Friends and family of screen icon Debbie Reynolds and « Star Wars » legend Carrie Fisher gathered Thursday to pay tribute to the beloved celebrity mother and daughter, who died one day apart.
Meryl Streep, Holly Hunter, Ellen Barkin and Ed Begley Jr were among the stars who made their way to the luxury Beverly Hills compound where Fisher and Reynolds lived as neighbors until their deaths just after Christmas.
The pair are expected to be interred side by side among many other stars of screen and stage in the Hollywood Hills on Friday.
Fisher is believed to have been cremated already, although some of her ashes are expected to be buried alongside her mother.
Reynolds, who won moviegoers’ hearts as a star of « Singin’ in the Rain, » died on Wednesday last week, a day after Fisher.
The 84-year-old suffered a stroke at the Beverly Hills property as she was making funeral arrangements for Fisher, who had suffered a heart attack.
Reynolds’s son Todd Fisher — Carrie’s brother — told ABC’s « 20/20 » show after their deaths that his mother had been devastated not to get the chance to see the « Star Wars » actress one last time.
« She expressed how much she loved my sister. She then said she really wanted to be with Carrie, in those precise words. And within 15 minutes from that conversation, she faded out. Within 30 minutes, she technically was gone, » he said.
Fisher, who catapulted to worldwide stardom as rebel warrior Princess Leia in the original « Star Wars » trilogy, died in Los Angeles four days after suffering a heart attack on a transatlantic flight. She was 60.
The family is believed to be planning a future public memorial service for Fisher and Reynolds, possibly featuring stars such as Streep — who starred in the film « Postcards from the Edge, » which was based on Fisher’s 1987 semi-autobiographical novel of the same name.
Other celebrities laid to rest at Forest Lawn Memorial Park include Bette Davis, Reynolds’s onscreen mother in « A Catered Affair » (1956), and Reynolds’s close friend Liberace.
Silent film star Buster Keaton, Oscar-winning Rod Steiger and David Carradine, the star of « Kung Fu » and Quentin Tarantino’s « Kill Bill » films, are also buried there.
