Tributes as Hollywood 'everyman' Lemmon is laid to rest

Actors, friends and family gathered at the Westwood cemetery in Los Angeles for a private funeral service to honour Jack Lemmon, the much-loved actor who died last week at the age of 76.

Mourners included Billy Wilder, the 95-year-old director who allowed the Harvard-educated Lemmon to perfect his "everyman" characters in such films as Some Like It Hot and The Apartment, Kirk Douglas, who professed to being a lifelong poker buddy, and Kevin Spacey, Lemmon's co-star in the 1992 film Glengarry Glen Ross who considered him both a mentor and a father figure.

The exclusive Westwood cemetery is small, tasteful and filled with celebrity graves, including that of Marilyn Monroe, who worked with Lemmon and Tony Curtis on the 1959 comedy Some Like It Hot.

Others at the funeral, held on Sunday, included Shirley MacLaine (his co-star in The Apartment), Michael Douglas (who shared the screen with him in The China Syndrome), Catherine Zeta-Jones, Charlie Matthau, son of Lemmon's on-screen sparring partner Walter Matthau, who died last year, Gregory Peck, Sidney Poitier and Frank Sinatra's widow, Barbara. Lemmon's widow, Felicia Farr, led the mourners alongside the actor's son Chris.

A public memorial to celebrate Lemmon's life and career is planned for later this week.