Dan Aykroyd Pays Tribute To Former Fiance Carrie Fisher At Public Memorial
Carrie Fisher's former fiancé Dan Aykroyd made an emotional surprise appearance at the public memorial for the Star Wars actress and her mother Debbie Reynolds on Saturday.
At the event held by Carrie's brother, Todd Fisher, thousands of fans celebrated the famed mother/daughter duo, who shocked the world by dying within a day of each other. While some got seats inside the theater at Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills for the memorial, others watched from the Reynolds' website's live stream.
While celebrities weren't expected, Aykroyd, who got engaged to Fisher years ago after they co-starred in the movie The Blues Brothers together, not only showed up but spoke to the audience.
Aykroyd , 64, made mourners laugh through their tears, saying in his eulogy for Fisher, "I once saved her life, applying the Heimlich maneuver to dislodge a Brussels sprout from her throat.
He added poignantly, "And if I'd been with our beloved showboat, I might be able to save her again."
As RadarOnline.com readers know, veteran star Reynolds died at age 84 on Dec. 28, just one day after her daughter Fisher passed away at age 60. Fisher had been rushed to a Los Angeles hospital after having a heart attack on a plane coming home from London.
Aykroyd revealed in eulogizing Fisher on Saturday, "Although Carrie and I did not get married we had taken blood tests in anticipation of maybe having a child."
He told the audience that an East Indian doctor in Chicago had given them the tests "because babies and Christmas were great joys to Carrie."
Aykroyd wondered what the offspring of Princess Leia and Elwood Blues have turned out like.
He thought, "Funny, quick, spiritual, haunted, pursued, talented, ascerbic….deviant, manic genius."
But instead, the funnyman had three kids with his wife, Donna Dixon.
Former Saturday Night Live comedian Aykroyd also said, "Carrie enjoyed conversation. Throughout our relationship, she talked," he said to the crowd's laughter. "From beginning to end, she was sharp, hilarious, laughing, weeping, soaring, exhilarating Carrie."
Aykroyd also was candid about how their romance ended, telling fans, "In fact, she had long conversations on the phone in my presence with Paul Simon, with whom she was attempting to reconcile.
"So here I found myself attempting to reconcile with a woman returning to a former intimate, and may I say, a much better choice, but a woman who confided deeply in me and who valued my counsel throughout the process of her inevitable decision to in fact, not marry me—and wed another."
Fisher, of course, walked down the aisle with singer Simon in 1983, the same year Aykroyd married Dixon. They divorced and later, Fisher had daughter Billie with boyfriend Bryan Lourd.
Aykroyd said his reward for his "unwavering support" in whatever "enchanting" Fisher wanted to do "was the time I had with her as a trusted friend and fellow night hawk."
He said Fisher appreciated her "embrace" of John Belushi "and their raucous relationship, truly a union of comedy intelligentsia."
Tragically, as RadarOnline.com reported, it was a double Hollywood heartbreak with Fisher and her mom. Reynolds was watching Fisher's brainwaves in the hospital before she died.
And as her son Todd Fisher, 59, said, Reynolds told him she wanted to be with Carrie before she herself passed away from an intracerebral hemorrhage.
Todd opened the event by saying, "This entire thing I'm calling a show because my mother did not like memorials."
He recalled for the crowd how Reynolds told him she "would like to be buried with Carrie. I didn't know she was going to leave us that very next day."
The memorial began by showing a poignant drawing of the two stars with arms around each other, Reynolds dressed in her Singin' in the Rain coat and Fisher in her Star Wars regalia.
The Gay Men's Chorus of Los Angeles and members of the Debbie Reynolds dance school also performed and fans saw numerous clips of the two stars.
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