Diane Keaton (née Hall; born January 5, 1946) is an American film actress, director, and producer. She began her career on stage and made her screen debut in 1970. Her first major film role was as Kay Adams-Corleone in The Godfather (1972), but the films that shaped her early career were those with director and co-star Woody Allen, beginning with Play It Again, Sam in 1972. Her next two films with Allen, Sleeper (1973) and Love and Death (1975), established her as a comic actor. Her fourth, Annie Hall (1977), won her the Academy Award for Best Actress.

Keaton subsequently expanded her range to avoid becoming typecast as her Annie Hall persona. She became an accomplished dramatic performer, starring in Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977) and received Academy Award nominations for Reds (1981), Marvin’s Room (1996) and Something’s Gotta Give (2003).

Some of her popular later films include Baby Boom (1987), Father of the Bride (1991), Father of the Bride Part II (1995), The First Wives Club (1996), and The Other Sister (2001), The Family Stone (2005). Keaton’s films have earned a cumulative gross of over US$1.1 billion in North America.[2] In addition to acting, she is also a photographer, real estate developer, author, and occasional singer.

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Keaton has two adopted children, daughter Dexter (adopted 1996) and son Duke (2001). Her father’s death made mortality more apparent to her, and she decided to become a mother at age 50.

“Adopting my son and daughter late in life – and single – had a transformative effect on me,” she explains. “I’m not doing what seems to be the normal route of being 71. I have a 16-year-old son and a 21-year-old daughter. They’re still forming in some way, so you have to stay really interested and energetic and open to new thoughts and ideas all the time because of them.

“The fact I never married makes me unusual and then to go and have a family on my own… I don’t think that a lot of people do that.

“At one stage Diane didn’t think she would either. Speaking recently she said: “I remember when I was about 40, somebody told me about someone who adopted a baby at 50 and I remember saying, ‘Well that’s just ridiculous!’ I feel like that was a lesson in itself. Don’t judge… just don’t judge, because here I am, having done something that I said was horrible, or wrong, or a mistake. You do these things and they change your life and attitudes.”

Thanks to Yours for the adoption quote. https://www.yours.co.uk/features/celebrity/articles/movie-star-diane-keaton-on-why-she-decided-to-adopt-in-her-50s

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“Abby’s Road, the Long and Winding Road to Adoption and how Facebook, Aquaman and Theodore Roosevelt Helped” leads a couple through their days of infertility treatments and adoption. It is told with gentle (and sometimes not-so-gentle) humor from the perspective of a nerdy father and his loving and understanding wife.

Join Mike and Esther as they go through IUIs and IFVs, as they search for an adoption agency, are selected by a birth mother, prepare their house, prepare their family, prepare themselves and wait for their daughter to be born a thousand miles from home.

WINNER: 2015 Reader’s Favorite Book Award Finalist, Non-Fiction Humor

WINNER: Honorable Mention, 2015 New York Book Festival!

WINNER: Honorable Mention, 2014 Great Midwest Book Festival

Abby’s Road is available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and at Smashwords.

Copyright 2018 Michael Curry