Photos and story by Barbara Kerr
Throughout history, people have made pilgrimages to burial sites: to honor and to remember. In today’s celebrity culture, many people are drawn to four Los Angeles area cemeteries which are the final resting places of stars of yesterday and today: Forest Lawn Glendale, Forest Lawn in the Hollywood Hills, the Pierce Brothers Westwood Village Memorial Park and Mortuary, and Hollywood Forever National Cemetery.
Forest Lawn – Glendale
The name Forest Lawn has long been connected with Hollywood. Today, Forest Lawn Memorial-Parks & Mortuaries owns and operates a chain of cemeteries and mortuaries in Los Angeles, Orange, and Riverside Counties.
As the website notes, the original Forest Lawn location in Glendale “has been a Southern California landmark since 1906. It has a world-renowned art museum, extraordinary statuary, and the Hall of the Crucifixion-Resurrection which is home to two of the largest religious paintings in the Western hemisphere.”
In The Court of Honor in the Grand Mausoleum, you will find “The Last Supper,” a beautiful stained-glass re-creation of Leonardo da Vinci’s famous painting. Thirty feet long and 15 feet high, it took nearly seven years to complete: three years longer than Leonardo da Vinci’s original. (Photography was not permitted inside the Grand Mausoleum during our visit.)
Near “The Last Supper,” there are replicas of several of Michelangelo’s greatest works— “La Pieta,” “Moses,” “Night and Day,” and “Twilight and Dawn.”
As you walk down the hall toward the Court of Honor, before you turn left to enter it, look straight ahead at a sculpture of a giant angel. Then look below. You will see one name: Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor.
Forest Hills Glendale is also the final resting place for entertainment legends including Spencer Tracy (only his last name appears on a wall); James Stewart and his wife, Gloria (buried on a hill above the Church of the Recessional); Errol Flynn and his wife, Patrice; and, in a small, secluded garden area near the Freedom Mausoleum, Walt Disney and his wife, Lillian.
The Forest Lawn Museum is located adjacent to the Hall of Crucifixion-Resurrection. To reach both, enter the main gate and proceed up the hill, following signs to the museum. There is plenty of free parking. Admission is free and the site offers a beautiful panoramic view of the region.
A travel note: Many of the remembrance markers at the Hollywood cemeteries are located flat on the ground, which can make it challenging to find specific sites. Web searches can sometimes be helpful in finding burial locations; previous visitors sometimes leave “pins” on websites to guide you. Cemetery staff members can also be helpful.
Forest Lawn – Hollywood Hills
Forest Lawn Memorial Park in the Hollywood Hills blends natural beauty, sweeping views, art and history. As their website notes: “Located close to Griffith Park, this idyllic landscape showcases a unique collection of American artwork, with larger-than-life statues of Washington, Jefferson, and Lincoln.”
It is the final resting spot for remembrances of hundreds of entertainment luminaries including Stan Laurel (“His genius in the art of comedy brought gladness to the world he loved”), Buster Keaton (a simple marker features the dates of his life), Bette Davis (“She did it the hard way”) and – together after passing away within one day of each other – Debbie Reynolds and Carrie Fisher.
Pierce Brothers Westwood Village Memorial Park And Mortuary
Located in a quiet area of the Westwood neighborhood of Los Angeles, the Pierce Brothers Westwood Village Memorial Park And Mortuary is perhaps best known as the final resting place of actress Marilyn Monroe. For two decades, Monroe’s ex-husband, Joe DiMaggio, had roses delivered to her grave twice a week. Nearby, there is a marble bench in her honor – purchased by fans.
Playboy magazine founder and editor-in-chief Hugh Hefner, who died in 2017, purchased the crypt next to Monroe’s – reportedly for $75,000. Monroe, who died in 1962, was the cover and centerfold for the very first issue of “Playboy.” The photos had been taken years before the magazine was founded; Monroe said she had posed for the photos because she had needed the money. She reportedly earned nothing when they appeared in the magazine, and many people believe she would not have been happy about spending eternity next to the magazine’s founder.
Other memorials seem to have been created to bring a smile – including those of actor Jack Lemmon, director Billy Wilder (whose marker pays tribute to the last line of his classic film, “Some Like It Hot”), Merv Griffin (whose marker reflects his career as a television host and producer), author Jackie Collins, comedian Tim Conway, and actors Don Knotts, whose ornate memorial tribute honors his diverse career.
The Armand Hammer family has a large mausoleum. The Hammer Museum – an art and cultural center – is located about two blocks from the museum.
You will also find the burial sites for notables including Natalie Wood, Dean Martin (his first wife, Jeanne, is buried nearby), Walter Matthau and his wife Carol, Farrah Fawcett, Eva Gabor (buried in a different section than from her long-time friend and companion Merv Griffin), Peter Bogdanovich and Dorothy Stratton (buried next to each other), Truman Capote (interred with his long-time friend Joanne Carson), Oscar Levant, Mel Tormé, Carroll O’Connor, Sammy Cahn, Karl Malden, Richard Dawson, Fanny Brice and her daughter, Lew Ayres, Kirk and Anne Douglas, John Cassavetes, Peggy Lee, Ross Hunter, Darryl F. Zanuck, Peter Falk and many more.
Another travel note: Many of us have come to rely on GPS and our cellphones to guide us when we’re traveling. But some locations are still challenging to find. We kept driving in circles as the navigation kept telling us to turn – only to see an alley between buildings instead of a road. Knowing that we were close, we finally parked and walked. And we found it – down an alley off of Wilshire Boulevard. Or you can take a different alley off of Glendon Avenue. The cemetery is just northeast of the Westwood Branch Library.
For this visit, we’ll give the final words (literally) to comedian Rodney Dangerfield whose tombstone says, simply, “There goes the neighborhood.”
Hollywood Forever National Cemetery
Founded in 1899, Hollywood Forever National Cemetery is the resting place for hundreds of Hollywood luminaries. Drawing visitors from all over the world, the cemetery “has restored to its original splendor and has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places.”
It’s located on Santa Monica Boulevard, one block north of Paramount Studios, and is described as “a full-service cemetery, funeral home, crematory, and cultural events center which regularly hosts community events such as live music and summer movie screenings.”
Hollywood Forever is the final resting place for entertainment figures as diverse as directors Cecil B. DeMille and Victor Fleming; actors including Rudolph Valentino, Mickey Rooney, Peter Finch, Peter Lorre, Clifton Webb and Douglas Fairbanks (Sr. and Jr.); singer Nelson Eddy and musician Johnny Ramone; and Tyrone Power (whose marker features a lovely inscription from Shakespeare).
The marker honoring voice actor Mel Blanc is especially memorable. Honoring “the man of 1,000 voices” – who gave life and voice to so many cartoon characters including Porky Pig – the stone tells us: “That’s all folks!”
A very different marker honors actress Hattie McDaniel, who won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for “Gone with the Wind.” McDaniel wanted to be buried in Hollywood Forever but the request was denied because, at the time, that cemetery did not permit burials for African-Americans.
There is also a relatively new addition: the Judy Garland Pavilion. In 2017, Garland’s children – Liza Minnelli, Lorna Luft and Joe Luft – said that they wanted to bring their mother “home to Hollywood” from her original burial site at New York’s Ferncliff Cemetery.
According to a cemetery spokesperson, the Judy Garland Pavilion is intended as a final resting spot for Minnelli, Luft and other family members so they can be together.
In Hollywood. Forever.
Author Barbara Kerr, APR, Fellow PRSA, is an award-winning communications and public relations specialist with a passion for writing about people, travel, and the arts. Her career as a broadcast journalist led to her induction into the Dayton (Ohio) Area Broadcasters Hall of Fame. Accredited in public relations, she is a past chair of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) College of Fellows.
