Woody Allen Reacts to ‘Annie Hall’ Costar and Ex Diane Keaton’s Death

Woody Allen is speaking out following the death of Annie Hall costar Diane Keaton.

“It’s grammatically incorrect to say ‘most unique,’ but all rules of grammar, and I guess anything else, are suspended when talking about Diane Keaton. Unlike anyone the planet has experienced or is unlikely to ever see again, her face and laugh illuminated any space she entered,” Allen, 89, wrote in a heartfelt essay published via The Free Press.

Allen recalled meeting Keaton when they worked together on 1969’s Play It Again, Sam, noting that they were both “shy.” They eventually shared lunch during rehearsal.

“That was our first moment of personal contact,” he said. “The upshot is that she was so charming, so beautiful, so magical, that I questioned my sanity. I thought: Could I be in love so quickly?”

As their relationship progressed, Keaton became a trusted confidant for Allen, who valued her opinion of his work the most. “I never read a single review of my work and cared only what Keaton had to say about it,” he wrote. “If she liked it, I counted the film as an artistic success. If she was less than enthusiastic, I tried to use her criticism to reedit and come away with something she felt better about.”

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According to Allen, “only God and Freud might be able to figure out” why the pair didn’t make it as a couple. He referred to Keaton as “a beautiful yokel,” praising not only her acting abilities and passion for directing, but also her homegrown California roots.

“A few days ago, the world was a place that included Diane Keaton,” Allen continued. “Now it’s a world that does not. Hence, it’s a drearier world. Still, there are her movies. And her great laugh still echoes in my head.”

News broke on Saturday, October 11, that Keaton died at age 79 in California. A spokesperson for her family told People that loved ones, which include her two adult children, were requesting privacy, and no further details were given about her death.

Keaton and Allen frequently worked together before her death, their most memorable collaboration being the 1977 film Annie Hall. Allen starred as Alvy Singer and Keaton starred as the titular character, a role Allen wrote specifically with her in mind. The movie won four Oscars, including best actress for Keaton.

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Through their years in Hollywood, the pair maintained a close bond. Keaton referred to Allen as one of her “many loves” in a 2017 interview with People, reflecting on the brief period of time in which she and Allen were romantically involved in the 1970s.

“He is so hilarious and I just adored him, I really did,” she said at the time, adding that she had dinner with Allen and his wife, Soon-Yi Previn, whenever she visited New York. “I pick up the check, that’s how generous I am,” she teased.

That same year, Allen made a rare public appearance to share glowing remarks about Keaton when she was being honored at the 45th Annual AFI Life Achievement Award ceremony.

“The minute I met her, she was a great, great inspiration to me,” Allen said at the event. “Much of what I’ve accomplished in my life I owe, for sure, to her. Seeing life through her eyes. She really is astonishing. This is a woman who is great at everything she does.”

In 2018, Keaton firmly defended Allen amid the Time’s Up and #MeToo movements as his adopted daughter Dylan Farrow‘s accusations of child molestation gained traction.

“Woody Allen is my friend and I continue to believe him,” Keaton tweeted in 2018, encouraging social media users to revisit Allen’s 60 Minutes interview from 1992 about the allegations.

Dylan was 7 years old when the accusations first surfaced in the early ’90s as Allen and ex Mia Farrow fought for custody of their children. (The former couple split in 1992 after more than a decade together.) Allen has denied ever being inappropriate toward Dylan, claiming in a 2018 statement that Dylan was “coached to tell the story by her angry mother during a contentious breakup.”

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Years prior, Keaton took the stage at the 2014 Golden Globes to accept the Cecil B. DeMille Award on behalf of her longtime friend and collaborator.

“It’s kind of hard for me to wrap my mind around the fact that 179 of the world’s most captivating actresses have appeared in Woody Allen’s films,” she said. “And there’s a reason for this. And the reason is, they wanted to. They wanted to because Woody’s women can’t be compartmentalized. They struggle, they love, they fall apart, they dominate, they’re flawed. They are, in fact, the hallmark of Woody’s work. But what’s even more remarkable is [that] absolutely nothing links these unforgettable characters from the fact that they came from the mind of Woody Allen.”

She went on to quote Allen, who once said, “One of the nice things about writing or any art is that if the thing’s real, it just kind of lives. All the success over it or the rejection, none of that really matters because in the end, the thing will survive or not survive on its merits. … As I’ve said many times, rather than live on in the hearts and minds of my fellow man, I would rather live on in my apartment.”

As she concluded her speech, Keaton joked that if Allen were at the ceremony, he would say it was time to “get the hook and get her off the goddamn stage.”