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Ben Stiller discusses memorial plans for dad Jerry Stiller

Ben Stiller is planning to hold a a memorial service for his late father Jerry Stiller when coronavirus social distancing restrictions ease up. “It’s a weird time now,” The 54-year-old director told Jimmy Fallon on Tuesday’s episode of the “Tonight Show.” “People can’t really gather together. I think somewhere down the line we’ll do a …

Ben Stiller is planning to hold a a memorial service for his late father Jerry Stiller when coronavirus social distancing restrictions ease up.

“It’s a weird time now,” The 54-year-old director told Jimmy Fallon on Tuesday’s episode of the “Tonight Show.” “People can’t really gather together. I think somewhere down the line we’ll do a memorial service for him when everybody can get together. There’s just so many people that loved him and who he worked with.”

Jerry died earlier this month at age 92 of natural causes. Ben announced the news on Twitter at the time.

“There’s a lot of people who have reached out, which has been really nice,” he said. “I mean, just to feel how much he touched people, how much enjoyment he gave people, because I know that he would have felt good about all this.

If you’d ask him, ‘Do you care about all of, like, the show business aspect of things?’ He really did, but he’d always say, ‘But what I really care about is my kids and my kids being happy.’”

Stiller then shared a hilarious story about his father going to see his daughter Ella’s fourth grade play and was a very tough critic.

“They were doing ‘The Legend of Sleepy Hollow’ … and afterwards I said, ‘Dad, what’d you think?’ And he said, ‘I didn’t care for it, didn’t care for it,’” Ben recalled. “I said, ‘Dad, what are you talking about?’ And he goes, ‘Ella was amazing. Ella had the commitment and she was shining up there, but I didn’t feel like the rest of the kids were up to it.”

“And he wasn’t kidding!” Stiller exclaimed. “My mom was like, ‘Jerry, what the hell are you talking about? It’s a fourth grade play!’ And he goes, ‘I just didn’t feel it.’ And it was so funny because it really bothered him!”

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