Diane Keaton's return to the limelight

Keaton has been nominated for a best actress Oscar four times

Actress Diane Keaton has faced the ups and downs of fame with the same equanimity, and her Oscar-nominated work on romantic comedy Something's Gotta Give is a reminder she is still a force to be reckoned with.

As the middle-aged playwright torn between ageing playboy Jack Nicholson and handsome young doctor Keanu Reeves, Keaton, 57, has wowed US critics with her sassy, smart and sexy performance.

She has also stunned many by appearing in the nude for the first time in her distinguished screen career.

Born Diane Hall in 1946, Keaton learned her craft in her native California before getting her first taste of success working as an understudy in the Broadway musical Hair.

However, it was her partnership with Woody Allen - both on and off-screen - that made her a star. Between 1972 and 1979 they made six films together, most notably Manhattan, Sleepers and Annie Hall.

Dramatic credentials

Keaton won an Oscar for Annie Hall, which charted in comic fashion the disintegration of her relationship with Allen. By then, though, she was involved with Warren Beatty, with whom she appeared in the 1981 epic Reds.

It was a union that added a bittersweet note to Allen's joke that if he was ever reincarnated, he would like to return as Beatty's fingertips.

Though celebrated for her comic roles, Keaton had already established her dramatic credentials playing Al Pacino's wife in The Godfather and its sequel. She also impressed in Looking For Mr Goodbar as a single woman experimenting with drugs and casual sex.

Keaton stars with Jack Nicholson in Something's Gotta Give

By the 80s, her acting career was taking a back seat as Keaton successfully reinvented herself as a director and producer.

Cutting her teeth on Belinda Carlisle music videos and an episode of Twin Peaks, she made her feature directing debut with the 1995 family drama Unstrung Heroes.

Recently she served as executive producer on the Gus Van Sant film Elephant, winner of the Palme d'Or at last year's Cannes Film Festival.

Keaton returned to the limelight in the 1990s playing Steve Martin's wife in Father of the Bride and appearing with Bette Midler and Goldie Hawn in box-office hit The First Wives Club.

Reuniting with Beatty for the disastrous Town and Country may have been a mistake in retrospect, but the critical acclaim that greeted Something's Gotta Give last year showed the critics held no grudges.