The name Diane Keaton is often synonymous with Annie Hall, but her oeuvre is vast. From Baby Boom to First Wives Club to The Godfather, she has proven she is and shall forever be an icon. I absolutely adored her in the holiday classic The Family Stone and seeing her in a movie like Mad Money with Katie Holmes and Queen Latifah made me love her more. She even put her name on projects as executive producer. I was surprised to learn that she was an EP on Gus Van Sant’s 2003 post-Columbine drama Elephant.
But it is her role in The Father of the Bride franchise that really introduced me to her work. I was way too young to comprehend her Annie Hall era but so her role as Nina Banks to Steve Martin’s George Banks in the marital trilogy made her sparkle and shine. She brought an authenticity to the role that was comforting and maternal but also a character who knew how to handle a husband spiraling into emotional turmoil amidst the chaos of wedding planning.
Enjoy this clip of Keaton when she appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson in December 1973. It seems like she was pretty much the same gal back then as she was in 2025. A real one.
RIP Diane Keaton (January 5, 1946-October 11, 2025)
