Tribute to Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds

With humour, music and the tapping of dancing shoes, a public memorial to Debbie Reynolds and Carrie Fisher, which loved ones say is just how the actresses would have wanted it, took place in Los Angeles last Saturday. The two-hour ceremony, held at the 1200-seat theatre at Hollywood’s Forest Lawn Memorial Park, honoured the mother-daughter duo’s impact on film and culture. Reynold’s son Todd Fisher led the ceremony, which he said was intended to bring fans an intimate view of his mother and sister. He referred to it as a show, saying his mother hated to attend memorials. In the ceremony, James Blunt performed a song which he wrote after Fisher’s death. The Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles also performed a sombre rendition of Cyndi Lauper’s “True Colours” that honoured Fisher’s status as a feminist icon. A troupe from Reynolds’ dance studio performed an homage to Singin’ in the Rain, the film that propelled Reynolds to stardom at the age of 19. A working R2D2 unit came on stage followed by an opening film that was an ode to Fisher’s Star Wars role. The working R2D2 unit mournfully beeped and parked next to a director’s chair with Fisher’s name on it. Todd Fisher said, “There were no finer people that I have ever known than my mother and sister.” He recounted his mother’s final moments and her remark that she wanted to be with her daughter. “It was a very peaceful exit that only my mother could have orchestrated,” he said to booming laughter. “She was trained in Hollywood where they teach you to make a great entrance, and exit.” Dan Aykroyd paid tribute to his ex-fiancee Fisher joking that she openly tried to rekindle her romance with singer Paul Simon while they were dating, “She had long conversations on the phone in my presence with Paul Simon with whom she was attempting to reconcile at the time of my relationship with her.” “Here I found myself in love with a woman who was returning to a former intimate, and might I say a better choice,” he added. Aykroyd also described Fisher as a chatterbox who never let him speak. Several stars, including Rene Russo, Beverly D’Angelo, Dallas actress Morgan Brittany, actor-director Fisher Stevens, Brady Bunch actress Susan Olsen and actor Griffin Dunne, attended the ceremony. Griffin Dunne recalled living with Fisher in New York when they were both young actors, and her initial reactions to working on Star Wars. Dunne recounted Fisher’s early evaluation of the film: “It’s stupid and it’s terrible.” After the first screening, they both knew she had been wrong. “We knew movies would never be the same, and you just knew Carrie’s life would never be the same,” he remarked. After the ceremony, fans were invited to see the actresses’ final resting place at Forest Lawn, Hollywood Hills.