October 11, 2025 • 5 mins
Hollywood superstar Diane Keaton is being remembered for a legendary career spanning decades.
A family spokesperson told People magazine the 79-year-old has died in California.
Keaton is best known for her Oscar-winning performance in 1977’s Annie Hall and her role in The Godfather films.
Flicks.co.nz editor Steve Newall says her career just kept on going.
"There's a whole bunch of movies she made with Nancy Meyers, the Father of the Bride films, Something's Gotta Give, the Book Club franchise, The First Wives Club."
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudgin
from News Talks EDB.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
For those of you who will remember in nineteen eighty
one the beginning of MTV. While it's all coming to
an end after decades of airing music videos, MTV is
going to stop showing rolling videos when it closes five
channels at the end of this year. They're just keeping
one going, that flagship channel, MTV HD, that's the one
that has all the reality TV series on it. So
there we go a bit of an end of an
(00:33):
era there as we head into our entertainment segment, and
I'm joined by Steve Neil, editor at flick stot cod
O and Ze.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
Good morning, Good morning. That's interesting news about MTV. Just
quickly to touch on that, I can highly recommend a book
called I Want My MTV. The Uncensored Story of the
Music Video Revolution. This is an oral history of the
creation and kind of eighties peak of MTV.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
It's fascinating, Okay, fascinating it right, I've shown look for that. Hey,
the news this morning that Dane Keaton died really kind
of shocked me. I just feel like I just thought
Dan was going to go on forever and.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
You know, kind of issues such an enduring presence. It's
been like half a century of screen appearances for Keaton
and and your yeah, your your shock, I think is
echoed by is echoed by the sort of wider wider
culture and the Hollywood community, as as The Guardian notes,
Keaton's death came as a shock across Hollywood and the
(01:32):
rest of the world. The actor had not been had
not been in the public eye for some months, but
no illness had been announced, and the statement released by
the family to People magazine confirming her passing is very
light on details. There are no details, basically, but it's
a nice time to reflect on that career which got rolling,
really rose to prominence, I think worldwide with The Godfather,
(01:54):
there's that string of Allen collaborations, famously kind of peaking
with Annie Hall. Keaton was an adopted name for the
actor professional is. She was born Diane Hall. Her nickname
was Annie. All the sort of things about that that
film being based on her relationship with Audie Allen. You know, look,
(02:16):
maybe not overall, there's sort of some denials around how
accurate it is, but certainly their real life personalities embellished
those performances, and I think that's the film that really
kind of cemented her style. Like on Status as well,
there weren't a lot of women rocking the vintage men's
clothing and as relentlessly as she continued to do for
such a long time.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
I was just thinking, you know, I was saying, the
one reason I like Melanie Linsky is that she just
doesn't quite you know, she sort of refuses to conform
to what hollywould like her to be or who they
would like her to be, and actually, don't Keeton as
one of the originals are doing there, doesn't she.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
Totally She kind of defines that, I think in a
lot of ways. And as she sort of noted herself
at one point, she just thought of as the kooky
actress and it wasn't wasn't a sure thing that she'd
be able to fit into films like The Godfather, because
that's so obviously there's a a personality that's been kind
of interesting and it played for a long time. But
(03:11):
then beyond the seventies, like her career just kept going
and going and going, right, like, there's a whole bunch
of movies she made with Nancy Myers, the father of
the Bride films. Something that's got to give the Book
Club franchise, First Wives Club. I'll go on the record
and say it's probably no surprise these aren't movies that
are my faves, but it was just a great way
that she got to continue her screen presence, and her
(03:32):
fan base loves her. It's really really cool her range, though.
I think nothing sort of demonstrates Katon's range more than
the fact she directed an episode of Twin Peaks and
also started in a Justin Bieber video.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
There we Go. I love it. Anyway, we shall miss her.
Tell me about this new film, House of Dynamite.
Speaker 3 (03:50):
Ah, this is a very edge of your seat thriller.
This is from Catherine Bigelow, who's made a kind of
I guess late career specialty of the techno thriller, The
hurt Locker, Zero Dark thirty really great at creating tension
sort of in the middle of these government apparatuses as well.
And this film, A House of Dynamite is a really chilling,
(04:14):
feels true to life story of a missile being launched
and the race to find out where it's from, where
it's going, and figure out what to do about it.
It's heading towards the continent of the United States, and
it really shows the processes that could you know, even
in this we think of being in this post Cold
War era, everything sweet, as one little thing incident like
(04:35):
this could still trigger a nuclear holocaust and that's very
much looming all over. The characters in this film a
great performance, and the likes of Rebecca Ferguson and Address
Albert as the President and a few are familiar with
Sydney Limit's nineteen sixty four film Failsafe, which has an
American nuclear bomber that, through a mistake, heads towards Russia
to drop the bomb. That's another chilling nuke drama, and
(05:00):
you'll see a lot of similarities in this. Yeah, real intense.
It's in very very limited cinem a release. I can't
urge you strongly enough to go see this at the movies.
If you can, you can you can find times on
flex dot co doc if you want to figure out
where to watch it. It's coming to Netflix October twenty four.
But it's just such a well made film you really
(05:21):
do want to give it your full attention on the
biggest screen you can.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
Awesome. Thank you, so much, Steve.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
For more from the Sunday Session with Francesca Rudkin, listen
live to news talks it'd be from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudgin
from News Talks EDB.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
For those of you who will remember in nineteen eighty
one the beginning of MTV. While it's all coming to
an end after decades of airing music videos, MTV is
going to stop showing rolling videos when it closes five
channels at the end of this year. They're just keeping
one going, that flagship channel, MTV HD, that's the one
that has all the reality TV series on it. So
there we go a bit of an end of an
(00:33):
era there as we head into our entertainment segment, and
I'm joined by Steve Neil, editor at flick stot cod
O and Ze.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
Good morning, Good morning. That's interesting news about MTV. Just
quickly to touch on that, I can highly recommend a book
called I Want My MTV. The Uncensored Story of the
Music Video Revolution. This is an oral history of the
creation and kind of eighties peak of MTV.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
It's fascinating, Okay, fascinating it right, I've shown look for that. Hey,
the news this morning that Dane Keaton died really kind
of shocked me. I just feel like I just thought
Dan was going to go on forever and.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
You know, kind of issues such an enduring presence. It's
been like half a century of screen appearances for Keaton
and and your yeah, your your shock, I think is
echoed by is echoed by the sort of wider wider
culture and the Hollywood community, as as The Guardian notes,
Keaton's death came as a shock across Hollywood and the
(01:32):
rest of the world. The actor had not been had
not been in the public eye for some months, but
no illness had been announced, and the statement released by
the family to People magazine confirming her passing is very
light on details. There are no details, basically, but it's
a nice time to reflect on that career which got rolling,
really rose to prominence, I think worldwide with The Godfather,
(01:54):
there's that string of Allen collaborations, famously kind of peaking
with Annie Hall. Keaton was an adopted name for the
actor professional is. She was born Diane Hall. Her nickname
was Annie. All the sort of things about that that
film being based on her relationship with Audie Allen. You know, look,
(02:16):
maybe not overall, there's sort of some denials around how
accurate it is, but certainly their real life personalities embellished
those performances, and I think that's the film that really
kind of cemented her style. Like on Status as well,
there weren't a lot of women rocking the vintage men's
clothing and as relentlessly as she continued to do for
such a long time.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
I was just thinking, you know, I was saying, the
one reason I like Melanie Linsky is that she just
doesn't quite you know, she sort of refuses to conform
to what hollywould like her to be or who they
would like her to be, and actually, don't Keeton as
one of the originals are doing there, doesn't she.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
Totally She kind of defines that, I think in a
lot of ways. And as she sort of noted herself
at one point, she just thought of as the kooky
actress and it wasn't wasn't a sure thing that she'd
be able to fit into films like The Godfather, because
that's so obviously there's a a personality that's been kind
of interesting and it played for a long time. But
(03:11):
then beyond the seventies, like her career just kept going
and going and going, right, like, there's a whole bunch
of movies she made with Nancy Myers, the father of
the Bride films. Something that's got to give the Book
Club franchise, First Wives Club. I'll go on the record
and say it's probably no surprise these aren't movies that
are my faves, but it was just a great way
that she got to continue her screen presence, and her
(03:32):
fan base loves her. It's really really cool her range, though.
I think nothing sort of demonstrates Katon's range more than
the fact she directed an episode of Twin Peaks and
also started in a Justin Bieber video.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
There we Go. I love it. Anyway, we shall miss her.
Tell me about this new film, House of Dynamite.
Speaker 3 (03:50):
Ah, this is a very edge of your seat thriller.
This is from Catherine Bigelow, who's made a kind of
I guess late career specialty of the techno thriller, The
hurt Locker, Zero Dark thirty really great at creating tension
sort of in the middle of these government apparatuses as well.
And this film, A House of Dynamite is a really chilling,
(04:14):
feels true to life story of a missile being launched
and the race to find out where it's from, where
it's going, and figure out what to do about it.
It's heading towards the continent of the United States, and
it really shows the processes that could you know, even
in this we think of being in this post Cold
War era, everything sweet, as one little thing incident like
(04:35):
this could still trigger a nuclear holocaust and that's very
much looming all over. The characters in this film a
great performance, and the likes of Rebecca Ferguson and Address
Albert as the President and a few are familiar with
Sydney Limit's nineteen sixty four film Failsafe, which has an
American nuclear bomber that, through a mistake, heads towards Russia
to drop the bomb. That's another chilling nuke drama, and
(05:00):
you'll see a lot of similarities in this. Yeah, real intense.
It's in very very limited cinem a release. I can't
urge you strongly enough to go see this at the movies.
If you can, you can you can find times on
flex dot co doc if you want to figure out
where to watch it. It's coming to Netflix October twenty four.
But it's just such a well made film you really
(05:21):
do want to give it your full attention on the
biggest screen you can.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
Awesome. Thank you, so much, Steve.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
For more from the Sunday Session with Francesca Rudkin, listen
live to news talks it'd be from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio
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