Diane Keaton’s E-book Membership costar Ed Begley Jr. solely opened as much as Us Weekly about her surprising dying at age 79.
“I would like to manage my feelings,” a choked-up Begley, 76, instructed Us on the Environmental Media Affiliation (EMA) Awards on Saturday, October 11. “I used to be extraordinarily near Diane. I liked her loads.”
The pair first starred collectively within the 1992 TV film Working Mates, and extra just lately appeared within the hit 2018 romantic comedy E-book Membership, which made greater than $100 million on the field workplace.
Begley held his composure as he remembered Keaton for being “like a sister to me” and “an expensive, expensive buddy” whereas talking to Us on the Studio Metropolis, California, awards present.
“It hit me exhausting after I heard of her passing,” he acknowledged. “She’s with us nonetheless [in spirit]. She’s not going wherever.”
E-book Membership’s three different main girls — Jane Fonda, Candice Bergen and Mary Steenburgen — all paid tribute to their late buddy following the information of her dying on Saturday.
“It’s exhausting to consider…or settle for…that Diane has handed,” Fonda, 87, wrote by way of Instagram. “She was at all times a spark of life and light-weight, continually guffawing at her personal foibles, being limitlessly inventive…in her performing, her wardrobe, her books, her associates, her properties, her library, her world view. Distinctive is what she was. And, although she didn’t realize it or wouldn’t admit it, man she was a effective actress!”
Bergen, 79, added in her personal assertion to Folks, “It is a enormous loss, each personally and for all of us. Diane was a real artist — tremendously gifted and uniquely gifted in so many disciplines, but additionally modest and splendidly eccentric. I’ll miss her terribly.”

Mary Steenburgen, Jane Fonda, Candice Bergen and Diane Keaton in Might 2018. Leon Bennett/Getty Photos
“There was nobody, nor will there ever be, anybody like her,” Steenburgen mentioned on Saturday. “I liked her and felt blessed to be her buddy. My like to her household. What a surprise she was!!!”
The 4 main girls starred in E-book Membership as shut associates attempting to boost their intercourse lives after studying erotic novel Fifty Shades of Gray collectively. The 2018 comedy additionally featured Craig T. Nelson, Andy García and Don Johnson in supporting roles.
Little is thought about Keaton’s dying at this stage, as her spokesperson disclosed no further particulars. Her household — which incorporates two youngsters: daughter Dexter and son Duke — “requested for privateness” as they mourn the late actress.
A buddy of Keaton’s instructed Folks on Saturday that the Father of the Bride star’s well being “declined very all of a sudden” within the ultimate few months of her life. Whereas she had as soon as been a fixture of her Brentwood, California, neighborhood on walks together with her canine Reggie, Keaton reportedly disappeared from public life in current months to spend time with solely her “her closest household.”
Keaton made her ultimate display screen look in 2024 comedy Summer season Camp, through which she starred reverse Kathy Bates, Alfre Woodard and Eugene Levy. The position capped off a near-60 12 months Hollywood profession that noticed Keaton win a Finest Actress Oscar for 1977’s Annie Corridor and obtain the American Movie Institute’s Life Achievement Award, amongst many different honors.