Hollywood Stars Gather to Mourn Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds
Gwenyth Paltrow attends memorial for Carrie Fisher. Image by Getty Images
(JTA) — Some of best-known people in the film industry gathered to remember Hollywood actresses Carrie Fisher and her mother, Debbie Reynolds, at a private memorial service in Los Angeles.
Actors Stephen Fry, Gwyneth Paltrow, Meg Ryan, Candace Bergen, Meryl Streep, Ed Begley Jr., Jamie Lee Curtis and Penny Marshall were among the guests who attended the memorial Thursday for Fisher, who portrayed Princess Leia in the 1970s “Star Wars” film series, the New York Daily News reported. George Lucas, the series’ director, was also in attendance.
Fisher, who was Jewish, died at the age of 60 aboard an airplane of a heart attack on Dec. 27. Her mother, who launched her storied career in the iconic film musical “Singin’ in the Rain,” died a day later of a stroke at the age of 84.
Fry, who, like Paltrow is also Jewish, bonded with Fisher partly over their experiences fighting depression, the Daily Mail reported. He was one of five people, including Fisher’s daughter, Billie Lourd, who eulogized Fisher at the event before some 120 guests, according to the Daily Mail.
“All the tributes circled back to billie and how much Carrie loved her,” Fry, 59, told People Magazine of the event held Thursday at a Beverly Hills venue, where Fisher’s friends, including the celebrities entered a lush green garden as reporters huddled outside. The venue was Fisher’s home, the New York Post reported.
According to Entertainment Tonight, Fisher’s body was cremated and her family planned to bury some of her ashes alongside her Reynolds, who will be laid to rest at Forest Lawn-Hollywood Hills.
Fry, who arrived with his 29-year-old husband, Eliott Sepncer, called Fisher his “dear friend.”
On Twitter, Fry wrote that Fisher was “the brightest, funniest, kindest, cleverest and sweetest person I ever knew. A crushing blow to lose” her.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.
If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.
Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
