STRATFORD, Ont. - Theatre legend William Hutt was remembered as a man of great love and generosity at an emotional funeral Monday that saw actors and directors pay tribute to the Stratford Festival icon.

Widely considered one of the world's finest Shakespearean actors, Hutt's passing drew testaments from actors Albert Schultz, Martha Henry and Peter Hutt at an Anglican church filled with the music of horns and timpani drums and adorned with a floral bouquet stuffed into a martini glass in honour of Hutt's favourite drink.

Robin Phillips, former artistic director of the Stratford Festival, was one of several who spoke emotionally of the acting giant's legacy.

"William Hutt has answered his final call," Phillips told about 450 people crowded into sweltering St. James' church as others stood on the lawn listening to speakers.

"Today his ovation rings through the heavens."

Hutt died June 27 at age 87 after being diagnosed with leukemia. He had a towering presence in this southwestern Ontario community where he made his home for many years.

His distinguished career included celebrated turns as Prospero in Shakespeare's "The Tempest" and the title character in "King Lear"; James Tyrone in Eugene O'Neill's "Long Day's Journey Into Night"; and Lady Bracknell in "The Importance of Being Earnest" by Oscar Wilde.

So robust was the six-foot-one actor with the booming voice that nephew Peter Hutt said he always believed his uncle would never die.

"There was something of the sweet fragrance of immortality about Bill, a foreverness," Hutt, also a stage actor, told the congregation.

"Were it not for his 87 years he just might have been able to thwart (death's) advances, however he confronted her head-on and they tussled beneath the sheets into eternity. Dear Bill did not go gently into that good night."

The younger Hutt called beginning a close friendship with the man the "advent of his thinking life."

Schultz, too, described a man who changed his life, noting that Hutt's influence extended far beyond the stage.

"He taught me grace under pressure, he taught me with his King Lear the scope of humanity," Schultz said.

"He moved me so many times to such deep laughter and such deep tears as an actor, as he did many of us, and that legacy will never be matched. But it is his legacy as a man that taught me more. His generosity and his capacity for love. His love for this town, his love for this festival."

"It is that great loss that we are feeling, and it is that great beacon that we all must follow."

Stratford's artistic director Richard Monette called Hutt a friend and a mentor who gave so much to Canadian theatre, but who was also generous with audiences and his friends.

Speaking outside the church before the funeral, Monette said he admired Hutt for his dedication to the craft, but also for his service to the country, noting Hutt was a member of the 7th Canadian Field Ambulance from 1941 to 1946.

On a personal level, Monette said he would remember the laughter, and Hutt's fondness for martinis.

"He would make them his very specific way and he would tell stories," Monette recalled with a smile.

"He liked them very dry, stirred, not shaken, no ice, straight up, with just a little bit of lemon zest."