80 Years of Diane Keaton: A Look Back at Her 1975 PEOPLE Profile, Including Why She Didn’t Watch Her Own Movies

Diane Keaton would have turned 80 years old on Monday. January 5, 2025. Three months after her death, PEOPLE is looking back at its first big profile of the actress.

Keaton made a name for herself playing authentic, imperfect characters — like Annie Hall, the role for which she won an Oscar — and some of the awkwardness she conveyed on screen could be seen behind the scenes, as well.

Speaking to PEOPLE in August 1975, the the actress opened up about how she felt uncomfortable watching herself on screen and had, at that point, still not seen The Godfather Part I or Part II, nor her first three Allen films: Play It Again, Sam (1972), Sleeper (1973) and Love and Death (1975).

“I just don’t like the way I look and sound,” she said at the time.

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Talk show host Johnny Carson also spoke to PEOPLE for the profile, saying that Keaton and her frequent creative collaborator Woody Allen were very alike in their personalities — and that her awkwardness was part of what made her so magnetic on screen.

“I think she’s Woody’s sister,” Carson said of Keaton. “Both of them are uncomfortable and withdrawn in a crowd. She’s a free spirit—and her vulnerability is a good quality. She’s honest about being what she is, and that’s rare.”

Allen himself added: “She has no confidence. If there’s a way to twist a compliment into an excuse for self-criticism, she’ll find it. Diane is one of the greatest natural comediennes I’ve ever seen.”

Keaton was a frequent collaborator of Allens throughout her career, and remained a staunch supporter of the director amid allegations he sexually abused his daughter Dylan Farrow, once tweeting, “Woody Allen is my friend and I continue to believe him.”

Keaton’s comedic chops could be seen in her frequent work with screenwriter Nancy Meyers, as well. The two joined forces on Baby Boom in 1987 and again on the 1991 remake of Father of the Bride, its 1995 sequel, the 2003 smash hit Something’s Gotta Give and finally in the 2020 Netflix short, Father of the Bride Part 3(ish). 

PEOPLE confirmed on Saturday, Oct. 11, that the legendary actress had died in California. She was 79.

Speaking to PEOPLE shortly after her death, a close friend of the Oscar winner said she was “funny right up until the end,” calling her “one in a million.”

“She lived exactly how she wanted to, which was on her own terms, surrounded by the people and things she really loved,” the friend said.

Bette Midler — who starred alongside Keaton in 1996’sThe First Wives Club — wrote in an Instagram post of the actress: “She was hilarious, a complete original, and completely without guile, or any of the competitiveness one would have expected from such a star. What you saw was who she was…oh, la, lala!”