Michael Wilding

Credit: Jamie McCarthy/WireImage

Elizabeth Taylor Remembered at Private Memorial for Friends, Family

Originally posted 10/16/2011 08:55PM

Close friends and family of the late Elizabeth Taylor gathered Sunday afternoon to remember the beloved Hollywood legend during a private memorial on the Warner Brothers lot in Burbank, PEOPLE has learned.

With Taylor's good friend Colin Farrell hosting the 75-minute celebration in the lot's Steven J. Ross Theater, the tribute was attended by Taylor's children Michael and Christopher Wilding, Liza Tivey and Maria Burton, as well as close friends Michael Caine, stepdaughter Kate Burton and Sir Elton John, who sang a stirring rendition of "Blue Eyes" to close the program.

"To say that the world got smaller, emptier, darker and lonelier when we lost Elizabeth is an understatement," Sir Elton John told the 400 guests during his heartfelt remarks. "She was a true rock, a pioneer, a pathfinder, a trailblazer and a star who will always burn bright and always had time to laugh at herself."