Award-winning actress, producer and director Diane Keaton was born January 5, 1946 in Los Angeles California. Keaton wasn’t the typical Hollywood type in her younger years, and her acting talents were in question for some time. However, after a storied career packed with blockbuster movies, Diane is now considered one of the industry’s premier actresses.

Keaton was born Diane Hall in California and is the oldest of four children. She was raised in an affluent community by parents with flourishing careers. Diane’s story isn’t the rags-to-riches saga that most fawn over, but her grit and determination is something to be admired for aspiring actors and actresses of the world.

Keaton wasn’t sure what she wanted to do with her life. It wasn’t until Diane witnessed her mother win the Mrs. Los Angeles pageant that she decided on a life of fame. Diane attended Santa Ana High School and participated actively in the school’s acting clubs. She also went to Santa Ana and Orange Coast College, where she studied acting.

During her stint at Orange Coast, Diane dropped out to pursue an acting career in New York. She took the name Keaton due to another actress at the Actors’ Equity Association already having the sir name Hall. These days were extremely busy for Keaton, as she also worked as a singer and even as a dancer in some clubs.

Throughout the late 1960s, Keaton studied at the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York, and she honed her craft and earned enough recognition to become an understudy for the Broadway production of Hair. Eventually, she earned a big part in Woody Allen’s Play It Again, Sam, and was even nominated for a Tony Award.

Keaton broke into the motion picture business with her film debut in 1970’s Lovers and Other Strangers. The film was mildly successful, and due to a noteworthy performance, Keaton picked up two more movies over the new two years, Night Gallery and Love, American Style.

It wasn’t until 1972 when Diane Keaton would catch her big break. After noticing Keaton in one of her previous roles, Francis Ford Coppola cast the upstart actress in his smash hit The Godfather, playing the role of Michael Corleone’s love interest, alongside a young Al Pacino. Keaton revised her role as Kay Adams in both Godfather sequels.

Keaton starred in a few popular movies throughout the 70s, and she also tried her hands at becoming a recording artist and a photographer. One of her more famous roles was in the 1977 hit Annie Hall, a film directed by Woody Allen. Keaton and Allen shared a long working relationship, rumored to be more, and worked on a number of pictures together.

Diane continued to be a successful actor throughout the 80s, landing big roles in The Good Mother, Baby Boom, Radio Days, Crimes of the Heart and Mrs. Soffel. In the 1990s, she started off with a bang with the third installment of The Godfather, and then followed that up with the insanely successful Father of the Bride series.

Keaton has starred in around 50 mainstream Hollywood movies, and the 2000’s were also kind to her. To date, she’s working on The Widows’ Adventures, One Big Happy, and has just finished filming a movie titled Morning Glory.