Then along came Woody Allen. He cast her in Play It Again, Sam his play, then his movie. Also his film comedies Sleeper, Love and Death, Manhattan, and, of course, Annie Hall.
Keaton's quirky role, written just for her, won her a Best Actress Oscar in 1978. She credits Woody Allen with her entire career, and recently accepted his lifetime achievement award at the Golden Globes. Throughout the controversy over Allen's alleged sexual abuse of his daughter Dylan Farrow, Keaton has stood by him.
"That's never gonna change. He's my very, very good friend," says Keaton.
In her new memoir, Keaton also reminisces about other old flames and costars: Warren Beatty, with whom she starred in the epic film Reds, Al Pacino, with whom she starred in the Godfather series, and who she calls the love of her life.
"My concept of love with men was really very immature," Keaton says, looking back. " I never saw myself in the role of partner. I saw myself as the person they would love ... It did not work, at all."
So Keaton never married, though in films she's one of a very few older American actresses who still gets leading roles with the likes of Jack Nicholson, Robert DeNiro and, this summer, Michael Douglas.
"She's playing the love interest a lot, you know, kind of passionately kissing and sweeping into the bedroom at an age when most people just sort of want to say, well that part is over," says her longtime friend, actress Carol Kane. "I mean, she just gets more and more beautiful because she's more and more herself."
In her book, Keaton writes about collecting photos of beautiful men, renovating beautiful houses, and raising children who've made her see beauty in new ways. When she turned 50, she adopted her daughter Dexter. Five years later, her son Duke.
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