Theater -- Tom Titus

Glancing over the list of inductees in Orange Coast College’s Hall of

Fame in these pages last week, I recognized a number of people whom I’ve

encountered over the years.

There was, of course, David Emmes, co-founder and producing artistic

director of South Coast Repertory, whom I’ve known since he established

the theater company in 1965. There also was novelist Clive Cussler, from

whom I bought my first house in 1970, and Realtor Terry McCardle, who

handled that transaction. And author T. Jefferson Parker, a former

colleague in the Daily Pilot newsroom.

But conspicuous by her absence on the list was the only Academy Award

winner to come out of OCC, Diane Keaton, who performed in 1964 and ’65

under her given name, Diane Hall.

She was Maria in “The Sound of Music” and Rose in “Bye Bye Birdie.”

And she was quite a singer, though she eventually made her mark as an

actress skilled in both comedy and drama.

A call to OCC’s community relations director, Jim Carnett, provided

the reason for her absence among the immortals: She didn’t graduate.

Diane came to OCC to do “The Sound of Music” in 1964 and continued as

a full-time student through 1965, when she headlined “Bye Bye Birdie.”

She enrolled in a class the following year but withdrew at the suggestion

of one of her instructors, who said she should go to New York and study

at the Neighborhood Playhouse.

Diane did just that, and within two years she landed a role in a

Woodstock, N.Y., stage production and followed that up by taking an

understudy assignment in the original Broadway show “Hair.” She moved

into the part when the first actress left the cast.

After doing “Hair,” Diane returned home to California for Christmas,

and I had the occasion to interview her for a feature story in the Daily

Pilot. She mentioned that she’d be returning to New York, where she was

cast in a leading role in a Broadway comedy, Woody Allen’s “Play It

Again, Sam.”

I happened to be vacationing in the Big Apple the following summer, so

I caught a performance of “Play It Again, Sam” and went backstage to chat

with Diane and met Allen in the process.

In a motel room on the way home, I heard her sing once more as a guest

on the Johnny Carson show, doing a nice rendition of “I’ll Never Fall in

Love Again” from “Promises, Promises.”

The Allen-Keaton combo went on to turn out a half dozen movie

comedies, topped, of course, by “Annie Hall,” which won the Academy Award

as best picture in 1977 (beating out “Star Wars”) and earned Diane a best

actress Oscar.

She also shared the screen with Woody in “Love and Death,” “Sleeper,”

“Manhattan,” “Interiors” and the more recent “Manhattan Murder Mystery.”

Contrasting with her often kooky character in the Allen flicks, Diane

has shown some impressive dramatic chops. She took a major role in a

movie often hailed as the best, or one of the best, of all time, “The

Godfather,” as Al Pacino’s “outsider” wife, and reprised the part in the

film’s two sequels. And she was outstanding in the disturbing drama

“Looking for Mr. Goodbar” with Richard Gere.

Over the three-plus decades since she lit up the stage at OCC, Diane

has rolled up a number of A-list movie credits. She is currently featured

in “Town and Country” with Warren Beatty, with whom she starred in

“Reds,” and Goldie Hawn, her co-star in the terrific comedy “The First

Wives Club.”

Diane maintains a local connection -- her mother has lived for many

years in Corona del Mar. And even though she’s not in OCC’s Hall of Fame,

she’s arguably the school’s most illustrious attendee.

* TOM TITUS writes about and reviews local theater for the Daily

Pilot. His stories are published Thursdays and Saturdays.