500 Hollywood Insiders Tribute Matthau

LOS ANGELES, Aug. 20 -- Five hundred Hollywood insiders packed the Directors Guild theater Sunday for a memorial to Walter Matthau,which turned out to be as much a laugh fest as a Friars Club roast.

The tone was set by an invitation that specified “cheerfulattire” and, except for some tears from Matthau’s longtime buddyJack Lemmon, it captured the comedy of Matthau on the screen andoff.

CNN interviewer Larry King told of Matthau’s last appearance onhis show. Matthau complained that he got tired of bad interviewersand so he made up stories about his life.

“I told one interviewer that my grandmother was Chinese, and heprinted it,” King quoted Matthau as saying.

Lemmon’s Memories Lemmon, whose collaboration with Matthau began with TheFortune Cookie, told of taking his friend to a preview of a filmin which Lemmon starred.

“The exodus of the public began after the first reel,” Lemmonrecalled, “and by the end of this movie there were two rows ofpeople left — probably from the studio. I asked, ‘Walter what doyou think of the picture?’ He said, ‘Get out of it!’”

Lemmon concluded tearfully: “He was my best friend. One thingis a constant, when I was with Walter in a film or personally, itwas always magic time.”

Diane Keaton, who directed and co-starred with Matthau in hislast film, “Hanging Up,” called him “the funniest man onEarth.”

Actor, Not A Comic Neil Simon, who wrote The Odd Couple, The Sunshine Boysand other films for Matthau, declared: “Walter was brilliantlyfunny, extraordinarily funny. But he was not a comic. He was firstand foremost an actor.”

Lauren Bacall read a statement from Matthau’s widow, Carol, inwhich she said, “We had lots of fights and perfect love.”

Among those in the theater were Sophia Loren, Matthau’s co-starin Grumpier Old Men, Gregory Peck, Angie Dickinson, Carl Reinerand producers Walter Mirisch and Howard W. Koch.