Bette Midler has offered a heartfelt tribute to her First Wives Club costar Diane Keaton following Keaton’s death at age 79.
“The brilliant, beautiful, extraordinary Diane Keaton has died,” Midler, 79, wrote via Instagram on Saturday, October 11. “I cannot tell you how unbearably sad this makes me.”
Keaton’s spokesperson confirmed to People earlier on Saturday that the Academy Award-winning actress had died of undisclosed causes. Her family “asked for privacy” as they grieve.
In her Instagram tribute, Midler remembered Keaton as a true original among the scores of legendary Hollywood stars she’d encountered throughout her career.
The First Wives Club brought together three comedic powerhouses for one unforgettable story about friendship, love and finding purpose. The 1996 film starred Bette Midler, Goldie Hawn and Diane Keaton as a trio of friends mourning the loss of pal Cynthia (Stockard Channing), who died by suicide after her ex-husband married a much-younger mistress. Additionally, […]
“She was hilarious, a complete original, and completely without guile, or any of the competitiveness one would have expected from such a star,” Midler remembered. “What you saw was who she was…oh, la, lala!”
The duo — along with Goldie Hawn – played former college best friends who band together against their estranged husbands in the 1996 film adaptation of Olivia Goldsmith’s 1992 novel of the same name.
The comedy blockbuster made nearly $200 million at the box office, giving all three leading ladies their highest-grossing project of the 1990s up to that point.
There was often talk of a sequel or spinoff of some kind in the ensuing decades — including a 2015 movie with Netflix called Divanation that would have cast the trio as a formerly popular singing group reuniting 30 years after a contentious breakup, according to Deadline. Unfortunately, development on the project never got off the ground and it was later abandoned entirely.
Keaton told Pride Source that she would have loved to work with Hawn and Midler again on The First Wives Club 2, and was disappointed it never came about.
Diane Keaton, Goldie Hawn, Bette Midler in “First Wives Club.” Paramount / Courtesy Everett Collection
“Of course I’m interested, but it never happened,” she noted. “And we tried, in a way, the girls, but we never got a good script and I don’t know why and now it’s sort of like, it’s over, right? No one’s gonna have us get in a movie together, the three of us. But I love that movie, and I love them.”
Keaton’s death drew tributes from many of her costars and famous friends on Saturday. Kimberly Williams-Paisley — who played Keaton and Steve Martin’s onscreen daughter in 1991’s Father of the Bride and its 1995 sequel — wrote that working with the Hollywood icon as “one of the highlights of my life.”
“You are one of a kind, and it was thrilling to be in your orbit for a time,” Williams-Paisley, 54, wrote via Instagram. “Thank you for your kindness, your generosity, your talent, and above all, your laughter.”
Elizabeth Perkins remembered Keaton as “a national treasure” in her own Instagram tribute on Saturday.
Fans of famed actress Diane Keaton are revisiting some of the actress’ most memorable roles following news of her death. People confirmed on October 11, 2025 that the Something’s Gotta Give actress died in California. She was 79. A spokesperson told the outlet no additional information regarding the actress’ death was available at the time, […]
“Ms. Keaton, you were a national treasure, with style, grace, intelligence and immense talent. Thank you for being my modern heroine and showing a young actress what it meant to be gutsy, fully self-deprecating but assured and to always be open, questioning and brave,” Perkins wrote. “Complex, eccentric and so gifted, you owned it…and wow, did you set the bar. You will always be my Annie Hall. Gosh, this cuts deep.”
Keaton is survived by two children, Dexter and Duke, whom she adopted in her 50s. The Annie Hall actress never married but had high-profile relationships with Woody Allen, Al Pacino and Warren Beatty throughout her lifetime.
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