Funeral Services Held for Natasha Richardson

Approximately 40 friends and family mourned as the late actress was laid to rest near her home in upstate New York

Family and friends of Natasha Richardson said their final farewells to the late actress Sunday afternoon during a small, private funeral held near her Millbrook home in upstate New York.

Approximately 40 people gathered for the services, including husband Liam Neeson and their two sons, Micheál and Daniel, mother Vanessa Redgrave, sister Joely Richardson and longtime friend and fellow actor Ralph Fiennes. Alan Rickman, Timothy Dalton, Uma Thurman and Laura Linney, who costarred with Neeson in Love Actually, were also in attendance.

Richardson died on Wednesday at the age of 45 from a head injury she suffered while skiing in Canada.

The funeral began after the family arrived in a police-escorted motorcade at St. Peter's Episcopal Church in Lithgow, where Neeson and his sons are members. Wearing a dark suit and sunglasses, Liam helped carry his wife's casket into the tiny white church.

Natasha will be buried at nearby St. Peter's cemetery, where her maternal grandmother, Rachel Kempson, was laid to rest in 2003. Kempson passed away while visiting her granddaughter.

Ten police officers were stationed outside the church, where more than two dozen reporters and onlookers had quietly gathered. Despite the threat of protests from Kansas-based Westboro Baptist Church, which opposes Richardson's support for AIDS research, the scene was calm and no protestors were visible.

(Originally published March 22, 2009, at 11:10 a.m. PT)