Oscar-winning actress Diane Keaton was not only a gifted performer but also a talented writer, photographer, collage artist, home decorator, and director, said actor-filmmaker Woody Allen in his tribute to Keaton after her death on October 11.

The 89-year-old reflected on his first meeting with the actress at an audition for his 1969 play Play It Again, Sam at the Morosco Theatre in New York City.

“If Huckleberry Finn was a gorgeous young woman, he’d be Keaton. Unlike anyone the planet has experienced or is unlikely to ever see again, her face and laugh illuminated any space she entered,” Allen remembered thinking, after he saw Keaton the first time.

The director shared that mutual shyness initially stifled any interaction between them. However, everything changed after a quick meal during a break.

“She was shy, I was shy, and with two shy people things can get pretty dull. But after sharing a quick meal during a break, everything changed. She was so charming, so beautiful, so magical, that I questioned my sanity. I thought: Could I be in love so quickly,” Allen wrote in an essay published by The Free Press on October 13.

By the time the show opened in Washington, D.C., they had become romantically involved. Allen said that he had always admired Keaton’s unwavering aesthetic judgement.

“As time went on I made movies for an audience of one, Diane Keaton. I never read a single review of my work and cared only what Keaton had to say about it,” he wrote in the essay.

“This beautiful yokel went on to become an award-winning actress and sophisticated fashion icon. We had a few great personal years together and finally we both moved on, and why we parted only God and Freud might be able to figure out,” Allen continued.

Keaton starred in eight of Allen’s 50 films, including Annie Hall, Manhattan, and Radio Days.

Keaton passed away in California in the presence of loved ones. She was 79.