather, Part II."

Keaton's other notable films of the 1970s included many collaborations with Woody Allen. Although by the time they made films together, their romantic involvement had ended, she played many eccentric characters in several of his comic and dramatic films, including Sleeper, Love and Death, Interiors, Manhattan, and the film version of Play It Again, Sam, directed by Herbert Ross. Allen has credited Keaton as his muse during his early film career.

In 1977, Keaton starred with Allen in the romantic comedy Annie Hall, one of her most famous roles. Annie Hall was written and directed by Allen and the film was believed to be autobiographical of his relationship with Keaton. Allen based the character of Annie Hall loosely on Keaton ("Annie" is a nickname of hers, and "Hall" is her original surname). Many of Keaton's mannerisms and her self-deprecating sense of humor were added into the role by Allen. (Director Nancy Meyers has claimed "Diane's the most self-deprecating person alive.") Keaton has also said that Allen wrote the character as an "idealized version" of herself. The two starred as a frequently on-again, off-again couple living in New York City. Her acting was later summed up by CNN as "awkward, self-deprecating, speaking in endearing little whirlwinds of semi-logic", and by Allen as a "nervous breakdown in slow motion." The film was both a major financial and critical success, and won the Academy Award for Best Picture. Keaton's performance also won the Academy Award for Best Actress. In 2006, Premiere magazine ranked Keaton in Annie Hall as 60th on its list of the "100 Greatest Performances of All Time," and noted:

It's hard to play ditzy. ... The genius of Annie is that despite her loopy backhand, awful driving, and nervous tics, she's also a complicated, intelligent woman. Keaton brilliantly displays this dichotomy of her character, especially when she yammers away on a first date with Alvy (Woody Allen) while the subtitle reads, 'He probably thinks I'm a yoyo.' Yo-yo? Hardly.

Keaton's eccentric wardrobe in Annie Hall, which consisted mainly of vintage men's clothing, including neckties, vests, baggy pants, and fedora hats, made her an unlikely fashion icon of the late 1970s. A small amount of the clothing seen in the film came from Keaton herself, who was already known for her tomboyish clothing style years before Annie Hall, and Ruth Morley designed the movie's costumes. Soon after the film's release, men's clothing and pantsuits became popular attire for women. She is known to favor men's vintage clothing, and usually appears in public wearing gloves and conservative attire. (A 2005 profile in the San Francisco Chronicle described her as "easy to find. Look for the only woman in sight dressed in a turtleneck on a 90-degree afternoon in Pasadena.)

Her photo by Douglas Kirkland appeared on the cover of the September 26, 1977, issue of Time magazine, with the story dubbing her "the funniest woman now working in films." Later that year, she departed from her usual lighthearted comic roles when she won the highly coveted lead role in the drama Looking for Mr. Goodbar, based on the novel by Judith Rossner. In the film, she played a Catholic schoolteacher for deaf children, who lives a double life, spending nights frequenting singles bars and engaging in promiscuous sex. Keaton became interested in the role after seeing it as a "psychological case history." The same issue of Time commended her role choice and criticized the restricted roles available for female actors in American films:

A male actor can fly a plane, fight a war, shoot a badman, pull off a sting, impersonate a big cheese in business or politics. Men are presumed to be interesting. A female can play a wife, play a whore, get pregnant, lose her baby, and, um, let's see ... Women are presumed to be dull. ... Now a determined trend spotter can point to a handful of new films whose makers think that women can bear the dramatic weight of a production alone, or virtually so. Then there is Diane Keaton in Looking for Mr. Goodbar. As Theresa Dunn, Keaton dominates this raunchy, risky, violent dramatization of Judith Rossner's 1975 novel about a schoolteacher who cruises singles bars.

In addition to acting, Keaton has stated that "[I] had a lifelong ambition to be a singer." She had a brief, unrealized career as a recording artist in the 1970s. Her first record was an original cast recording of Hair, in 1971. In 1977, she began recording tracks for a solo album, but the finished record never materialized.

Keaton met with more success in the medium of still photography. Like her character in Annie Hall, Keaton had long relished photography as a favorite hobby, an interest she picked up as a teenager from her mother. While traveling in the late 1970s, she began exploring her avocation more seriously. "Rolling Stone had asked me to take photographs for them, and I thought, 'Wait a minute, what I'm really interested in is these lobbies, and these strange ballrooms in these old hotels.' So I began shooting them", she recalled in 2003. "These places were deserted, and I could just sneak in anytime and nobody cared. It was so easy and I could do it myself. It was an adventure for me." Reservations, her collection of photos of hotel interiors, was published in book form in 1980.

Beatty cast Keaton after seeing her in Annie Hall, as he wanted to bring her natural nervousness and insecure attitude to the role. The production of Reds was delayed several times following its conception in 1977, and Keaton almost left the project when she believed it would never be produced. Filming finally began two years later. In a 2006 Vanity Fair story, Keaton described her role as "the everyman of that piece, as someone who wanted to be extraordinary but was probably more ordinary ... I knew what it felt like to be extremely insecure." Assistant director Simon Relph later stated that Louise Bryant was one of Keaton's most difficult roles, and that "[she] almost got broken."

1984 brought The Little Drummer Girl, Keaton's first excursion into the thriller and action genre. The Little Drummer Girl was both a financial and critical failure, with critics claiming that Keaton was miscast for the genre, such as one review from The New Republic claiming that "the title role, the pivotal role, is played by Diane Keaton, and around her the picture collapses in tatters. She is so feeble, so inappropriate." However, that same year she received positive reviews for her performance in Mrs. Soffel, a film based on the true story of a repressed prison warden's wife who falls in love with a convicted murderer and arranges for his escape. Two years later she starred with Jessica Lange and Sissy Spacek in Crimes of the Heart, adapted from Beth Henley's Pulitzer Prize-winning play into a moderately successful screen comedy. In 1987, she starred in Baby Boom, her first of four collaborations with writer-producer Nancy Meyers. In Baby Boom, Keaton starred as a Manhattan career woman who is suddenly forced to care for a toddler. That same year she made a cameo in Allen's film Radio Days as a nightclub singer. 1988's The Good Mother was a misstep for Keaton. The film was a financial disappointment (according to Keaton, the film was "a Big Failure. Like, BIG failure"), and some critics panned her performance, such as one review from The Washington Post: "her acting degenerates into hype – as if she's trying to sell an idea she can't fully believe in."

In 1987, Keaton directed and edited her first feature film, a documentary named Heaven about the possibility of an afterlife. Heaven met with mixed critical reaction, with The New York Times likening it to "a conceit imposed on its subjects." Over the next four years, Keaton went on to direct music videos for artists such as Belinda Carlisle, two television films starring Patricia Arquette, and episodes of the series China Beach and Twin Peaks.

1990s

By the 1990s, Keaton had established herself as one of the most popular and versatile actors in Hollywood. She shifted to more mature roles, frequently playing matriarchs of middle-class families. Of her role choices and avoidance of becoming typecast, she said: "Most often a particular role does you some good and Bang! You have loads of offers, all of them for similar roles ... I have tried to break away from the usual roles and have tried my hand at several things."

She began the decade with The Lemon Sisters, a poorly received comedy/drama that she starred in and produced, which was shelved for a year after its completion. In 1991, Keaton starred with Steve Martin in the family comedy Father of the Bride. She was almost not cast in the film, as the commercial failure of The Good Mother had strained her relationship with Walt Disney Pictures, the studio of both films. Father of the Bride was Keaton's first major hit after four years of commercial disappointments.

Keaton reprised her role four years later in the sequel, as a woman who becomes pregnant in middle age at the same time as her daughter. A review of the film for The San Francisco Examiner was one of many in which Keaton once again received comparison to Katharine Hepburn: "No longer relying on that stuttering uncertainty that seeped into all her characterizations of the 1970s, she has somehow become Katharine Hepburn with a deep maternal instinct, that is, she is a fine and intelligent actress who doesn't need to be tough and edgy in order to prove her feminism."

Keaton reprised her role of Kay Adams in 1990's The Godfather Part III. Set 20 years after the end of The Godfather, Part II, Keaton's part had evolved into the estranged ex-wife of Michael Corleone. Criticism of the film and Keaton again centered on her character's unimportance in the film. The Washington Post wrote: "Even though she is authoritative in the role, Keaton suffers tremendously from having no real function except to nag Michael for his past sins." In 1993, Keaton starred in Manhattan Murder Mystery, her first major film role in a Woody Allen film since 1979, having made a cameo in 1987's Radio Days. Her part was originally intended for Mia Farrow, but Farrow dropped out of the project after her split with Allen.

In 1995, Keaton directed Unstrung Heroes, her first theatrically released narrative film. The movie, adapted from Franz Lidz's memoir, starred Nathan Watt as a boy in 1960s whose mother (Andie MacDowell) becomes ill with cancer. As her sickness advances and his inventor father (John Turturro) grows increasingly distant, the boy is sent to live with his two eccentric uncles (Maury Chaykin and Michael Richards). In a geographic switch, Keaton shifted the story's setting from the New York of Lidz's book to the Southern California of her own childhood. Though it played in a relatively limited release and made little impression at the box office, the film and its direction were well-received critically.

Keaton's most successful film of the decade was the 1996 comedy The First Wives Club. She starred with Goldie Hawn and Bette Midler as a trio of "first wives": middle-aged women who had been divorced by their husbands in favor of younger women. Keaton claimed that making the film "saved [her] life." The film was a major success, grossing US$105 million at the North American box office, and it developed a cult following among middle-aged women. Reviews of the film were generally positive for Keaton and her co-stars, and she was even referred to by The San Francisco Chronicle as "probably [one of] the best comic film actresses alive." In 1997, Keaton, along Hawn and Midler, was a recipient of the Women in Film Crystal Award, which honors "outstanding women who, through their endurance and the excellence of their work, have helped to expand the role of women within the entertainment industry."

Also in 1996, Keaton starred as Bessie, a woman with leukemia, in Marvin's Room, an adaptation of the play by Scott McPherson. Meryl Streep played her estranged sister Lee, and had also initially been considered for the role of Bessie. The film also starred a young Leonardo DiCaprio as Lee's rebellious son. Roger Ebert stated that "Streep and Keaton, in their different styles, find ways to make Lee and Bessie into much more than the expression of their problems." Keaton earned a third Academy Award nomination for the film, which was critically acclaimed. Keaton said that the biggest challenge of the role was understanding the mentality of a person with terminal illness.

In 1999 Keaton narrated the one-hour public-radio documentary "If I Get Out Alive," the first to focus on the conditions and brutality faced by young people in the adult correctional system. The program, produced by Lichtenstein Creative Media, aired on public radio stations across the country, and was honored with a First Place National Headliner Award and a Casey Medal for Meritorious Journalism.

2000s

Keaton'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 2001, Keaton co-starred with Warren Beatty in Town & Country, a critical and financial fiasco. Budgeted at an estimated US$90 million, the film opened to little notice and grossed only US$7 million in its North American theatrical run. Peter Travers of Rolling Stone claimed that Town & Country was "less deserving of a review than it is an obituary....The corpse took with it the reputations of its starry cast, including Warren Beatty and Diane Keaton." Also in 2001, and 2002, Keaton starred in four low-budget television films. She played a fanatical nun in the religious drama Sister Mary Explains It All, an impoverished mother in the drama On Thin Ice, and a bookkeeper in the mob comedy Plan B. In Crossed Over, she played Beverly Lowry, a woman who forms an unusual friendship with the only woman executed while on death row in Texas, Karla Faye Tucker.

Keaton's first major hit since 1996 came in 2003's Something's Gotta Give, directed by Nancy Meyers and co-starring Jack Nicholson. Nicholson and Keaton, aged 66 and 57 respectively, were seen as bold casting choices for leads in a romantic comedy. Twentieth Century Fox, the film's original studio, reportedly declined to produce the film, fearing that the lead characters were too old to be bankable. Keaton commented about the situation in Ladies' Home Journal: "Let's face it, people my age and Jack's age are much deeper, much more soulful, because they've seen a lot of life. They have a great deal of passion and hope—why shouldn't they fall in love? Why shouldn't movies show that?" Keaton played a middle-aged playwright who falls in love with her daughter's much older boyfriend. The film was a major success at the box office, grossing US$125 million in North America. Roger Ebert wrote that "Nicholson and Keaton bring so much experience, knowledge and humor to their characters that the film works in ways the screenplay might not have even hoped for." The following year, Keaton received her fourth Academy Award nomination for her role in the film.

Keaton's only film between the years of 2004 and 2006 was the comedy The Family Stone (2005), starring an ensemble cast that also included Sarah Jessica Parker, Claire Danes, Rachel McAdams, and Craig T. Nelson. In the film, scripted and directed by Thomas Bezucha, Keaton played a breast cancer survivor and matriarch of a big New England family, who reunite at the parents' home for their annual Christmas holidays. The film was released to moderate critical and commercial success, and earned US$92.2 million worldwide. Keaton received her second Satellite Award nomination for her portrayal, on which Peter Travers of Rolling Stone commented, "Keaton, a sorceress at blending humor and heartbreak, honors the film with a grace that makes it stick in the memory."

In 2007, Keaton starred in both Because I Said So and Mama's Boy. In the romantic comedy Because I Said So, directed by Michael Lehmann, Keaton played a long-divorced mother of three daughters, determined to pair off her only single daughter, Milly, played by Mandy Moore. Also starring Stephen Collins and Gabriel Macht, the project opened to overwhelmingly negative reviews by critics, with Wesley Morris of The Boston Globe calling it "a sloppily made bowl of reheated chick-flick cliches," and was ranked among the worst-reviewed films of the year. The following year, Keaton received her first and only Golden Raspberry Award nomination to date, for the film. In Mama's Boy, director Tim Hamilton's feature film debut, Keaton starred as the mother of a self-absorbed 29-year-old (played by Jon Heder) whose world turns upside down when his widowed mother starts dating and considers booting him out of the house. Distributed for a limited release to certain parts of the United States only, the independent comedy garnered largely negative reviews.

In 2008, Keaton starred alongside Dax Shepard and Liv Tyler in Vince Di Meglio's dramedy Smother, playing the overbearing mother of an unemployed therapist, who decides to move in with him and his girlfriend following the split from her husband, played by Ken Howard. As with Mama's Boy, the film received a limited release only, resulting in a gross of US$1.8 million worldwide. Critical reaction to the film was generally unfavorable, and once again Keaton was dismissed for her role choices, with Sandra Hall of the New York Post writing, "Diane's career is dyin' [...] this time, sadly, she's gone too far. She's turned herself into a mother-in-law joke." Also in 2008, Keaton 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.

2010s

In 2010, Keaton 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 that desperately needs to boost its lagging ratings. Portraying a narcissistic 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 US$59 million. Though some critics found that Keaton was underused in the film, the actress was generally praised for her 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, Keaton joined the production of the comedy drama Darling Companion by Lawrence Kasdan, which was released in 2012. Co-starring Kevin Kline and Dianne Wiest and set in Telluride, Colorado, 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 in a search party to find the pet. Kasdan's first film in nine years, the film bombed at the US box office, where it scored about US$790,000 throughout its entire theatrical run. Generally negative with the film, critics dismissed the film as "an overwritten, underplotted vanity project," but applauded Keaton's performance. Ty Burr from The Boston Globe felt that the film "would be instantly forgettable if not for Keaton, who imbues [her role] with a sorrow, warmth, wisdom, and rage that feel earned [...] Her performance here is an extension of worn, resilient grace."

Also in 2011, Keaton began production on Justin Zackham's 2013 ensemble comedy The Big Wedding, in which she, along with Robert De Niro, played a long-divorced couple who, for the sake of their adopted son's wedding and his very religious biological mother, pretend they are still married. Upon release, the remake of the original 2006 French film Mon frère se marie received largely negative reviews. In his review for The New York Post, Lou Lumenick stated that "the brutally unfunny, cringe-worthy The Big Wedding provides ample opportunities for Robert De Niro, Diane Keaton, Susan Sarandon and Robin Williams to embarrass themselves."

In 2014, Keaton starred in And So It Goes and 5 Flights Up. In Rob Reiner's romantic dramedy And So It Goes, Keaton portrayed a widowed lounge singer, who finds autumnal love with a bad boy, played by Michael Douglas. The film received largely negative reviews from critics, who felt that "And So It Goes aims for comedy, but with two talented actors stuck in a half-hearted effort from a once-mighty filmmaker, it ends in unintentional tragedy." Keaton co-starred with Morgan Freeman in Richard Loncraine's comedy film 5 Flights Up. Based on the novel Heroic Measures by Jill Ciment, they play a long-married couple who have an eventful weekend after they are forced to contemplate selling their beloved Brooklyn apartment. Shot in New York, the film premiered, under its former name Ruth & Alex, at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival.

In 2014 she became the first woman to receive the Golden Lion Award from the Zurich Film Festival.

Keaton has also joined the cast of Finding Dory, the sequel to the 2003 Pixar computer-animated film Finding Nemo, in which she will provide the voice for Dory’s mother.

Personal life

Relationships and family

Keaton has had several romantic associations with noted entertainment industry personalities, starting with her time with the Broadway production of Play It Again, Sam when she auditioned for director Woody Allen. Their association became personal following a dinner after a late-night rehearsal. It was her sense of humor that attracted Allen. They briefly lived together during the Broadway production, but by the time of the film release of the same name in 1972, their living arrangements became informal. They worked together on eight films between 1971 and 1993, and Keaton has said that Allen remains one of her closest friends.

She was already dating Warren Beatty from 1979 when they had co-lead roles in the film Reds. Beatty was a regular subject in tabloid magazines and media coverage in which she was included much to her bewilderment. Her avoidance of the spotlight earned her in 1985 from Vanity Fair the attribution as "the most reclusive star since Garbo." This relationship ended shortly after Reds wrapped. Troubles with the production are thought to have caused strain on the relationship, including numerous financial and scheduling problems. Keaton remains friends with Beatty.

Keaton also had a relationship with her The Godfather Trilogy costar Al Pacino. Their on-again, off-again relationship ended following the filming of The Godfather Part III. Keaton said of Pacino, "Al was simply the most entertaining man... To me, that's, that is the most beautiful face. I think Warren was gorgeous, very pretty, but Al's face is like whoa. Killer, killer face."

In July 2001, Keaton revealed her thoughts on being older and unmarried: "I don't think that because I'm not married it's made my life any less. That old maid myth is garbage." Keaton has two adopted children, daughter Dexter (adopted 1996) and son Duke (2001). Her father's death made mortality more apparent to her, and she decided to become a mother at age 55. She later said of having children, "Motherhood has completely changed me. It's just about the most completely humbling experience that I've ever had."

Religious beliefs

Keaton stated that she produced her 1987 documentary Heaven because, "I was always pretty religious as a kid ... I was primarily interested in religion because I wanted to go to heaven." Nevertheless, she has also stated that she considered herself an agnostic.

Other activities

Keaton is an opponent of plastic surgery. She told More magazine in 2004, "I'm stuck in this idea that I need to be authentic ... My face needs to look the way I feel." Keaton is also active in campaigns with the Los Angeles Conservancy to save and restore historic buildings, particularly in the Los Angeles area. Among the buildings she has been active in restoring is the Ennis House in the Hollywood Hills designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. Keaton had also been active in the failed campaign to save the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles (a hotel featured in Reservations), the location of Robert Kennedy's assassination in 1968.

Since May 2005, she has been a contributing blogger at The Huffington Post. Since summer 2006, Keaton has been the new face of L'Oréal.

Keaton has served as a producer on films and television series. She produced the Fox series Pasadena that was canceled after airing only four episodes in 2001 but later completed its run on cable in 2005. In 2003, she produced the Gus Van Sant drama Elephant, about a school shooting. On why she produced the film, she said "It really makes me think about my responsibilities as an adult to try and understand what's going on with young people."

Outside of the film industry, Keaton has continued to pursue her interest in photography. As a collector, she told Vanity Fair in 1987: "I have amassed a huge library of images – kissing scenes from movies, pictures I like. Visual things are really key for me." She has published several more collections of her own photographs, and has also served as an editor for collections of vintage photography. Works she has edited in the last decade include a book of photographs by paparazzo Ron Galella; an anthology of reproductions of clown paintings; and a collection of photos of California's Spanish-Colonial-style houses.

Keaton has also established herself as a real estate developer. She has resold several mansions in Southern California after renovating and redesigning them. One of her clients is Madonna, who purchased a US$6.5 million Beverly Hills mansion from Keaton in 2003. She received the Film Society of Lincoln Center's Gala Tribute in 2007.

Keaton wrote her first memoir, entitled Then Again, for Random House in November 2011. Much of the autobiography relies on her mother Dorothy's private journals, in which she writes at one point: "Diane...is a mystery...At times, she's so basic, at others so wise it frightens me."

In 2012, Keaton's audiobook recording of Joan Didion's Slouching Towards Bethlehem was released at Audible.com. Her performance was nominated for a 2013 Audie Award in the Short Stories/Collections category.

Filmography