A host of stars have arrived at a memorial service for actor and Oscar-winning film director Richard Attenborough.
Film veteran Lord Attenborough, who dominated the British film business for more than half a century, died last August at the age of 90.
The service of thanksgiving in Westminster Abbey, central London, welcomed a dazzling congregation including his brother, TV wildlife presenter Sir David Attenborough, actors Sir Michael Caine, Sir John Hurt, Sir Kenneth Branagh and Dame Judi Dench.
Tourists stopped to watch the spectacle of the stars arriving.
A host of politicians, Hollywood stars and industry leaders reflected on the life and times of Lord Attenborough after his death last year.
Born in Cambridge in 1923, he championed the British film industry through its triumphs and trials, enjoying success as one of Britain’s leading actors before becoming a celebrated director and prolific movie-maker.
His career highlights included appearing in 1993 blockbuster Jurassic Park and clinching eight Oscars for 1982 film Gandhi, including best film and best director.
As an actor he was respected enough for top directors Satyajit Ray and Steven Spielberg to lure him out of self-imposed retirement to appear respectively in The Chess Players and Jurassic Park.
Spielberg, who chose Lord Attenborough to be “the perfect ringmaster to bring the dinosaurs back to life” in the films, said he was just one person in a long line of “Dickie’s” fans.
Lord Attenborough married the actress Sheila Sim when he was 21. His son Michael was born in 1949, followed by two daughters, Jane and Charlotte.
Tragedy struck on Boxing Day 2004 when his elder daughter Jane Holland, and her daughter, Lucy, and her mother-in-law, also named Jane, were killed in the south-Asian tsunami.
Son Michael is a theatre director and former artistic director of the Almeida Theatre in Islington, north London, and daughter Charlotte is an actress.
Lord Attenborough struck up a friendship with Diana, Princess of Wales, after the Prince of Wales asked him to help her write speeches.
The Dean of Westminster, the very reverend Dr John Hall, said: “We come to celebrate the life and achievement of Richard Attenborough, a truly great man: certainly a star of stage and screen, but also a pioneer film-maker, an exemplary leader of his profession, a man of deep commitment, of great generosity of spirit, and of personal warmth.”
He added: “We shall also pray that his story might continue to inspire and inform others to follow his example, that our world might become a little brighter and better.”
After the ceremony, Sir Michael said: “It was brilliant. So beautiful.”
And Dame Judi said: “I thought it was absolutely perfect.”
Sir John said: “It was excellent. Very moving.”
Robert Lindsay said: “It was very uplifting and it was a testimony to his amazing gift.
“I used to call him the magician.”
Dame Penelope Keith said it was “marvellous”, adding: “I think he’d have loved it.”
The ceremony, which lasted just under an hour, featured Sir David reading from Lord Attenborough’s 1994 maiden speech which opens with a line that got the congregation chuckling.
“I have it on the best authority – from a not too distant relative – that we are related to apes,” he read.
After reading the extract, which included the words “the arts are not a luxury” but “are for everyone”, Sir David added: “My brother lived by his words.”
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