Diane Keaton, who has died at 79, faced many challenges in her life, but one of the most persistent was a somber inheritance: a family deeply afflicted by skin cancer. Her personal, decades-long struggle with the disease was part of a larger, tragic family narrative that she bravely shared with the public.
From her diagnosis at age 21, Keaton was acutely aware that she was not alone in this fight. “It’s a family history,” she would explain, a simple phrase that carried the weight of generations. She spoke of her father and brother, who both had basal cell carcinoma.
The most haunting story from her family’s battle was that of her Auntie Martha, who “had skin cancer so bad they removed her nose.” This stark, visceral image served as a constant, grim reminder of the disease’s potential severity and fueled her own commitment to preventative measures, like her famous hats.
This inheritance shaped her life and her advocacy. When she urged people to use sunblock, she wasn’t just speaking from her own experience of multiple surgeries; she was speaking as a member of a family that had been repeatedly scarred by the disease.
While Keaton also fought a very personal battle with bulimia, her fight against cancer was a shared, familial burden. Her story is a poignant reminder of how genetics can shape our destiny and the courage it takes to confront a somber inheritance with vigilance and grace.