By BILL HIGGINS

It's not often an auction combines aspects of a memorial service and a charity fund-raiser, but such was the case Wednesday when a selection of Roddy McDowall's celebrity photographs went on the block to benefit the Motion Picture & Television Fund.

The actor-photographer was both a longtime supporter and board member of the Fund. In fact, as a child star he'd attended the 1941 ground breaking of the Woodland Hills campus. His link was so strong that MPTF CEO Ken Scherer said, "For him, it was the only sanity left."

All royalties from McDowall's four photo books, the "Double Exposure" series, had benefited the MPTF so it was a natural progression that the pictures themselves be used this way.

The evening began with a cocktail party at Sotheby's Wilshire Boulevard courtyard where Edie Wasserman said, "The pictures are fabulous. I loved Roddy. What can I say?" Chuck Jones called McDowall a "true gentleman. That term is often used loosely, but he really was one." Mike Medavoy said the photos reflected how "warm and kind" McDowall was.

One of those photographic subjects, Steve Martin, viewed an atmospheric, black-and-white shot of himself offered in the silent auction and said: "It's grainy, but maybe I'm grainy."

Before the live auction there were brief remarks by event co-chairs Chris and Jamie McGurk, and Bob and Ann Osher; and SAG's Richard Masur, Jamie Lee Curtis and Jeffrey Katzenberg.

The real star of the evening was Sharon Stone, who acted as auctioneer and noted the MPTF's "noble notion" of establishing a safety net of care for those working in show business. The actress spoke of McDowall's "talent and breadth in a 50-year career. In a period that long you have highs, lows and mediums, which I'm having right now."

Stone has a surprising fluid style as an auctioneer. When revved up, she moves at a breathtaking pace: "Nine looking for 10. That makes you 11 ma'am. I got the gentleman for 12, 13. Thank you. Back to you at 14. Back to you at 15." This rapid spiel had an exhilarating effect on a crowd.

It wasn't long before Stone had sold photos of Jodie Foster ($2,300), Nicolas Cage ($1,100) and Billy Bob Thornton, who was on hand to make a personal appeal for a high bid ("I'm very fragile") and saw his image go to John Ritter for $2,000.

In a twist, the highest price paid was for a photo not taken by McDowall, but by one of his closest friends, Elizabeth Taylor. It was Katzenberg who paid $11,000 for the photo of a reclining McDowall, which he plans to donate to the MPTF.

All these sales and the silent auction added up to some $200,000 raised by the event (hosted by Vanity Fair and St. John) for the Next Generation Council of the MPTF.