Five star turns
Keaton’s best moments...
ANNIE HALL 1977
After Play It Again, Sam, Sleeper and Love And Death, Keaton’s fourth with Woody Allen hit big. Playing the aspiring torch singer Annie Hall, “I knew that part,” says Keaton. “I owned that part, because I got everything about it. It was the easiest part for me to play.” Winning an Oscar, it was Keaton’s finest hour with Allen.
LOOKIN G FOR MR. GOODBAR 1977
Keaton lost no time in demolishing her Annie Hall image, making Richard Brooks’ erotic drama the same year. She plays teacher Theresa Dunn, who spends her nights trawling bars for one-night-stands (including Richard Gere). Critics raved and her director was impressed. “She’s shy but she’s got stainless steel inside,” Brooks said.
REDS 1981
Gaining her a second Oscar nom, Reds placed Keaton between two of the most significant men in her life: actor/director Warren Beatty and co-star Jack Nicholson. Detailing the life of writers John Reed and Louise Bryant, Keaton’s own affair with Beatty deteriorated during the shoot. But she remained sympathetic. “That movie was the passion of his life.”
BABY BOOM 1987
Like Working Girl and Broadcast News, this women-at-work tale saw Keaton play J.C. Wiatt, a Manhattan career gal – nicknamed ‘Tiger Lady’ – who turns baby mama when she inherits a toddler from a deceased cousin. As deft as her comic touch is, director Charles Shyer told Keaton to lighten up. “I was taking it too seriously,” she says.
SOMETHING’S GOTTA GIVE 2003
“Terrified” is how Keaton felt about reteaming with Nicholson almost 25 years on from Reds. Still, any pre-match nerves didn’t show, with the star charming as playwright Erica Barry in this romance from Nancy Meyers. An Oscar nod and a Golden Globe followed. “It was a very profound experience for me,” she says.