The 'Night at the Museum' actor plans a public memorial service to remember the late Jerry Stiller with family and friends once the Covid-19 crisis comes to an end.

• May 21, 2020

AceShowbiz - Ben Stiller is hoping he will be able to host a memorial service for his late dad Jerry once the coronavirus pandemic comes to an end.

The actor joined Jimmy Fallon on "The Tonight Show: Home Edition" on Tuesday night, May 19, 2020, where he spoke about his father's death earlier this month. Admitting he wanted to use the interview to share some fond memories of Jerry, Ben explained that the Covid-19 crisis meant the family were unable to celebrate the late screen star's life in the way they wanted to.

"I figured it would be good to do it, because it would be a chance to talk about my dad a little bit," he said. "It's a weird time now, you know, and people can't really gather together, and you can't do sort of a (service)."

"I think somewhere down the line we'll do a memorial for him, when everybody can get together. Because there's so many people who loved him and who he worked with. But I thought it would be nice to be able to just have a moment to celebrate him a little bit."

Since Jerry's passing, many celebrities have reached out to Ben to share their condolences and recall their favourite times with the "Seinfeld" star. And the reaction to his dad's death has been incredibly touching to see for Ben.

"There's a lot of people who have reached out, which has been really nice. 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," he smiled. "If you'd ask him, like, '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.' "

Ben also revealed that he had been able to be with Jerry when he died. But he noted that not everybody is given that opportunity with the pandemic being so prevalent right now.

"I feel very fortunate that I was able to be with my dad, you know, it's not like that for so many people right now," he concluded.