Hollywood sees Jack Lemmon laid to rest yards from Monroe

STARS of Hollywood's past and present gathered to pay their final respects to Jack Lemmon, one of the most beloved American actors of his generation. He died last Wednesday at age 76.

At the ceremony in Westwood, California, were some of the biggest names from Hollywood including legendary writer-director Billy Wilder, 95, who first directed Lemmon in Some Like It Hot in 1959 to actor Michael Douglas, 56, who appeared with him in The China Syndrome two decades later.

Lemmon was buried just 10 yards from his Some Like It Hot co-star Marilyn Monroe.

The service was restricted to family and friends of the late actor, remembered this week for the nervous, edgy quality he brought to a range of roles from cross-dressing farce to passionate drama.

Lemmon's widow, Felicia Farr, who was with her husband when he died of complications from cancer, was the last to arrive for the hour-long memorial.

Chris Lemmon, the late actor's son, emerged as the service ended holding a single red rose.

Lemmon's other child and his step daughter were also among the mourners.

Actress Shirley MacLaine, who starred as Lemmon's accidental love interest in the 1960 comedy The Apartment and actor Kevin Spacey, who considered Lemmon an idol and later a mentor, both attended the memorial.

Spacey appeared as Lemmon's bureaucratic tormentor in the 1992 David Mamet drama Glengarry Glen Ross, in which Lemmon played the aging salesman on an unrelenting hard-luck streak.

Lemmon, who grew up in a wealthy Boston family and attended Andover and Harvard, was celebrated for his common touch and for his portrayals of ordinary men caught up in extraordinary circumstances, from the accident-prone traveller in The Out of Towners (1970) to his Oscar-winning role as the beleaguered businessman in Save the Tiger (1973).

Among fellow actors Lemmon was known for his signature, inspirational line repeated off-camera just as it was about to roll and the acting was to begin: "Magic time!"

Charlie Matthau, the son of Lemmon's favorite comic foil and longtime friend, Walter Matthau, also attended the service.

Lemmon made eight films with Matthau, including the 1968 film version of Neil Simon's The Odd Couple, in which Lemmon played the fastidious "neatnik" to Matthau's total slob. Matthau died last year. Actor Kirk Douglas, 84, a self-described former poker buddy of both men, attended the funeral service, as did his daughter-in-law, actress Catherine Zeta-Jones, 31.

Other notables in attendance included actor Gregory Peck with his wife Veronique, actor, director and diplomat Sidney Poitier and Barbara Sinatra, widow of Frank Sinatra.

A public memorial for Lemmon is planned for later this week in Los Angeles.

lAn actors' strike which would have seen the US movie industry grind to a halt looks set to be called off, in a cliffhanger ending worthy of a Hollywood blockbuster.

The long-running dispute between studio bosses and actors' unions over pay deals for TV and film appearances was today inching towards a final deal, almost two days after the deadline for an agreement was passed at midnight on Saturday.

Sources from both sides were suggesting that a tentative deal had been struck and there was little likelihood of the unions' members being asked to back industrial action, which would halt film production and take new episodes of hit shows such as Friends off the air.

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