Carrie Fisher, who has been laid to rest alongside her mother Debbie Reynolds, was adored by family, friends and fans for her gallows humour and frank talk about her struggles with mental illness.
What better home for her ashes then, her brother Todd Fisher and daughter Billie Lourd decided, than a porcelain urn in the shape of an outsized anti-depressant?
“Carrie’s favourite possession was a giant Prozac pill that she bought many years ago,” Todd Fisher said Friday as he left the private joint funeral at Forest Lawn – Hollywood Hills for his mother and sister. “She loved it, and it was in her house, and Billie and I felt it was where she’d want to be,” he said.
Other than Carrie Fisher’s cremation and unique urn, nearly no details were revealed about the ceremony, or about what form the two women’s graves took.
They’ll have plenty of celebrity company at the sprawling, hillside cemetery just across the Los Angeles River from Warner Bros. and Disney studios, including Bette Davis, Lucille Ball, Dick Van Patten, Liberace and Florence Henderson.
The funeral came a day after the two actresses were eulogized by family and close friends at a private memorial service at their neighbouring homes in Coldwater Canyon, about 16 kilometres west.
Fisher, who played Princess Leia in four Star Wars films, died at age 60 on Dec. 27. Reynolds, star of Singin’ in the Rain and many other classic musicals, died a day later at age 84.
‘Strong women’
Todd Fisher said Friday he’ll remember his mother and sister most for their resilience, and said both reminded him of Reynold’s role in 1964’s The Unsinkable Molly Brown.
“They were both Molly Browns of sorts,” Todd Fisher said. “It’s about a very strong woman. They were very, very strong women.”
He added, “we have so much of them that was left behind, all my sister’s words, and all the movies and all the things they created, and that’s what we need to remember.”
Now, the family plans a public memorial.
“We’ll have a bigger service down the road for the public and all the family friends, but this was a private family service,” Todd Fisher said. “It was fitting and it was beautiful.”