Diane Keaton’s cause of death has been released days after the Oscar-winning actor died at the age of 79.
The Annie Hall actor died in California on Oct. 11, surrounded by loved ones, her family confirmed.
“The Keaton family are very grateful for the extraordinary messages of love and support they have received these past few days on behalf of their beloved Diane, who passed away from pneumonia on October 11,” Keaton’s family said in a statement to People on Wednesday.
Her family went on to share the causes she was passionate about.
“She loved her animals and she was steadfast in her support of the unhoused community, so any donations in her memory to a local food bank or an animal shelter would be a wonderful and much appreciated tribute to her,” they added.
The unexpected news of Keaton’s death was met with shock around the world.
“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!,” Bette Midler said in a post on Instagram. She and Keaton co-starred in The First Wives Club.
“How do we say goodbye? What words can come to mind when your heart is broken? You never liked praise, so humble, but now you can’t tell me to ‘shut up’ honey. There was, and will be, no one like you,” Goldie Hawn wrote on Instagram.
Steve Martin shared a moment from an interview with Keaton on Instagram, with Martin Short asking her, “Who’s sexier, me or Steve Martin?”
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“I mean, you’re both idiots,” Keaton responded.
“Don’t know who first posted this, but it sums up our delightful relationship with Diane,” Martin wrote in the caption.
Cynthia Nixon, who worked with Keaton on the film Five Flights Up, wrote, “When I was a kid, Diane Keaton was my absolute idol. I loved her acting. I love her vibe. I love her everything.”
“One of the greatest film actors ever. An icon of style, humor and comedy. Brilliant. What a person,” Ben Stiller wrote on X.
Keanu Reeves remembered his Something’s Gotta Give co-star while premiering his new film Good Fortune in New York.
“I had the wonderful opportunity to work with her and she was a very special artist and person. Very unique and just what a wonderful artist,” he told the Hollywood Reporter.
Keaton made her film debut in the 1970 romantic comedy Lovers and Other Strangers, but her big breakthrough would come a few years later when she was cast in Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather, which won best picture and became one of the most beloved films of all time. And yet even she hesitated to return for the sequel, though after reading the script, she decided otherwise.
Keaton also played a businessperson who unexpectedly inherits an infant in Baby Boom, the mother of the bride in the beloved remake of Father of the Bride, a newly single woman in The First Wives Club, and a divorced playwright who gets involved with Jack Nicholson’s music executive in Something’s Gotta Give.
Keaton won her first Oscar for Annie Hall and would go on to be nominated three more times, for Reds, Marvin’s Room and Something’s Gotta Give.
— With files from The Associated Press
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