Tending legacies eases Todd Fisher’s grief

Todd Fisher considers himself the custodian of Debbie Reynolds’ and Carrie Fisher’s legacies.

LOS ANGELES >> Todd Fisher considers himself the custodian of Debbie Reynolds’ and Carrie Fisher’s legacies. He says it’s a role he’s always played, but now it’s helping him process the grief of losing his mother and sister.

“There’s a huge vacuum in my world without them there,” Todd Fisher said Wednesday from Hollywood’s Roosevelt Hotel, where he’s exhibiting some of his mom’s movie costumes during the TCM Classic Film Festival. “It makes me feel better to think their legacy isn’t going to be scattered to loss somehow or to be forgotten in some way. I will not let that happen.”

Appearing at festival screenings and showing off costumes from “Singin’ in the Rain” and “The Unsinkable Molly Brown” is just the beginning of what Fisher has planned. He’d like to see his mother’s collection of Hollywood costumes and memorabilia included in the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures that’s set to open in 2019, and he’s putting together a “tribute museum” of his own inside Debbie Reynolds Dance Studio in Los Angeles.

“It’s only out of default because I don’t know what else to do with myself,” said Fisher, 59. “We are going to build a small tribute museum to Debbie and Carrie.”

Meanwhile, he’s working on his tribute space at the dance studio, a comforting task. “It’s part of the process for me,” Fisher said. “There are a lot of thoughts and floating dreams and moments where I remember things. And this does help you with all of that. I know I’m doing with they would want.”

In a March 25 photo, Todd Fisher and Catherine Hickland, left, arrive at the Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds Memorial Service at The Forest Lawn, in Los Angeles.