Inglewood Park Cemetery
The men and women were interred at Inglewood Park Cemetery in Inglewood, Los Angeles, California.
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- Music Department
- Composer
- Actor
Chet Baker started his career in the late forties. He became famous with the Gerry Mulligan Quartet in 1952. His solo in "My funny valentine" is a classic of the west coast jazz in the fifties. When Mulligan was arrested in 1953, Chet led the group until 1955, when he went to Europe. He also sang on many records. In Europe he recorded with many musicians in different countries. His career was interrupted many times for personal problems with drugs and he was arrested many times for his addiction. In 1974 he come back to music after three years in obscurity, playing in a concert in Carnegie Hall with his old friend, Gerry Mulligan. After this he started a "new career", but his problems with drugs were continuous. His death today is a mystery, one possibility is suicide but another says he was killed by trafficants in Amsterdam, Holland.Plot: Elm plot, Division C, Lot 152
GPS coordinates: 33.9613914, -118.3388901 (hddd.dddd)- Cinematographer
- Camera and Electrical Department
- Art Director
Renowned cinematographer Joseph August began his film career not as a cameraman but as a wrangler--he was born and raised in Colorado--at Inceville, the studio begun by pioneering producer/director Thomas H. Ince. He soon switched careers, becoming an assistant to cinematographer Ray C. Smallwood. He shot his first film, Lure of the Violin (1913), in 1912. His reputation became such that only three years later he was picked as "official" cameraman for western star William S. Hart, shooting more than 40 of Hart's westerns. When Hart retired August went to Fox, where he worked with director John Ford, who appreciated August's expertise at outdoor photography. August was also known for his affinity for and facility with low-key lighting, a technique he initially developed out of necessity, since the types of lighting units that could light up a set were expensive, extremely hot and not particularly efficient when August first started out as a cameraman.
He and Ford developed both a professional and personal relationship, and during World War II August joined Ford in the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the predecessor of the modern-day CIA. Both Ford and August were wounded while shooting combat for the documentary The Battle of Midway (1942).
In addition to his other accomplishments, August was also a founding member of the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC).Plot: Pinecrest, lot 1340- Coit Albertson was born on 14 October 1880 in Reading, Pennsylvania, USA. He was an actor, known for The Carter Case (1919), Casey of the Coast Guard (1926) and The Evil Dead (1922). He was married to Helen Catechakes. He died on 13 December 1953 in Los Angeles, California, USA.Plot: Grace Chapel Columbarium, Community Niche C
- Director
- Writer
- Producer
Canadian-born (Winnipeg) Reginald Barker moved with his family to Scotland shortly after he was born, and they eventually emigrated to the US, settling in California. Bitten by the show-business bug early, Barker was acting in plays by age 16, and then joined up with a traveling stock company as stage manager. He eventually made his way to New York City, where he got a job as a stage manager and, starting in 1910, as an actor. He found that the burgeoning motion picture business proved more interesting to him than the stage, and he joined Bison Pictures, traveling to California and working under legendary producer Thomas H. Ince. He soon left acting and worked as an assistant director, making his directorial debut in 1912 with On the Warpath (1912), a western with Art Acord. He worked steadily for Ince, and was so highly thought of by the producer that he shared director duties with Barker on Ince's epic, Civilization (1915).
Barker directed almost 100 films over his career, working with such stars as Sessue Hayakawa, Hoot Gibson and Myrna Loy. He directed his last film in 1935 and then retired from the industry. He and his wife opened up a gift shop in Pasadena, California. Barker died of a heart attack in 1945 in Los Angeles. He was 58.Plot: Mausoleum of the Golden West.- Earl Battey was born on 5 January 1935 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He was married to Sonia. He died on 15 November 2003 in Ocala, Florida, USA.
- Ricky Bell was born on 8 April 1955 in Houston, Texas, USA. He was an actor, known for Disco 9000 (1977), The NFL on CBS (1956) and NFL Monday Night Football (1970). He was married to Nathalia Laidler. He died on 28 November 1984 in Inglewood, California, USA.Plot: Parkview Plot, Lot 973, Grave D
GPS coordinates: 33.9664688, -118.3365173 (hddd.dddd) - Soundtrack
George Bennard was born on 4 February 1873 in Youngstown, Ohio, USA. George died on 10 October 1958 in Reed City, Michigan, USA.Plot: Oak Plot, Division D, Lot 24- Actor
- Writer
- Soundtrack
Edgar Bergen was born on 16 February 1903 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for Fun and Fancy Free (1947), The Muppet Movie (1979) and Letter of Introduction (1938). He was married to Frances Bergen. He died on 30 September 1978 in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA.Plot: Miramar Plot, Lot 131, Grave 2
GPS coordinates: 33.9697304, -118.3384171 (hddd.dddd)- Actress
- Soundtrack
The daughter of William and Lillie Mae Westerman, her father died of tuberculosis when she was ten years old. Her mother then moved the family to Los Angeles.
She suffered a skull fracture in an auto accident when she was 14. While recuperating, she was given a Charlie McCarthy doll to cheer her up. Little did she know she'd later marry Charlie McCarthy creator, famous comedian and ventriloquist, Edgar Bergen.
Graduated from Los Angeles High School, where she was a pom-pom girl. At 19, Frances was in the audience of Edgar Bergen's radio program as the guest of a member of his staff. Sitting in the front row, her long legs caught the attention of the 39-year-old star, who asked to meet her. They were married in Mexico after a year of long distance courtship.- Writer
- Director
- Producer
Paul Bern is undoubtedly more famous today for being found shot to death in his bathroom barely 2 months after his marriage to proto-sex symbol Jean Harlow in 1932. Born in Hamburg, Germany as Paul Levy, he came to the United States with his family as a child. His mother died by drowning in the fall of 1920, as documented in her death certificate, not by suicide as previously speculated. Bern spent the vast majority of his adult life employed as a screenwriter, director and producer at MGM before rising into the upper executive ranks. He most notably kept his feet wet in production by co-producing the all-star hit _Grand Hotel (1932/I which won the third Oscar)_ with the uncredited boy-genius, Irving Thalberg. He gained a reputation as one of the few MGM executives stars could turn to with their personal problems and be assured of a degree of confidentiality. He was the first person many of them sought out prior to dealing with hard-nosed studio boss Louis B. Mayer. His quiet intellectual demeanor attracted Harlow--- who despite her sexpot screen persona, was inclined to more cerebral pursuits. But in marrying her, Bern also inherited her leeching family and they strained the marriage from the start. Sadly it was in death--- which still stands officially as a suicide-- that he gained the most press, one of the most studied and wildly speculated-upon mysteries in Hollywood history. His alleged suicide note is open to lurid interpretation and doubts persist whether it's written in his own handwriting or is merely an apology written weeks before over what could politely be called a sexual dysfunction. Harlow herself never publicly commented on the matter, although she was interviewed by LAPD detectives and appeared before a grand jury. Screenwriter Ben Hecht claimed he was murdered by a mentally imbalanced former lover, Dorothy Millette (with whom had a common law marriage and whom Bern continued to marginally support) who was found floating in the Sacramento River the day following his death. Speculation also surrounds E.J. Mannix's activities in the case. Mannix was known in those days as the studio's "fixer" and rumors abound on the degree of his involvement, most recently alluded to in Hollywoodland (2006). The Los Angeles- Soundtrack
Richard Berry was born on 11 April 1935 in Extension, Louisiana, USA. He died on 23 January 1997 in Los Angeles, California, USA.Plot: Sunset Mission Mausoleum, Sanctuary El Sereno, Crypt D-222
GPS coordinates: 33.9708214, -118.3432999 (hddd.dddd)- Actor
- Writer
Elmer Booth was born on 9 December 1882 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for His Auto's Maiden Trip (1912), Why He Gave Up (1911) and Abe Gets Even with Father (1911). He was married to Irene Outtrim. He died on 16 June 1915 in Los Angeles, California, USA.Plot: Sequoia, Lot 164 (unmarked, beneath the Booth Family marker).- Editor
- Editorial Department
- Producer
Margaret Booth was born on 14 January 1898 in Los Angeles, California, USA. She was an editor and producer, known for Mutiny on the Bounty (1935), Murder by Death (1976) and Annie (1982). She died on 28 October 2002 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Lyman Bostock was born on 22 November 1950 in Birmingham, Alabama, USA. He was married to Youvene Whistler. He died on 24 September 1978 in Gary, Indiana, USA.Plot: Parkview Section, Lot 342, Grave D
GPS coordinates: 33.9660301, -118.3369293 (hddd.dddd) - Fletcher Bowron was born on 13 August 1887 in Porway, California, USA. He was an actor, known for The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show (1950) and Stars in the Eye (1952). He died on 11 September 1968 in Los Angeles, California, USA.Plot: El Portal Plot, Lot 214, Grave A
GPS coordinates: 33.9666710, -118.3381882 (hddd.dddd) - Tom Bradley was born on 29 December 1917 in Calvert, Texas, USA. He was an actor, known for Nick of Time (1995), It's Garry Shandling's Show. (1986) and 16 Days of Glory (1985). He was married to Ethel Arnold. He died on 29 September 1998 in Los Angeles, California, USA.Plot: Sunset Mission Mausoleum. Vault 1086D. On your left as you enter.
GPS coordinates: 33.9713898, -118.3430634 (hddd.dddd) - Make-Up Department
- Actor
- Stunts
Layne Britton was born on 5 September 1907 in Munday, Texas, USA. He was an actor, known for The Blues Brothers (1980), Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970) and Pier 5, Havana (1959). He was married to Leila Sackett. He died on 12 December 1993 in Marina del Rey, California, USA.Plot: Pacific Terrace Plot, Lot 157, Grave B- Music Department
- Composer
- Soundtrack
Charles Brown was born on 13 September 1922 in Texas City, Texas, USA. He was a composer, known for Cast Away (2000), Wild Card (2015) and Hold the Dark (2018). He died on 21 January 1999 in Oakland, California, USA.Plot: Sunset Mission Mausoleum, Sanctuary of Bells, Crypt 930
GPS coordinates: 33.9713898, -118.3430634 (hddd.dddd)- Music Department
- Composer
- Actor
In spite of the fact, that he only had been on a conservatory for only short time, he was a very successful popular composer, who wrote with lyricist and later producer Arthur Freed not only the songs for MGM musical and non-musical films, e.g. "Broadway Melody" for the movie "The Broadway Melody", "You Are My Lucky Star" and "Broadway Rhythm" for "Broadway Melody of 1936", "Temptation" for "Going Hollywood" and - best remembered - "Singin' in the Rain" from "The Hollywood Revue of 1929", which became a classic in the movie "Singin' in the Rain" in the version of Gene Kelly. He also worked with Richard A. Whiting and Buddy G. DeSylva on the Broadway Musical "Take a Chance."Plot: Sunny Slope, Lot 188 (S. side of section, near top of hill, in front of Brown memorial monument headstone)- Plot: Inglewood Mausoleum, Room D
GPS coordinates: 33.9712791, -118.3387527 (hddd.dddd) - Music Department
- Producer
Jheryl Busby was born on 5 May 1949 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He was a producer, known for Joyce Irby feat. Doug E. Fresh: Mr. DJ (1989), BET Special: Johnny Gill (1993) and Intimate Portrait (1990). He died on 4 November 2008 in Malibu, California, USA.Plot: Sunset Mission Mausoleum, Sanctuary of Sierra, Crypt 577- William D. Byrd was born on 3 May 1966 in Kansas City, Missouri, USA. He was an actor, known for Children of a Lesser God (1986), A Man Called Hawk (1989) and Beauty and the Beast (1987). He died on 21 July 1993 in Inglewood, California, USA.Plot: Crypt 901 Sanctuary of Valor Manchester Maus.
- Bebe Moore Campbell was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to George and Doris Moore. After her parents' divorce, Campbell started sending her father serial short stories when he moved to North Carolina. She later credited these short stories as the beginning of her career as a writer. Due to the influence of her strict mother, Campbell went on to be a straight "A" student at Philadelphia High School for Girls and an Elementary Education graduate of the University of Pittsburgh.
After college Campbell taught elementary school in Atlanta, Georgia, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and Washington, DC. While teaching in Atlanta, Campbell took a writing class from Toni Cade Bambara and was bitten by the writing bug. Campbell also worked at Howard University in Washington, DC as a publicist.
In 1976, Essence Magazine bought one of Campbell's short stories. Thinking that she was on her way to becoming a novelist, Campbell submitted several more stories to Essence to no avail. One day, the editor of Essence was at Howard University for a conference and Campbell seized an opportunity to talk to her in the ladies bathroom. Campbell was told that if she wrote non-fiction instead of fiction, there was a good chance the magazine would print more of her work. Campbell followed that advice and became a frequent contributor to Essence.
As a result of her start at Essence, Campbell became a prolific fiction and non-fiction writer. Her first non-fiction book was "Successful Women, Angry Men: Backlash in the Two-Career Marriage" and her first novel was "Your Blues Ain't Like Mine," a story based on Emmitt Till's 1955 murder. In addition to writing, Campbell was a frequent contributor to National Public Radio and an advocate for the mentally ill. She penned several books and commentaries on mental illness in the African-American community.
In February of 2006, Campbell was diagnosed with brain cancer, an illness to which she ultimately succumbed at the age of 56. Campbell died in Los Angeles, California, and is survived by her mother, Doris, husband, Ellis Gordon Jr., daughter, Maia Campbell, son, Ellis Gordon III, and two grandchildren. - Margaret Campbell was born on 24 April 1883 in St. Louis, Missouri, USA. She was an actress, known for The Laundry Girl (1919), Top o' the Morning (1922) and The Dangerous Blonde (1924). She was married to Josef Swickard. She died on 27 June 1939 in Los Angeles, California, USA.Plot: Lot 1286, G Plot [unmarked]
- Ed Cassidy was born on 21 March 1893 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He was an actor, known for Valley of Fear (1947), Sun Valley Cyclone (1946) and Navajo Kid (1945). He was married to Pearl Wiard(vaudeville actress) and Dorothy. He died on 19 January 1968 in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA.Plot: Montcrest Section - Lot 407, Division C, grave 6
- Music Artist
- Music Department
- Actor
A tragic fate may have given this visionary a heightened sensitivity, perception, awareness, even expansion to his obvious musical gifts that he may have never touched upon had he not suffered from his physical affliction. Whatever it was, Ray Charles revolutionized American music and was catapulted to legendary status by the time he died in Beverly Hills at age 73.
Born on September 23, 1930, to Aretha and Baily Robinson, an impoverished Albany, Georgia, family that moved to Greenville, Florida while he was still an infant. It was not a cause for joy and celebration. His father soon abandoned the family and his baby brother, George Robinson, drowned in a freak washtub accident. Ray himself developed glaucoma at the age of five and within two years had lost his sight completely. A singer in a Baptist choir, he developed a love and feel for rhythms and studied music at the State School for Deaf and Blind Children, showing which brought out his talent and ear for playing various instruments, including the piano and clarinet.
An orphan by his early teens, Ray joined a country band at age 16 called The Florida Playboys. He moved to Seattle in 1948 where he and Southern guitarist Gossady McGee formed the McSon Trio. With an emphasis on easy-styled jazz, Ray also played in bebop sessions on the sly. He departed from the McSon Trio and signed with Los Angeles-based Swing Time Records, becoming the pianist for rhythm and blues great Lowell Fulson and his band. Atlantic Records eventually picked him up. Along the road he would add composer, writer and arranger to his formidable list of talents.
Ray's first R&B hit was "Confession Blues" in Los Angeles in 1949. In 1951, he had his first solo chart buster with "Baby Let Me Hold Your Hand". His amazing versatility and raw, soulful delivery quickly caught on with audiences and helped put Atlantic Records on the map. Hits like "Mess Around", "Things I Used to Do", "A Fool for You", "I've Got a Woman", "Drown in My Own Tears", and especially "What'd I Say" in 1959, pushed gospel and R&B to a wider crossover audience. He made a move into the country music arena--unheard of for a black singer--in the 1960s, doing soulful spins on Hank Williams and Eddy Arnold tunes. In 1960, he left Atlantic and signed with ABC-Paramount. Under ABC-Paramount, hits poured out during this peak time with "I Can't Stop Loving You", "Hit the Road Jack", "Busted" and his beloved signature song "Georgia On My Mind".
His landmark 1962 album "Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music" brought a new swinging style to country music. From there, he traveled a mainstream route--from interpreting songs from The Beatles ("Eleanor Rigby") to appearing in "Diet Pepsi" ads ("You Got the Right One, Baby, Uh-huh!"). He also showed up sporadically in films, playing himself in the movie Ballad in Blue (1965) and guest-starring in The Blues Brothers (1980) with Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi. A television musical variety favorite with his trademark dark sunglasses and dry humor, he worked alongside such musical legends as Ella Fitzgerald and Barbra Streisand on their very special evenings of song.
It is hard to believe that with everything he accomplished, Ray also had to deal with a longstanding heroin problem. In the mid-1960s, he was arrested for possession of heroin and marijuana and revealed that he had been addicted for nearly two decades. By 1965, he had completely recovered. The man who lived life on the edge was divorced twice and had 12 children both in and outside his marriages.
At the time of his death from liver disease on June 10, 2004, he was working on a recording project of duets with such performers as Willie Nelson, Bonnie Raitt, B.B. King, Elton John and Norah Jones. This collaboration entitled "Genius Loves Company" led to an incisive win at the Grammy Awards--eight posthumous trophies including "Album of the Year" and "Record of the Year".
A few months after his death, the critically-acclaimed feature film biography Ray (2004) was released starring Oscar-winner Jamie Foxx.Plot: Mausoleum of the Golden West, Eternal Love Corridor, Crypt A-32- Music Department
- Soundtrack
James Cleveland was born on 5 December 1931 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He is known for Mississippi Burning (1988), Faster (2010) and Detroit (2017). He died on 9 February 1991 in Culver City, California, USA.Plot: Alta Mesa Garden Mausoleum, Crypt #77
GPS coordinates: 33.9702797, -118.3388901 (hddd.dddd)- Actor
- Producer
- Additional Crew
Johnnie L. Cochran Jr. was born on 2 October 1937 in Shreveport, Louisiana, USA. He was an actor and producer, known for Showtime (2002), Arli$$ (1996) and Morning Breath (2002). He was married to Sylvia Dale Mason and Barbara Jean Berry. He died on 29 March 2005 in Los Angeles, California, USA.Plot: Manchester Garden Mausoleum, Chapel Of Honor, Crypt 1202- The Flying Codonas is known for Variety (1925) and Swing High (1932).Plot: Miramar Plot, Lots 1 & 2
GPS coordinates: 33.9697800, -118.3394775 (hddd.dddd) - Actor
- Producer
- Stunts
Ray Corrigan was a physical culturist and very good athlete. He began working in Hollywood, as a physical fitness trainer for movie stars. Bit parts in 1932 led to action roles in the Undersea Kingdom (1936) and The Leathernecks Have Landed (1936), the same year he began his role as Tucson Smith in Republic Pictures' "Three Mesquiteer" series; he did 24 films in that series before leaving in 1939. He also did 20 of the 24 "Range Busters" series which ran from 1940 to 1943. In the latter part of his career he played apes in The White Gorilla (1945) and Killer Ape (1953) and the title character in the sci-fi classic It! The Terror from Beyond Space (1958). After he retired he operated a number of successful businesses. One of these, Corriganville, was a ranch and town used for filming TV and movie westerns. His nickname "Crash" derived from his powerful physique and willingness to undertake dangerous stunts.Plot: El Sereno Plot, Lot 748, Grave E (Unmarked)- Carolyn Craig was born Adele Ruth Crago on October 27, 1934, in Green Acres, New York. Her father, Clarence, was an engineer and her mother, Ruth, was a housewife. The family moved to Santa Barbara, California, when she was child. Carolyn started her career acting at the Santa Barbara Community playhouse. In 1955 she appeared in the television movie Edgar Allan Poe At West Point. The beautiful brunette also modeled for series of photos where she portrayed a "healthy housewife". Her big break came when she played Elizabeth Taylor's sister in the 1956 drama Giant. Then she had the leading role in the film noir Portland Expose. On September 30, 1957 she married businessman Charles Graham. The couple had a son named Charles Edward. Carolyn costarred with Vincent Price in the 1959 horror film House On Haunted Hill.
She also appeared on numerous television shows including Perry Mason, The Rifleman, and The Life And Legend Of Wyatt Earp. Because she looked so young she was often cast as teenagers. Her marriage to Charles ended in 1961. Although many of her performances got good reviews, she never became an A-list star. She joined the cast of the soap opera General Hospital in 1963. The following year Carolyn married Arthur France Bryden, the manager of a car dealership. Her final acting role was in a 1967 episode of the TV show T.H.E. Cat. She divorced Arthur in the spring of 1970 and fell into a deep depression. On December 12, 1970, she committed suicide by shooting herself in her Culver City home. She was thirty-six years old. Carolyn was buried in an unmarked grave at Inglewood Cemetery in Inglewood, California.Plot: Pinecrest N 1/2 Lot 930 Grave 2 (unmarked) - Actress
- Composer
- Soundtrack
Cardella Di Milo was born on 15 March 1930. She was an actress and composer, known for Blackenstein (1973), Dolemite (1975) and Pirates of Silicon Valley (1999). She died on 5 January 2003 in Los Angeles, California, USA.Plot: Mausoleum- Badja Djola was born on 9 April 1948 in Brooklyn, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for The Last Boy Scout (1991), Mississippi Burning (1988) and The Serpent and the Rainbow (1988). He died on 8 January 2005 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Actor
- Additional Crew
- Soundtrack
Excellent, prolific and versatile character actor Robert DoQui was born in 1934 in Stillwater, Oklahoma. He attended Langston University on a music scholarship and was a member of the popular singing group, "The Langstonaires". Following a four-year stint in the U.S. Air Force, DoQui went to New York to pursue a career in show business. He began appearing in films and TV shows in the mid 60s and soon amassed a long, diverse and impressive list of credits. DoQui frequently portrayed tough, hard-nosed, say-it-like-you-see-it characters with a great deal of fiery brio and steely conviction. Arguably best-known as the huffy, no-nonsense "Sergeant Warren Reed" in all three Robocop films, DoQui's other noteworthy film roles include the flamboyant pimp, "King George", in Jack Hill's terrifically trashy blaxploitation classic Coffy (1973), a former slave in the charming Disney outing Treasure of Matecumbe (1976), a fanatical religious cult member in the outrageously sleazy Guyana: Cult of the Damned (1979) and a hot-tempered short order cook in Miracle Mile (1988). Moreover, DoQui appeared in three movies for acclaimed director Robert Altman: Nashville (1975), Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson (1976) and Short Cuts (1993). He supplied the voice of "Pablo Robertson" on the animated Harlem Globe Trotters (1970) TV series.
Among the many television programs DoQui has done guest spots on are NYPD Blue (1993), as a Klingon on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993), Picket Fences (1992), Starman (1986), Webster (1983), The Fall Guy (1981), Punky Brewster (1984), Hill Street Blues (1981), The Jeffersons (1975), Maude (1972), The Streets of San Francisco (1972), Sanford and Son (1972) Kolchak: The Night Stalker (1974) Mod Squad (1968), The Fugitive (1963), The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1964), I Dream of Jeannie (1965) and The Outer Limits (1963).
In addition to his substantial acting credits, DoQui served ten years on the board of directors of the Screen Actors Guild, during which time he encouraged both women and minority groups to participate more in the media.- Actor
- Director
- Writer
William Duncan was born on 16 December 1879 in Dundee, Tayside, Scotland, UK. He was an actor and director, known for The Steel Trail (1923), A Matrimonial Deluge (1913) and The Gunfighter's Son (1913). He was married to Edith Johnson. He died on 8 February 1961 in Hollywood, California, USA.Plot: La Sol, Lot 552
GPS coordinates: 33.9711113, -118.3375015 (hddd.dddd)- Gloria Edwards was born on 7 August 1944 in Los Angeles, California, USA. She was an actress, known for Black Girl (1972), Freeway (1988) and Which Way Is Up? (1977). She was married to Dick Anthony Williams. She died on 12 February 1988 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Dock Ellis was born on March 11, 1945 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He was an actor, known for Portrait of a Showgirl (1982) and No No: A Dockumentary (2014). He died on December 19, 2008 in Los Angeles. Ellis was also a 12-year Major League Baseball player who was an All-Star and World Series champion.
- Actress
- Soundtrack
When top "working girl" silent screen comedienne Mabel Normand would gripe to Mack Sennett about making classier films, Sennett's quippy retort would always be, "I'll send for Fazenda." This pretty, oval-faced, highly popular Keystone comedy cut-up put in her time first in comic two-reelers from 1913 on, but soon unleashed her real gift "dressing down" for laughs with her best known character types as frizzy-haired country bumpkins complete with spit curls, multiple pigtails and calico dresses, a look that went on to inspire bucolic comics Judy Canova and Minnie Pearl.
Louise was born on June 17, 1895, in Lafayette, Indiana, the daughter of a merchandise broker. Raised in California, she attended Los Angeles High School and St. Mary's Convent. She found odd jobs working a dentist, a candy store owner, and a tax collector. While performing in a high school show, lucky Louise was discovered by a Sennett talent agent and taken immediately to films. The 18-year-old hopeful made her first films with Joker Studios and went on to be highly featured in a slew of "Mike and Jake" comedy shorts starring Max Asher and Harry McCoy. She would also co-star in a number of burlesque-style features with Asher and Bobby Vernon in such vehicles as Heaven Will Protect the Working Girl (1914), A Freak Temperance Wave (1914), The Tender Hearted Sheriff (1914), Love and Electricity (1914), The Diamond Nippers (1914) and Schultz the Paperhanger (1914).
Soon silent kingpin Sennett himself began incorporating the funny girl's gift for slapstick comedy in his highly popular "Keystone Kops" shorts. Between the years 1915 to 1917, she rose quickly up the front ranks as an early plain-Jane Carol Burnett goofball playing an assortment of serviles -- maid, cook, janitress, flower girl, nurse and fortune teller types. In A Hash House Fraud (1915) she played a flirty cashier; in Her Fame and Shame (1917) she played a star-struck daughter who attempts burlesque to save her pop's mortgage; in The Betrayal of Maggie (1917) and Maggie's First False Step (1917) she portrayed the eager title roles; and in Her Torpedoed Love (1917), she plays a daffy cook whose life is in danger when a greedy butler (Ford Sterling) learns her boss is leaving her his entire estate.
During this peak time, Louise got to work alongside the most brilliant of silent male screen clowns, including Sterling himself, and Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle, Ben Turpin, Charley Chase, Charles Murray, Harry Booker, Edgar Kennedy, Mack Swain, Chester Conklin, James Finlayson, Slim Summerville, Billy Bevan, Jack Cooper, Billy Armstrong and Hugh Fay. Other popular Sennett comic outings for Louise would include Ambrose's Nasty Temper (1915), Fatty's Tintype Tangle (1915), A Game Old Knight (1915), A Versatile Villain (1915), The Judge (1916), Bombs! (1916), Are Waitresses Safe? (1917), Those Athletic Girls (1918), The Village Chestnut (1918) Hearts and Flowers (1919), Back to the Kitchen (1919), The Gingham Girl (1920), Bungalow Troubles (1921) and Made in the Kitchen (1921).
Sennett's Down on the Farm (1920) is a silent film feature-length rural comedy featuring an all-star cast of funsters with Louise playing a typical role as the farmer's daughter. Louise eventually left Sennett's company in the early 1920s and, in a change of pace, progressed on her own in both comic and dramatic outings. She appeared in the comedy drama Quincy Adams Sawyer (1922) starring John Bowers, Blanche Sweet and Lon Chaney; three dramatic pieces, The Beautiful and Damned (1922), The Wanters (1923) and Being Respectable (1924), all starring Marie Prevost; the social drama Main Street (1923) starring Florence Vidor; the historical drama (as a country gal) The Dramatic Life of Abraham Lincoln (1924); the tearjerker This Woman (1924) starring Irene Rich and Julliet Akinyi; the canine family adventure The Lighthouse by the Sea (1924) featuring Rin Tin Tin; the Raymond Griffith comedy vehicle The Night Club (1925); the melodramas The Price of Pleasure (1925) starring Virginia Valli and Déclassé (1925) starring Corinne Griffith; and a rare comedy Bobbed Hair (1925) starring Ms. Prevost; Occasional star roles during this silent period included the comedies Listen Lester (1924), Footloose Widows (1926), The Gay Old Bird (1927) and The Cradle Snatchers (1927).
Coming the advent of sound, Louise had no problem whatsoever adjusting to sound where her eccentric talents were greatly utilized in (mostly) Warner Bros. musicals, dramas and knockabout comedies. She provided comedy relief/support in such films as the mystery thriller The Terror (1928); the adventure film The Lady of the Harem (1926); the romantic comedy The Red Mill (1927) starring Marion Davies; the W.C. Fields talking remake of the silent comedy Tillie's Punctured Romance (1928); the sports comedy Babe Comes Home (1927) starring legendary ballplayer Babe Ruth; the war comedy Ham and Eggs at the Front (1927); the Will Rogers comedy A Texas Steer (1927); the comedy Heart to Heart (1928); the dramedy Vamping Venus (1928) which reunited her with Charles Murray and co-starred a rising Thelma Todd; the war drama Noah's Ark (1928); the action adventure Stark Mad (1929) the musicals On with the Show! (1929) and No, No, Nanette (1930) (as Sue Smith); the comedy Wide Open (1930); and the light romantic comedy Loose Ankles (1930).
On November 24, 1927, Louise married renowned Warner Bros. producer Hal B. Wallis who went on to produce several movies that she later appeared in, including Colleen (1936), First Lady (1937), Ready, Willing and Able (1937) and Swing Your Lady (1938). They had one child, Brent, who would grow up to become a psychiatrist. Ending her career on a dramatic note, Wallis would produce Louise's effort -- a supporting role in the Bette Davis/Miriam Hopkins soaper The Old Maid (1939) in the role of, what else, a maid!
Away from the limelight, Louise remained socially prominent and became a noted humanitarian and art collector. In 1958, she received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The 66-year-old former actress suffered a brain hemorrhage in Beverly Hills and died on April 17, 1962. She was survived by her husband, who, in 1966, married actress Martha Hyer. Louise was interred at the Inglewood Park Cemetery in Inglewood, California.Plot: Mignonette section, Lot 17
GPS coordinates: 33.9717102, -118.3361435 (hddd.dddd)- Madalynne Field was born on 1 April 1907 in Michigan, USA. She was an actress, known for The Non-Stop Bride (1926), Dancing Fools (1927) and The Golf Nut (1927). She was married to Walter Lang. She died on 1 October 1974 in Palm Springs, California, USA.Plot: Sunnyslope, Lot 256
- Music Artist
- Actress
- Music Department
On Saturday, June 15th, 1996, an era in jazz singing came to an end, with the death of Ella Fitzgerald at her home in California. She was the last of four great female jazz singers (including Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughan, and Carmen McRae) who defined one of the most prolific eras in jazz vocal style. Ella had extraordinary vocal skills from the time she was a teenager, and joined the Chick Webb Orchestra in 1935 when she was 16 years old. With an output of more than 200 albums, she was at her sophisticated best with the songs of Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart, of George Gershwin, and of Cole Porter. Her 13 Grammy awards are more than any other jazz performer, and she won the Best Female Vocalist award three years in a row. Completely at home with up-tempo songs, her scat singing placed her jazz vocals with the finest jazz instrumentalists, and it was this magnificent voice that she brought to her film appearances. Her last few years, during which she had a bout with congestive heart failure and suffered bilateral amputation of her legs from complications of diabetes, were spent in seclusion.Plot: Sunset Memorial Garden Mausoleum, Second Floor, Sanctuary of the Bells, Crypt 1063- Curt Flood was born on 18 January 1938 in Houston, Texas, USA. He was married to Judy Pace and Beverly Collins. He died on 20 January 1997 in Los Angeles, California, USA.Plot: Manchester Garden Mausoleum, Sanctuary of Radiance #A-445
GPS coordinates: 33.9599991, -118.3386078 (hddd.dddd) - One of those wonderfully busy character actors whose face is familiar if not his name, mild-mannered actor Byron Foulger began performing with community theater, and stock and repertory companies after graduating from the University of Utah. He met his future wife, character actress Dorothy Adams, in one of these companies. The marriage lasted nearly five decades and ended only with his death.
Making his Broadway debut in a 1920 production of "Medea" that featured Moroni Olsen as Jason (of the Argonauts), and went on to appear in several other Olsen Broadway productions and in close succession (including "The Trial of Joan of Arc," "Mr. Faust" and "Candida"). While touring the country with Olsen's stock company, he ended up at the Pasadena Playhouse where he both acted and directed. Thereafter he and wife Dorothy decided to settle in Los Angeles.
Together the acting couple tried to stake a claim for themselves in 30s and 40s Hollywood films. Both succeeded, appearing in hundreds of film parts, both together and apart, albeit in small and often unbilled bits. A man of meek, nervous countenance, Foulger's short stature and squinty stare could be used for playing both humble and shady fellows. In the 1940s, the actor became a part of Preston Sturges' company of players, appearing in five of his classic films -- The Great McGinty (1940), Sullivan's Travels (1941), The Palm Beach Story (1942), The Miracle of Morgan's Creek (1943) and The Great Moment (1944).
Although predominantly employed as an owlish storekeeper, mortician, professor, or bank teller, his better parts had darker intentions. He was exceptional as weaselly, mealy-mouthed, whining henchmen who inevitably showed their yellow streak by the film's end.
The character actor eased into TV roles in the 1950s and '60s, displaying a comedy side in many folksy, rural sitcoms. His final regular TV role was as train conductor Wendell Gibbs in the final years of the Petticoat Junction (1963) series. The father of actress Rachel Ames, Foulger died of a heart ailment on April 4, 1970, coincidentally the same day the final new episode of Petticoat Junction (1963) was broadcast. .Plot: Del Prado Mausoleum, Fountain del las Flores, Crypt 142-A - Music Department
- Composer
- Soundtrack
Lowell Fulson was born on 31 March 1921 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA. He was a composer, known for Ride Along (2014), American Gangster (2007) and Crossroads (2002). He died on 6 March 1999 in Long Beach, California, USA.Plot: Sunset Mission Mausoleum, Sanctuary of Bells, Crypt 929- Actor
- Producer
- Director
A pioneering cowboy star of silent and early talking Westerns, Hoot Gibson was one of the 1920s' most popular children's matinée heroes. In his real life, however, he had a rather painful rags-to-riches-and-back-to-rags career, a problem that seemed to plague a number of big stars who fell victim to their high profile and wound up living too high on the hog.
An unfortunate byproduct of stardom is, of course, the misinformation that is often fed to the public over the years by either overzealous publicity agents or the actor himself. The many variations of just how Gibson earned the name tag "Hoot" is one of them: (1) As a youth, he loved to hunt owls; (2) while a teenager working on a rodeo ranch, other ranch hands called him "Hoot Owl" and that the name was shortened to just "Hoot"; (3) he picked up the nickname while a messenger with the Owl Drug Company; and (4) while touring briefly in vaudeville, he would hoot when the audience cheered and, thus, the nickname.
What facts are known about Hoot is that he was born Edmund Richard Gibson on August 6, 1892, in Tekamah, Nebraska. As a child he grew up among horses and received his first pony at the age of 2-1/2. His family moved to California when he was 7. At age 13 the adventurous youth ran away from home and joined a circus for a time. Later work included punching cows in both Wyoming and Colorado (at the time, a territory and not a state). While working on the Miller 101 Ranch at Fort Bliss, Oklahoma, as a horse wrangler, Hoot developed a strong, active interest in the rodeo scene--in particular, bronco busting. In 1907 he signed a four-year contract with the Dick Stanley-Bud Atkinson Wild West Show, which toured throughout the US and (later) Australia.
By 1910 Hoot had found an "in" to the movie business as one of the industry's first stuntmen (for which he was paid $2.50 for performing stunts or training horses). Director Francis Boggs was looking for experienced cowboys and stunt doubles to appear in his western short Pride of the Range (1910) starring Tom Mix; both Hoot and another future cowboy star, Art Acord, were hired. Hoot lost a solid Hollywood contact in Boggs, however, when the director and his working partner, producer William Nicholas Selig, were both shot in October, 1911, by a mentally disturbed employee (Selig was injured, but Boggs was killed). Gibson managed to find other stunt work in director D.W. Griffith's western short The Two Brothers (1910) and several others for the next few years.
Acting, at this point, was not his bread-and-butter income. Hoot still continued to forge a name for himself on the rodeo circuit with his pal Acord. In 1912, at age 20, he won the title "All-Around Champion Cowboy" at the famed annual Pendleton (Oregon) Round-Up. He also won the steer-roping World Championship at the Calgary Stampede. While on the circuit, he met fellow rodeo rider Rose August ("Helen") Wenger. They eventually married (there is still some question about whether they legally exchanged vows) and she took on the marquee name of Helen Gibson. She even found film stunt work herself and eventually was chosen to replace Helen Holmes as star of the popular movie serial The Hazards of Helen (1914) during mid-filming. Hoot himself had a minor role in the Universal cliffhanger.
Hoot picked up a couple of more strong connections in the film industry with western star Harry Carey and director John Ford. Gibson gained some momentum as a secondary player in a few of their films, including Cheyenne's Pal (1917), Straight Shooting (1917), The Secret Man (1917) and A Marked Man (1917). With the outbreak of World War I, however, Gibson's film career was put on hold. He joined the US Army, eventually attaining the the rank of sergeant while serving with the Tank Corps, and was honorably discharged in 1919. He returned immediately to Universal and was able to restart his career, quickly working his way up to co-star status in a series of short westerns, most of which were directed by his now close friend Ford. The two-reelers usually co-starred either Pete Morrison or Hoor's wife Helen, or sometimes both. Films such as The Fighting Brothers (1919), The Black Horse Bandit (1919), Rustlers (1919), Gun Law (1919), The Gun Packer (1919) and By Indian Post (1919) eventually led to his solo starring success.
During this prolific period, he was frequently directed by George Holt (The Trail of the Holdup Man (1919)), Phil Rosen (The Sheriff's Oath (1920)) and Lee Kohlmar (The Wild Wild West (1921)). It was at this time that he and wife Helen separated and divorced. In the early 1920s, Hoot went on to marry another Helen--Helen Johnson. They had one child, Lois Charlotte Gibson, born in 1923. The couple divorced in 1927.
Superstardom came with the John Ford (I)full-length feature western Action (1921), which was taken from "The Three Godfathers" story. It starred Hoot, Francis Ford and J. Farrell MacDonald as a trio of outlaws on the lam who find a baby. From that point on, both Hoot and Tom Mix began to "rule the west". Gibson's light, comedic, tongue-in-cheek manner only added to his sagebrush appeal, especially to children and women. His vehicles were non-violent for the most part, and he rarely was spotted carrying a gun while riding his palomino horse Goldie. Not a particularly handsome man, his boyish appeal and non-threatening demeanor were his aces in the hole--a major distinction that separated him from the more ascetic cowboy stars of the past.
By 1925 Hoot was making approximately $14,500 a week and spending it about as fast as he was making it. He successfully made the transition to talkies and, in 1930, married popular Jazz-era actress Sally Eilers, a third party to his previous divorce. The couple made three features together: The Long, Long Trail (1929), Trigger Tricks (1930) and Clearing the Range (1931). When she found celluloid success on her own with Bad Girl (1931), Sally decided to split from Hoot professionally and personally. They divorced in 1933.
Hoot lost his Universal contract in 1930, which signified the start of his decline. While he secured contracts with lesser studios during the early 1930s, such as Allied Pictures and First Division Pictures, the quality of his films suffered. By this time Hoot had already begun to feature race cars and airplanes in his pictures. such as The Flyin' Cowboy (1928) and The Winged Horseman (1929). Airplanes in particular became a large, expensive passion of his. In 1933 he crashed his biplane during a National Air Race in Los Angeles, which had pitted him against another cowboy star, Ken Maynard. Fortunately, he survived his injuries.
With the advent of talking films, singing cowboys such as Gene Autry and Roy Rogers were becoming the new rage, and both Hoot and Tom Mix felt the kick. Yet he managed a couple of "comebacks" by pairing up with others stars. He joined old silent film teammate Harry Carey and 'Guinn Big Boy Williams' in the "Three Mesquiteers" western Powdersmoke Range (1935), and was billed second to Ray Corrigan in the Republic serial The Painted Stallion (1937).
Hoot left films and toured with the Robbins Brothers and Russell Brothers circuses during 1938 and 1939 before retiring from show business altogether. His multiple divorces and reckless spending habits had taken their toll on his finances. For a time he found work in real estate before Monogram Pictures offered the stocky-framed actor a chance to return in 1943. Hoot teamed up with cowboy star Ken Maynard in the popular "Trail Blazers" series, and the duo were later joined by Bob Steele. Chief Thundercloud replaced a difficult Maynard on a couple of the films, but by the end of the series Gibson and Steele were riding alone together. The nearly dozen films in the series began with Wild Horse Stampede (1943) and ended with Trigger Law (1944), the latter being his last hurrah in films.
Hoot then returned to real estate. By the time he appeared as a surprise guest on the popular sitcom I Married Joan (1952) starring Joan Davis, his Western features of the 1930s and 1940s, as well as those of Maynard, Steele and others were a large staple of films seen by a TV audience that couldn't get enough Western fare. He did a favor for old friend John Ford by appearing in a cameo role in the director's 1959 film The Horse Soldiers (1959). His last movie spotting was a guest cameo in the "Rat Pack" film Ocean's Eleven (1960).
Hoot married a fourth and final time on July 3, 1942, to one-time radio singer and actress Dorothea Dunstan. This marriage took hold and lasted for 20 years until his death. By the 1960s Gibson was on the verge of financial collapse after a series of bad investments. Diagnosed with cancer in 1960, rising medical costs forced him to find any and all work available. He was relegated at one point to becoming a greeter at a Las Vegas casino and, for a period, worked at carnivals.
It was an unhappy end for a cowboy who brought so much excitement and entertainment to children and adults alike. Gibson died of cancer at the Motion Picture Country Home in Woodland Hills, California, just a couple of weeks after his 70th birthday. He was interred in the Inglewood Park Cemetery in Inglewood, California. In remembrance, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and, in 1979, was inducted into the Western Performers Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City.Plot: Magnolia Plot, Lot 92, Grave 6
GPS coordinates: 33.9721985, -118.3389664 (hddd.dddd)- Jim Gilliam was born on 17 October 1928 in Nashville, Tennessee, USA. He was an actor, known for 1956 World Series (1956), 1966 World Series (1966) and 1955 World Series (1955). He died on 8 October 1978 in Inglewood, California, USA.Plot: Miramar Plot, Lot 58, Grave 10-located 2 rows up from the curb, across the street from the Crescent section.
- Actress
- Soundtrack
Elizabeth Ruth Grable was born on December 18, 1916 in St. Louis, Missouri, to Lillian Rose (Hofmann) and John Conn Grable, a stockbroker. She had German, English, Irish, and Dutch ancestry. Her mother was a stubborn and materialistic woman determined to make her daughter a star. Elizabeth, who later became Betty, was enrolled in Clark's Dancing School at the age of three. With her mother's guidance, Betty studied ballet and tap dancing.
Betty and her mother set out for California with the hopes of stardom. She attended the Hollywood Professional school but Lillian lied about her daughter's age and Betty (real age 13), landed several minor parts as a chorus girl in early musicals (Whoopee! (1930), New Movietone Follies of 1930 (1930), Happy Days (1929) and Let's Go Places (1930)), initially billed as 'Frances Dean'. In 1932 (real age 15), she signed with RKO Radio Pictures and began to use the moniker 'Betty Grable'. The bit parts continued for the next three years. Betty finally landed a substantial part in By Your Leave (1934). One of her big roles was in College Swing (1938). Unfortunately, the public did not seem to take notice.
The following year, she married former child star Jackie Coogan. They briefly toured on vaudeville and his success boosted hers, but they divorced in 1940. When she landed the role of Glenda Crawford in Down Argentine Way (1940), the public finally took notice of this shining bright star. Stardom came in such comedies as Coney Island (1943) and Sweet Rosie O'Grady (1943).
The public was enchanted with Betty. Her famous pin-up pose during World War II adorned barracks all around the world. With that pin-up and as the star of lavish musicals, Betty became the highest-paid star in Hollywood. After the war, her star continued to rise. In 1947, the United States Treasury Department noted that she was the highest paid star in America, earning about $300,000 a year - a phenomenal sum even by today's standards. Later, 20th Century-Fox, who had her under contract, insured her legs with Lloyds of London for a million dollars. She continued to be popular until the mid-1950s, when musicals went into a decline. Her last film was How to Be Very, Very Popular (1955).
She then concentrated on Broadway and nightclubs. In 1965, she divorced band leader Harry James, whom she had wed in 1943. Her life was an active one, devoid of the scandals that plagued many stars in one way or another. She cared more for her family than stardom.
Betty Grable died at age 56 of lung cancer on July 2, 1973 in Santa Monica, California, five days before Veronica Lake's death. She was interred at Inglewood Park Cemetery.Plot: Mausoleum of the Golden West, Sanctuary of Dawn, Crypt A78
GPS coordinates: 33.9731483, -118.3389206 (hddd.dddd)- Composer
- Music Department
- Actor
Ferde Grofé was born into a talented family. His father was a baritone and actor while his mother was a cellist and music teaching. Following numerous non-musical jobs, he was 17 when he wrote his first commissioned work. He played violin for the Los Angeles Symphony Orchestra and jazz piano with Paul Whiteman and Orchestra, for which he also served as arranger for many years. His music is usually considered light classical, and often shows a strong jazz influence. Along with Grand Canyon Suite, his most known works include Mississippi Suite and the orchestration of Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue for Paul Whiteman.Plot: Mausoleum of the Golden West, Sanctuary of Faith, Crypt E-324
GPS coordinates: 33.9727783, -118.3391190 (hddd.dddd)- Donald Haines was born on 9 May 1919 in Seward County, Nebraska, USA. He was an actor, known for Bowery Blitzkrieg (1941), That Gang of Mine (1940) and Kidnapped (1938). He died on 20 February 1943 in North Africa.
- Actor
- Music Department
- Writer
Composer, songwriter, conductor, singer, and actor Jester Hairston was educated at Tufts University, Juilliard, and the University of the Pacific (hon. Mus.D.). He acted on radio and television besides on film, and played Leroy on the "Amos 'n Andy" radio series for 15 years. He directed the Federal Theatre Project and was assistant- conductor of the 'Hall Johnson Choir' in New York for 15 years and trained choirs for radio and Broadway musicals. He went to Hollywood in 1936, he sang and appeared with the Hall Johnson Choir in the film The Green Pastures (1936). Organizing his own choir in 1943, he arranged and conducted film background music and conducted choral groups in colleges and high schools, touring Europe for the State Department in 1961. He joined ASCAP in 1956 and wrote such popular-song compositions as "Mary's Boy Child," "Poor Man Lazarus," and many Gospel songs including "In Dat Great Gittin'-Up Mornin'," "Amen," and "Gossip, Gossip."Plot: Manchester Garden Mausoleum, Sanctuary of Radiance, Crypt B-13- Lois, was born in a tiny town in Minnesota in 1926, moved with her family to Long Beach, California where she had her first experience with theater as a set designer, stage manager and head electrician, was given a scholarship at the Pasadena Playhouse and became bitten by the "acting bug". In 1957 when she left SoCal and focused on family.
Lois married Maurice Willows in 1953 and, following the birth of their first daughter, moved to the desert and then Hawaii for seven years, where their second daughter, was born. Soon after the Willows returned to their Beverly Hills home, their third daughter was born. Maury and Lois have two grandchildren. Maury died of cancer in 1995. Through the years, the Willows have been active members of the Baha'i Faith, working for the unity of mankind and world peace. Lois is an elected member and served many years as secretary of the administrative body for the Baha'i's of Los Angeles and has volunteered nearly 40 hours a week at the local center. Part of her time is spent in inter-religious dialog, working with the Human Relations Council for the City of Los Angeles, planning cross-cultural events and helping arrange after-school tutoring and enrichment classes for at-risk young people. The Willows hold weekly introductory discussions about the Baha'i Faith in their home. Lois eventually returned to occasional work in the film industry and has appeared in seven more films and ten television shows. In recent years, Miss Hall has been invited to be a special guest at various film festivals across the country, and is delighted both the renew old friendships with those who were part of the "western stock company" so many years -- and to make new friends with the wonderful people who so faithfully attend the festivals. - Bernie Hamilton was born on 12 June 1928 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He was an actor, known for Bucktown (1975), The Young One (1960) and Starsky and Hutch (1975). He was married to Maxine King. He died on 30 December 2008 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Actor
- Writer
Best remembered for his raunchy humor, Robin Harris became famous in supporting roles in movies such as Do The Right Thing as Sweet Dick Willie and House Party. He has left a legacy that fans and actors will truly miss due to his career which was cut by a massive heart attack at the age of 36. Spike Lee dedicated Mo'Better Blues to Harris after his untimely death.Plot: Manchester Garden Mausoleum, Chapel of Freedom, Crypt D-5. Inside to the right, next to the stairs.
GPS coordinates: 33.9605598, -118.3383331 (hddd.dddd)- Actor
- Soundtrack
Samuel S. Hinds, a Harvard graduate, was a lawyer in Hollywood until the stock market crash of 1929, in which he lost most of his money. Hinds, who had an interest in theater acting, decided to embark on a career in acting, albeit it age 54. The tall, dignified-looking Hinds appeared in over 200 films, often cast as kindly authoritarian figures--doctors, judges, military officers, politicians, and such. His two most notable appearances were in Destry Rides Again (1939) and It's a Wonderful Life (1946). In addition to his film work, he kept busy appearing on stage, and continued working up until his death in 1948.Plot: Inglewood Mausoleum, Crypt 167- Actress
- Soundtrack
After the Holloway family moved from Atascadero, California, where her older sister, Brenda was born, to Los Angeles, Patrice was born in 1948. Patrice did a lot of work as a vocalist in the early 60's, and had success from her songs, including Do the Del Viking (Pt. 1/Pt. 2; in which her sister was the backup singer), Black Mother Goose, For the Love of Mike, Love & Desire, Ecstacy, Stolen Hours, Keep On Rolling, Those D.J. Shows, He's the Boy of My Dreams (a song about Stevie Wonder), Stay With Your Own Kind, That's All You Got to Do, & Come Into My Palace (the only song her & her sister, Brenda, sang that was a duet). She then was called in by Hanna-Barbera Prod. originally to just do the singing voice of Pussycat member, Valerie Brown, in their new cartoon series, Josie and the Pussycats (1970) , but she was then asked to do the on-camera voice, as well, making her the only member of the on-screen cast to actually sing during the inimitable chase scenes. it's debut on the 12th of September that year, on CBS's new fall Saturday morning cartoon line-up. The series made wonderful bubblegum music, with such hits as; Stop, Look & Listen, I Wanna Make You Happy, You've Come A Long Way Baby, and Lie, Lie, Lie. The series then ended on September 2, 1972. Ms. Holloway reprised her role (but just as the singing voice) of Valerie Brown, in H-B's new series - a follow-up, entitled Josie and the Pussy Cats in Outer Space (1972), which premiered just 7 days after the cancellation of the original series, "Josie and the Pussycats." Sadly, after 16 episodes the second series was canceled, as well, and ended production on 1 September, 1973, but, was in reruns for decades, afterwards.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Born in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1913, blues/pop singer Helen Humes is probably best known for her work with Count Basie and His Orchestra in the 1930s and 1940s.
As a child she took piano and vocal lessons, and at 14 years of age she was discovered by blues musician Sylvester Weaver, who signed her to a record contract and took her to St. Louis in 1927 to record. She later traveled to New York City for further recording sessions. She stayed in New York and sang in the city's renowned cabaret scene, and in 1938 she came to the attention of legendary musician/producer John Hammond, who liked what he heard and set her up with the Count Basie Orchestra, which was looking for a replacement for Billie Holiday, who had just left the band after having signed a recording contract (ironically, Basie had offered Humes the job a year earlier, and she had turned him down). Humes toured and recorded with the band until 1942, when she left to go out on her own. She later traveled to California and sang with the Norman Granz band in Los Angeles, and stayed with them until the early 1950s. In addition to recording albums, she also sang on the soundtrack of such films as Panic in the Streets (1950) and My Blue Heaven (1950), and later joined with vibraphonist Red Norvo's band.
In the early 1960s she toured Europe with the American Folk Blues Festival with such blues icons as T-Bone Walker and John Lee Hooker. Her career had begun to fade, however, and by the mid-'60s she had retired and returned to Louisville to be with her family. In 1973 she was invited to perform at the Newport Jazz Festival, and she was such a hit there that she began to record again and embarked on another European tour.
She died of cancer in Santa Monica, California, in 1981.Plot: El Sereno Plot, Lot 96, Grave E- Actor
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
Sylvester was born on 6 September 1947 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He was an actor, known for Hit and Run (2012), What to Expect When You're Expecting (2012) and Trading Places (1983). He died on 16 December 1988 in San Francisco, California, USA.Plot: Pineview, Lot 816, Grave A- Flo Hyman was born on 31 July 1954 in Inglewood, California, USA. She was an actress, known for The Order of the Black Eagle (1987) and Los Angeles 1984: Games of the XXIII Olympiad (1984). She died on 24 January 1986 in Matsue City, Japan.Plot: Manchester Garden Mausoleum, Manchester Court #224
GPS coordinates: 33.9602814, -118.3383331 (hddd.dddd) - Music Department
- Actress
- Composer
Etta James is an American singer who performed in various genres, including blues, R&B, soul, rock and roll, jazz, gospel. Starting her career in 1954, she gained fame with hits such as "The Wallflower", "At Last", "Tell Mama", "Something's Got a Hold on Me", and "I'd Rather Go Blind". She faced a number of personal problems, before making a musical comeback in the late 1980s with the album Seven Year Itch.
Etta James's powerful, deep, earthy voice bridged the gap between rhythm and blues and rock and roll. She won six Grammy Awards and 17 Blues Music Awards. She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993, the Blues Hall of Fame in 2001, and the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999. Rolling Stone magazine ranked James number 22 on its list of the 100 Greatest Singers of All Time; she was ranked number 62 on its list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.Plot: Garden of Chimes Mausoleum, Building D, #32-C- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Bud Jamison was born on 15 February 1895 in Vallejo, California, USA. He was an actor and director, known for Three Little Beers (1935), Their First Tintype (1920) and Captain Caution (1940). He was married to Georgia Kathleen Holland. He died on 30 September 1944 in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA.Plot: Mausoleum of the Golden West, Sanctuary of Dreams, Alcove of Psalms, Niche 26- James J. Jeffries was the heavyweight champion of the world from 1899 to 1905 but he is best known to history for coming out of retirement to take on Jack Johnson, the first African American heavyweight champion in history, in what was called "The Fight of the Century". That fight ensured Jeffries' place in American history as Johnson is a significant figure in not only sports history but in the social history of the United States for his role as a mirror on and lighting rod for racism.
Jack Johnson was not the first black boxer Jeffries had fought. On his way up through the ranks he had fought and beaten such notables as Hank Griffin, whom Johnson had failed to beat in three fights, and Peter "Black Prince" Jackson, the Australian heavyweight champ who had fought future heavyweight champ 'Gentleman Jim (1942)" Corbett to a draw in 61 rounds in 1891. It was Jackson's first defeat in 13 years and he retired shortly after. His victory over the black boxer Bob Armstrong, the "King of the Battle Royal", won him a title shot with Bob Fitzsimmons, the Cornishman from New Zealand who had beaten 'Gentleman Jim (1942)" Corbett for the world's heavyweight title. Though Fitzsimmons was the favorite, the younger and heavier Jeffries knocked him out in the 11th round. Jeffries would later successfully defend his title against the top heavyweights, including Corbett, but he did not fight a black challenger.
Interestingly, the black light-heavyweight Sam Langford, who was denied a title shot by Jack Johnson, advertised he would take on any boxer in the world, except for Jim Jeffries. The left-handed Jeffries, in those first years of "scientific boxing" pioneered by Jem Mace and Corbett, fought from a crouch and was able to inflict and absorb terrific punishment. In a rematch with Fitzsimmons, the Cornishman had cut both of Jeffries' cheeks to the bone, opened up cuts over his eyes and broke his nose, and Jeffries still managed to knock him out. Jeffires broke the ribs of three of his opponents, including Gentleman Jim.
Jeffires had refused to fight Jack Johnson after he won the "World Colored Heavyweight Championship" in 1903. Blacks had not been allowed to fight for the heavyweight championship after James L. Sullivan, "The Boston Strong Boy, the bare-knuckle champion who refused a title match to Peter Jackson and "Old Chocolate" George Godfrey, a Canadian who had emigrated to Boston. By refusing to meet Johnson in a title match when he was champ, Jeffries kept the color bar in tact even though it already had been broken at a lower weight class. Joe Gans had become the first African American to win a title belt when he became lightweight champion in 1902, but when Johnson became the heavyweight champ in 1908 by beating Tommy Burns, racist white Americans were outraged. The hunt for "The Great White Hope" to reclaim the title for Caucasian America was on.
Uninterested in assuming "The Great white Hope" mantle, Jeffries was not an avowed racist and really did not want to fight any more. Like Rocky Marciano after him, he had retired as an undefeated champion. Unfortunately, he came back for more and forfeited his spotless record and Marciano remains the only undefeated heavyweight champion in history.
Jeffries was goaded into stepping back into the ring to face Johnson by such people as the writer Jack London. Sources say he was offered an unprecedented $120,000 (approximately $2.8 million in 2012 dollars) to fight Johnson. The former champ was out-of-shape and had to burn off 100 lbs. to get down to fighting trim. In their match up on the Fourth of July in Reno, Nevada, Johnson knocked him to the canvas twice, something that had never before happened in his illustrious his career. Jeffries' corner threw in the towel at the start of the 15th round to prevent the former champ from the humiliation of being knocked out.
Johnson won a $65,000 purse (approximately $1.5 million in 2012 dollars) in his title defense. News of his victory touched off celebrations among black folk across the country and sparked race riots in 50 cities in 25 states. ("Race riot" at the time meant a white-on-black conflict, "riots" that were initiated by lynching-minded whites.) Twenty-three African Americans and two whites perished in the riots, and hundreds more injured.
A movie made of the match, "Jeffries-Johnson World's Championship Boxing Contest, Held at Reno, Nevada, July 4, 1910 (1910)", received wide distribution, but many local politicians stepped in to ban the movie from being shown in their bailiwicks, lest there be more violence. Even former President Theodore Roosevelt, a sports enthusiast, came out against the distribution of the movie in particular and boxing movies in general. (T.R. was friendly to the aspirations of colored people; at the time, the Republican Party -- the Party of Abraham Lincoln -- was the political home of African Americans.) Congress banned the interstate transportation of boxing movies in 1912 (a ban not repealed until 1940).
Jeffries retired back to his alfalfa farm in Burnbank, California but kept his hand in the fight game as a trainer and boxing promoter. He died in 1953 at the age of 77.Plot: Sequoia Plot, Lot 122, Grave 7
GPS coordinates: 33.9709816, -118.3424530 (hddd.dddd) - Actor
- Soundtrack
Wavy-haired American character actor and musician Frank Jenks was the son of advertising man Frank Jenks and pianist Lillian Sadler. After his family settled in Los Angeles, he attended the University of Southern California. He learned to play trumpet, trombone and clarinet, but eventually dropped out of college and embarked on leading a band on the West Coast vaudeville circuit. He then took the next step and became a song-and-dance man. From being a hoofer, he made his way to the legitimate stage and from there to movies, at first playing orchestra leaders. While this required little acting ability, he soon came into his own as a comic actor, his cinematic stock-in-trade being fast talking reporters (his caustic delivery was used to best effect in His Girl Friday (1940)), droll Runyonesque henchmen, cabbies, grifters, cops, bartenders and drunks. His improvisational acumen in adding his own routines to varied comedy scripts led to his receiving Hollywood's sobriquet as "off-the-cuff Jenks".
Amid numerous supporting parts, often for Universal's B-team, Jenks finagled the odd star billing, notably in a series of forgotten potboilers made by Poverty Row outfit PRC during the 1940s. From the early 1950s, he was a regular guest performer on television, appearing in just about anything, from Adventures of Superman (1952) to Perry Mason (1957).Plot: Siesta Plot, Lot 257, Grave B- Edith Johnson's combination of luck and beauty ensured her a Hollywood career. The luck occurred because of her growing up in Rochester, New York, the home of the Eastman Kodak Co. Her beauty resulted in her being appointed by Kodak as "The Kodak Girl," with her face appearing in virtually all of the newspapers and magazines of the day in Kodak advertisements, leading her to be called "the most photographed girl in the world"--and all before she finished college. Her celebrity resulted in her being offered a film contract by the Selig Co., which she accepted as soon as she graduated from Vassar. Her first few films were with actor William Duncan, whom she eventually married, and after several more films for Selig, she jumped ship to Universal in 1916. Her two-year stay there ended when she moved to Vitagraph. She began making serials with her husband, who both starred in and directed them, for Vitagraph and then Universal again. The films were enormously successful, but Duncan and Johnson chafed under the heavy-handed administration at Universal, and they retired after their last film for the studio, 1924's "Wolves of the North." They had a vaudeville act together for a while, then settled down to the task of raising their family. Duncan took on several film roles later in life, most notably as Hopalong Cassidy's sidekick "Buck Peters", but his wife had no desire to return to films, and didn't. She outlived her husband by eight years, and died in 1969.
- Robert Kardashian was born on 22 February 1944 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He was married to Ellen Pierson, Jan Ashley and Kris Jenner. He died on 30 September 2003 in Los Angeles, California, USA.Plot: Park Terrace Section, Lot 628
- Charles Kennedy was born on 25 November 1959 in Inverness, Scotland, UK. He was married to Sarah Gurling. He died on 1 June 2015 in Fort William, Highland, Scotland, UK.Plot: Esperanza, Lot 34, Grave 1
GPS coordinates: 33.9706116, -118.3394928 (hddd.dddd) - Merna Kennedy was born on 7 September 1908 in Kankakee, Illinois, USA. She was an actress, known for The Circus (1928), Ghost Valley (1932) and The Big Chance (1933). She was married to Forrest Brayton and Busby Berkeley. She died on 20 December 1944 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Prolific "heavy" in American films of the silent and early talkie eras. A native of Kansas City, Missouri, Kohler left home as a teenager, working various jobs while trying to establish a career in vaudeville. During this time, according to his son, actor Fred Kohler Jr., Kohler worked in a mine and lost part of his right hand in a dynamite accident. Eventually he fell in with a touring theatrical company and worked onstage around the U.S. for several years. In his mid-twenties, he ended up in California and found roles in silent films. He quickly found a niche as a villain, by virtue of his imposing size and his fearsome features, typically and most memorably in The Iron Horse (1924). He worked primarily in Westerns, but films of all sorts benefited from his skill at screen nastiness. In a series of silent Paramount Westerns based on Zane Grey novels, Kohler not only played the heavy, but also repeated some of those roles when these films were remade as talkies a decade later. His career lasted without let-up until his sudden death due to a heart attack at 51 in 1938.Plot: A Plot , Lot 1866 (unmarked).
- Actor
- Producer
- Music Department
Most western action film heroes begin and end their career in the saddle. Not so for cowboy idol Allan Lane (nicknamed "Rocky"), who started as a leading man in major studio dramas only to segue into "B" serials and sagebrush sagas in later life. The Indiana native was born in 1909 (some sources claim 1904). His attentions, however, veered toward the theater and he left school to join a Cincinnati stock company. He toured with "Hit the Deck" to New York City and continued there in various other theater projects. A Fox talent scout discovered Lane in 1929, and he left New York for Hollywood. Making his debut with Not Quite Decent (1929), he had trouble rising in stature, however, and left Hollywood in 1932, giving it a second try a few years later. His second attempt saw him enjoying second lead roles in good quality "B" films throughout the late 1930s, including Stowaway (1936) with little Shirley Temple, Maid's Night Out (1938) with Joan Fontaine, and Twelve Crowded Hours (1939), co-starring Lucille Ball. Searching for better roles, he signed with Republic in 1940, and after struggling a bit in his initial films he hit pay dirt after teaming with Linda Stirling in the popular serial The Tiger Woman (1944). His own serials as steadfast Mountie Dave King proved popular, and around this time he started gaining added attention as a photogenic and very personable cowboy star. With his trusty steed "Blackjack," Lane managed to churn out a bucketful of oaters every year, beginning with Silver City Kid (1944), for nearly a decade, trading blows with the bad guys and seeing justice prevail. Following this chapter of his career, he left films and toured with circuses and rodeo shows until the TV series Red Ryder (1951) came his way. He may be better remembered these days not for his dashing good looks and saddle appeal on film but to older generations as the off-camera voice for the talking horse Mister Ed (1961) in the classic 1960s sitcom of the same name. Lane retired shortly thereafter and died on October 27, 1973, after a six-week bout with cancer.Plot: Rosehill, Lot 70, Grave A- Director
- Writer
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Walter Lang entered the film industry in New York when he got a job as a clerk in the office of a film production company. He worked his way up to assistant director, and directed his first film in 1926. By the time sound arrived Lang was already a well-regarded director, but he left the business at that time to try his hand as an artist in Paris. His venture into that medium was unsuccessful, and he returned to Hollywood a few years later. In the mid-'30s Lang was hired at 20th Century-Fox, and it was there he found his niche. He was one of the talents responsible for the glossy, splashy Technicolor musicals Fox was famous for in the 1940s and 1950s, films such as Tin Pan Alley (1940), Moon Over Miami (1941), Coney Island (1943) and There's No Business Like Show Business (1954). Always well respected by his contemporaries (Betty Grable once said that he was one of the few true gentlemen she had ever met), Lang ended his long and productive career in 1961 with Snow White and the Three Stooges (1961).Plot: Sunnyslope, Lot 256- A legendary stage actress and character player in early films, Lucille La Verne is one of those forgotten legends who seem to fade as the years go on. However, at her prime she was one of the most acclaimed actresses of her generation.
Lucille La Verne Mitchum was born in Nashville, Tennessee, on November 7, 1872. Little is known about her family. She made her stage debut at the local summer stock theater in 1876. The production was called "Centennial" in honor of America's 100th birthday, and the three-year old Lucille was among a handful of child extras in the play. In 1878 she returned to play another child part. She continued to return every summer, sort of becoming the playhouse's resident child star. She quickly proved herself a talented actress, and as she got older she was given better parts. She won great acclaim when during the summer of 1887 she played both Juliet and Lady Macbeth--at only 14 years of age.
On the night of her 16th birthday in 1888, made her Broadway debut with a supporting role in "La Tosca". The play closed after four weeks. In the fall of 1889 she performed with a stock company in Washington, DC, where she played May in "May Blossom" and Chrissy Rogers in "The Governess". She also toured as Ethel in "Judge Not". Her breakthrough performance was a limited-run Broadway revival of "As You Like It" with an all-female cast in March 1894, and she won much acclaim for her performance as "Corin". In the 1894-95 season, she played Patsy in Frank Mayo's Broadway production of Mark Twain's "Pudd'nhead Wilson". She also scored great success by playing the female lead roles in three different acclaimed touring productions over the next three years: "Notre Dame" (1895-96), "Uncle Tom's Cabin" (1897-98) and "Lady Windermere's Fan" (1897-98). In 1898 La Verne was made manager and director of the newly built Empire Theater in Richmond, VA. She staged five shows every season, and received mostly rave reviews. She played everything from leading roles in "Hedda Gabbler" and "Antigone" to character parts such as "Ma Frochard" in "The Two Orphans." She also wrote an adaptation of Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol", which she first staged in 1900, and her version was used by several other theaters in the early 1900s. She received much acclaim for her work at the Empire, and even received the Woman of the Year Award from the Virginia Women's Society in 1901.
She stepped down from the Empire Theater at the end of the 1903-04 season to make her London debut in a comic supporting role in the play "Clarice". She again received acclaim and repeated her success in the Broadway production three months later. She remained a staple of the Broadway stage for the next several years, specializing in character parts. She also returned on occasion to stock theaters to act and direct. She made her film debut in 1914 in Butterflies and Orange Blossoms (1914). From then on she would divide her time between film and the stage. She was used in film frequently by D.W. Griffith for various character parts. While she was a versatile actress, her most memorable parts in film were always those of vengeful women.
Her greatest stage triumph was the creation of the Widow Caggle role in the original Broadway production of "Sun Up". After the Broadway engagement she directed, as well as continued to perform, in the US and European tours of the play. She also recreated her role for the film version (Sun-Up (1925)). In 1927 Broadway's Princess Theater was renamed the Lucille La Verne Theater in her honor, and she was named manager and director. For her first outing as a Broadway producer and director she chose an original play called "Hot Water", giving herself the role of Jessica Dale. The play received mixed reviews and closed rather quickly. Later that same season she launched a revival of "Sun Up" repeating her Widow Caggle role, but it also closed quickly. Since the theater had lost money, she was let go as manager and the name reverted to being the Princess Theater. Upset, she moved to California for the time being to make more movies.
By 1928 she had already established herself as a good character actress in silent films and made the transition easily to talkies. As with her stage career, however, she tended to get typecast as unlikable women, despite her acclaim on Broadway for being able to play almost any character type. She did not abandon the stage entirely, however, and appeared frequently in regional productions in Los Angeles and San Francisco. In 1936 she returned to Broadway in the lead role of the thriller "Black Widow". Despite the rave reviews she received, the play itself got mixed reviews and closed after just a few performances. It would be her last stage production. La Verne quickly returned to Hollywood to take on her most famous role. She voiced both the Wicked Queen and her alter ego, the Old Hag in Walt Disney's first animated feature film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). She also worked as a live-action model for the artists.
After working on "Snow White", Lucille La Verne retired from acting and became co-owner of a successful nightclub. She died at age 72 of cancer on March 4, 1945, in Culver City, CA.Plot: Palm Plot, Lot 236, center grave D - Actress
- Writer
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Born Rose Louise Hovick in Seattle, Washington, in 1911, but called Louise from early childhood, Gypsy Rose Lee was the daughter of a mild-mannered businessman and a restless, fiery young woman named Rose, who was determined to get out of Seattle and make a life for herself and her daughter in show business. In 1912, Rose had another child, June. Rose thought June was much more beautiful, photogenic and talented than Louise apparently could ever hope to be, which soon caused her to pack up her two children and search for a career in vaudeville (she divorced her husband when he objected to a career in show business). By the time Louise was seven and June five, they had put together a very successful act, Baby June and Her Farmboys. June was, of course, the star, and Louise was put in the chorus, though she did get an occasional moment in the spotlight. The act was making $1500 a week, but the family was not exactly living in high style, having to scrimp and save much of the time in order to buy food, and often in debt. There are many who believe that Rose was squandering the money.
There were also rumors about Rose during this time, about how she had to dodge the police, who enforced strict child labor laws, and even about how she may have murdered a man she thought was pestering her children. Despite these rumors, June and Louise's act continued to be successful throughout the 1920s. At the end of the decade June was 13 and had been re-christened Dainty June. By this time it was clear that vaudeville was a dying art form. Rose, however, still chased after her dream, and still made June up to be a cute baby. June resented it, and finally she married one of the chorus boys in the act (she was still only 13) and ran away with him. Not even this could stop Rose, however. This time she formed a new act, centering it around Louise. Called Rose Louise and Her Hollywood Blondes, she and her chorus girls performed slightly risqué musical numbers, and were moderately successful. Still, vaudeville continued to die out, which hurt the act. However, there was one form of vaudeville that still drew crowds: burlesque. Eventually, Rose, Louise and company had to take a job in a burlesque house. Sometime during their stay there the star stripper was not able to go on for a performance. Rose, never one to pass up an opportunity, volunteered Louise for the job. So Louise, just 15 at the time, stepped on stage, wearing not much more than a grass skirt, and slowly and teasingly . . . didn't take much off. Audiences responded favorably to this new kind of striptease act, which was more "tease" than "strip," more tantalizing than tawdry. Louise had finally found her calling.
For her stage name she took Gypsy, a nickname she derived from her hobby of reading tea leaves, and combined it with her real first name, Rose, and Lee, which she added on a whim. As Gypsy Rose Lee she launched a hugely successful career in burlesque, incorporating humor and intelligence, as well as the requisite removal of various articles of clothing, into her act. She became extremely popular, even appearing at the last place anyone would expect, high society balls. Once she had conquered the stages of burlesque, she decided to try her hand at movies. Billed under her real name, Louise Hovick--because the studio heads were afraid her stage name would scare people away--she made her film debut in Ali Baba Goes to Town (1937). It was a forgettable film, and her performance wasn't much more memorable. She appeared in three more films in the 1930s, and two more in the 1940s, but her film career was pretty much a bust. She tried her hand at writing with the "burlesque mystery" novel "The G-String Murders" (1941), which was made into the film Lady of Burlesque (1943), starring Barbara Stanwyck. By the 1950s, however, she was comfortable just being a sort of queen mother of burlesque. She had gone through three unhappy marriages, as well as affairs with showman Mike Todd and director Otto Preminger; the latter was the father of her only child, Erik Lee Preminger. She was not close to her sister June, who by this time had changed her name and was known as actress/dancer June Havoc. She also still had to contend with Mama Rose, who constantly tried to extort money from her with vicious threats. It wasn't until Rose died from terminal cancer in 1954 that Gypsy truly felt safe to write her memoirs, without having to worry anymore about her mother's repercussions. Her autobiography, "Gypsy", was published in 1957. Detailing her childhood in vaudeville and her relationship with her mother. It was an immediate bestseller. Broadway producers also noticed it and decided it would make a great musical, and so was born what many consider the best Broadway musical of all time: "Gypsy". With book by Arthur Laurents, music by Jule Styne and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, it premiered in 1959 and was an immediate smash. However, though Gypsy was an important character, of course, it did not focus on her alone, but rather on the hard-boiled, driven, single-minded, even monstrous stage mother that was Mama Rose.
This time it was Rose who was the star, which, as the musical implies, was perhaps what she always wanted. The musical has been frequently revived and been made into two films. The role of Mama Rose has been played by, among others, Ethel Merman, Angela Lansbury, Tyne Daly, Bette Midler and Betty Buckley. Gypsy Rose Lee was able to enjoy the musical's success in her last years. She had appeared in three films in the 1950s, and made three more in the 1960s, including a cameo in, of all films, the family comedy The Trouble with Angels (1966), opposite Hayley Mills and Rosalind Russell, who played Mama Rose in the first screen version of the play, Gypsy (1962). The real Gypsy even hosted two incarnations of her own talk show. She died of cancer in 1970. Even if her film career wasn't spectacular, she was immortalized on the stage of both burlesque and Broadway.Plot: Pinecrest Plot, Lot 1087, Grave 8. Across from Utopia Plot- Actress
- Soundtrack
Brunette, petite Sharon Lynne was born D'Auvergne Sharon Lindsay in Weatherford, Texas. A former beauty contest winner, she began in show business as a nightclub singer and songwriter. Possessed of a strong, bluesy voice, she drifted towards the musical stage, eventually appearing in both the Broadway and screen versions of the musical Sunny Side Up (1929). She was also cast to good effect alongside Sue Carol in Fox Movietone Follies of 1929 (1929). Billed as 'Sharon Lynn', she had a few more minor leads in the late 1920s, then, after joining Fox, found herself relegated to the supporting cast. Even adding the extra 'e' to her surname didn't help. For the remainder of the 1930's, Sharon Lynne played assorted 'other women', 'fickle dancers', and the like. Her last effective role was as Lola Marcel, an excellent menace to Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, in Way Out West (1937). Finding decent roles ever harder to come by, Sharon had quit the movies by the end of the decade. She was married twice, first to Benjamin Glazer, an associate producer at Paramount; secondly to John Sershen, a Beverly Hills businessman. At the time of her death in 1963, she was known as Sharon Glazer Sershen.Plot: Chapel of the Chimes, Crypt 7
GPS coordinates: 33.9738884, -118.3377838 (hddd.dddd)- Actor
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D'Urville Martin was a key important, prolific and hugely engaging supporting actor who appeared with pleasing regularity in a handful of delightfully down'n'dirty 70s blaxploitation features. Martin was born on February 11, 1939 in New York City. D'Urville first began acting in the 1960s including the elevator attendant in "Rosemary's Baby". He soon became a principal recurring figure in the 70s blaxploitation cinema cycle. Martin acted in several movies with legendary blaxploitation icon Fred "The Hammer" Williamson; he was especially memorable as Williamson's reluctant partner Toby in the "Black Charley" pictures and old childhood chum Reverand Rufus in both the terrific "Black Caesar" and its solid sequel "Hell Up in Harlem." D'Urville popped up in two flicks for director William Girdler: he's the villainous Pilot in the Pam Grier vehicle "Sheba, Baby" and a flamboyant pimp in the enjoyably tacky "The Zebra Killer." Martin directed the hilarious Rudy Ray Moore comedy hoot "Dolemite" -- he also plays Willie Green in this film -- and "Disco 9000." Among the TV shows he did guest spots on are "Dr. Kildare," "Daniel Boone," "The Monkees," "The Man from U.N.C.L.E.," "The Invaders," "All in the Family," "Love, American Style," and "Ironside." Alas, D'Urville Martin had a hard partying lifestyle which directly lead to his unfortunate untimely death from a heart attack at age 45 on May 28, 1984.Plot: Parkview Plot, Space 886. In northwest corner of plot, five rows from Elm Drive- Edith Wynne Matthison was born on 23 November 1871 in Birmingham, England, UK. She was an actress, known for National Red Cross Pageant (1917), The Governor's Lady (1915) and The Gorgon's Head (1925). She was married to Charles Kennedy. She died on 23 September 1955 in Los Angeles, California, USA.Plot: Esperanza, Lot 34, Grave
GPS coordinates: 33.9706116, -118.3394928 (hddd.dddd) - Actor
- Soundtrack
Scotty Mattraw was born on 19 October 1880 in Evans Mills, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for In Old Chicago (1938), Two Lovers (1928) and Quick Triggers (1928). He was married to Edna A. Hunter. He died on 9 November 1946 in Hollywood, California, USA.- Music Department
- Soundtrack
R&B singer/songwriter Percy Mayfield was born August 21, 1920 in Minden, Louisiana. His mother was a singer. Percy showed a real talent for poetry as a youth; this naturally led to him writing and singing his own songs. Mayfield started his musical career performing in Texas. He moved to Los Angeles, California in 1941 and lived with his sister before his career took off. In 1947 he recorded "Two Years of Torture" for the small Swing Time label; it sold well enough to persuade music producer Arthur Rupe to sign Percy to his Specialty Records label in 1950. Noted for his smooth vocal style and sharp and thoughtful lyrics, Mayfield had a #1 hit on the R&B charts with the mournful number "Please Send Me Someone To Love" that same year.
In 1952 Percy was seriously injured in an automobile accident which left him with a severe facial disfigurement that limited his ability to perform live. However, he soldiered on as a prolific songwriter. Among his most memorable compositions are "Lost Love," "What a Fool Was I," "Cry Baby," "Big Question," "Hide Nor Hair," "At The Club," and "Danger Zone." Percy hit paydirt with the extremely catchy and sassy "Hit The Road Jack", which became a massive smash for Ray Charles in 1961 (it peaked at #1 on the US Billboard pop charts for two weeks). Mayfield worked for the Chess label from 1955-56 and Imperial Records in 1957. He continued to pen minor R&B chart hits throughout the 1970s for RCA and Atlantic and performed live on a limited basis.
He died of a heart attack at age 63 at his home in Los Angeles, California on August 11, 1984.- Irish Meusel was born on 9 June 1893 in Oakland, California, USA. He was an actor, known for The Best of Luck (1920), Slide, Kelly, Slide (1927) and Fast Company (1929). He died on 1 March 1963 in Long Beach, California, USA.
- Actress
- Script and Continuity Department
Cleo Moore was born Cleouna Moore on October 31, 1924 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, the daughter of a building contractor. Both her parents were deeply involved in Democratic politics which, in Louisiana, was an all consuming passion with a lot of families in the 1920s. Cleo began her trek to stardom when she participated in school plays in high school. When she was about 20 years old, Cleo wed Palmer Long, son of the late Huey "Kingfish" Long in 1944. Palmer's father had been one of the movers and shakers in Louisiana politics for years, first serving as governor and then the United States Senate. He was assassinated in 1935 in the state capitol building. The marriage was doomed to fail, having lasted a mere six weeks. After Cleo finished high school, she moved with her family to California where her father was anticipating the end of World War II and the building boom that was expected to follow. Once in sunny California, it did not take long to get "discovered".
She was spotted by an RKO talent scout while attending a boxing fight at the Hollywood Legion Stadium and persuaded to take a screen test. She passed. Her first film was Congo Bill (1948). Then she went back to work at her family's building business and did some modeling. Two years later, in 1950, the shapely blonde appeared in a Western, Rio Grande Patrol (1950). She received fifth billing in the movie that went nowhere. That year proved very busy for Cleo as she appeared in five other films. In Bright Leaf (1950), a film about the tobacco industry, was a well-received one even though she had only a small part. Gambling House (1950) was somewhat of a personal breakthrough. Instead of having unknowns as her co-stars, Cleo had Victor Mature and William Bendix. Hard as it was to break into films, that one really grabbed the public's attention; she seemed destined to stay in B films.
She appeared in On Dangerous Ground (1951) with Ida Lupino and Robert Ryan, but had only a minor part. For an actress who had a wonderful talent, she seemed to be picked because of how her physical attributes played on the screen. That seemed secondary to the moguls of the studios. She was very beautiful, but Cleo wanted them to look past that and see the talent she possessed. In 1954 (now under contract to Universal-International), she appeared in two more box-office bombs, The Other Woman (1954) and Bait (1954). The following year, she made two more films, Hold Back Tomorrow (1955) and Women's Prison (1955). Although second class movies, they fared well at the box-office because of the subject matter and Cleo. Other than that, they did not have a lot going for them. In 1957, Cleo starred in her final film, along with her sister, Mara Lea, Hit and Run (1957). She had star billing, but it was another box-office bomb.
Cleo then left the motion picture industry forever. She married a real estate tycoon in 1961 and settled down to domesticity and the life of a Beverly Hills socialite. Her only child, a daughter, Debra, was born in 1963. Less than a week before her 49th birthday (October 25, 1973), Moore died of a heart attack in Inglewood, California. To her legions of fans, she remains their favorite sex symbol of the 1950s, and others languish knowing that her talent could have sent her to loftier heights instead of being wasted in minor roles in substandard B films.- Actor
- Soundtrack
"Sunshine Sammy" Morrison was most famous as one of the Dead End Kids/East Side Kids, but he was probably the most experienced actor of that group. Morrison made his film debut while still an infant; his father worked for a wealthy Los Angeles family that had connections in the film industry, and one day a producer who was an acquaintance of his father's needed a baby for a scene and asked him to bring Sammy as a replacement for a child who wasn't working out. Morrison pulled off the job like a trouper, and his career was born. He appeared in films with such comedians as Harold Lloyd and, in fact, was paired with 'Snub' Pollard in a series of one-reel comedies in 1920. Producer Hal Roach gave Morrison his own comedy series in 1921, but only one was made. He was eventually cast by Roach as one of the original Our Gang kids. He left the series in 1924 for a turn in vaudeville, where he spent the next 16 years. When the East Side Kids films were being cast, producer Sam Katzman remembered Morrison from the days when Katzman was a theatrical producer and Morrison had worked for him, and hired him as a member of the gang. Morrison left the series when he was drafted into the army during World War II, and after he got out he was offered his old job back, but declined it. After a few more film roles, Morrison left show business entirely, took a job in an aircraft assembly plant and spent the next 30 years in the aircraft industry.Plot: Capistrano Gardens, Memorial Panel 49, Sec 14, Row 3. Near center of panel.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Herbert Mundin was born on 21 August 1898 in St. Helens, Merseyside, England, UK. He was an actor, known for The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), David Copperfield (1935) and Mutiny on the Bounty (1935). He was married to Ann Shaw and Hilda Frances Hoyes. He died on 5 March 1939 in Van Nuys, California, USA.Plot: Charter Oak section, Lot 117- Bert Niehoff was born on 13 May 1884 in Louisville, Colorado, USA. He died on 8 December 1974 in Inglewood, California, USA.Plot: Siesta Section, Lot 819, Grave A
- Actress
- Soundtrack
Best known for her role as Aunt Esther Anderson on "Sanford And Son", she appeared in many films including "Don't Be A Menace To South Central While Drinking Your Juice In The Hood" (1996), "Friday" (1995), "The Legend of Dolemite" (1994), "West From North Goes South" (1993), "The Meteor Man" (1993), "CB4" (1993), "Shakes The Clown" (1991), "My Blue Heaven" (1990), "Mausoleum" (1983), "Goodbye Cruel World" (1982), "Zapped!" (1982) and "Stonestreet: Who Killed The Centerfold Maid" (1977). Page also appeared in many television series' in her career, "Redd Foxx, The E! True Hollywood Story," "Biography," "The Parent Hood," "The Sinbad Show," "Martin," "Family Matters," "Amen," "227," "Starsky And Hutch," "Different Strokes," "The Love Boat," "Redd Foxx," "B.A.D. Cats," and "Sanford And Son."Plot: Capistrano Court, Memorial Panel 43, Row F-3- Actor
- Additional Crew
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Jack Pennick was an American film actor, a familiar face, primarily in the movies of John Ford. He was born in Portland, Oregon, the son of gold miner Albert R. and Bessie (Murray) Pennick. After himself working as a gold miner, Pennick joined the U.S. Marine Corps and served, with the Pekin Legation Guard, in China in 1912 and in World War I. He and his first wife, Grechin, had two children by the time he was 20. He had a third child with his second wife, Nona Lorraine. After the First World War, Pennick worked as a horse wrangler and got work as such in various film productions. His rather unforgettably unattractive face caught the attention of filmmakers, particularly Ford, and Pennick began to get work as an actor, as well as occasionally a military technical adviser. Pennick re-enlisted in the navy in 1942, at the age of 46. He served as Chief Petty Officer under Commander John Ford in the Field Photographic Unit and, according to Ford, was decorated with the Silver Star medal for action in which he was wounded at Majaz al Bab, Tunisia during World War II. He continued to appear in films after the war, his career waning simultaneously with Ford's. He died in Manhattan Beach, California, at the age of 68.Plot: Concordia Plot, Division D, Lot 262- Sam Polo was born on 7 November 1872 in California, USA. He was an actor, known for The Lion's Claws (1918), The Great Circus Mystery (1925) and A Man from Nowhere (1920). He died on 3 October 1966 in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA.Plot: Mauso Del Prado, Crypt North 140
- Actor
- Music Department
- Composer
Billy Preston was born on 9 September 1946 in Houston, Texas, USA. He was an actor and composer, known for Blues Brothers 2000 (1998), Beautiful Girls (1996) and Baby Driver (2017). He died on 6 June 2006 in Scottsdale, Arizona, USA.- Actor
- Director
- Additional Crew
Though most famous as Capt. Englehorn, the ship captain who carried the expedition to an island to capture the great ape in King Kong (1933)--and its sequel, Son of Kong (1933)--Frank Reicher had a long history as a stage actor and director, and film director, prior to his "Kong" appearances, and in fact has more than 200 film roles to his credit.
Born in Munich, Germany, in 1875, he trained in Europe and then moved to New York in 1899 to act on the stage. His success there got him called to Hollywood in 1915, where he not only acted in films but also directed them. He took a few years off from his film career in 1921 to return to the New York stage, but then came back to Hollywood in 1926 and stayed there. He had a prolific career, acting and directing for most of the major studios, and was highly regarded in Hollywood not only as a filmmaker but as an acting teacher. In the World War II era he often played Nazi officials, or anti-Nazi partisans, and even turned up as a professor in The Mummy's Tomb (1942), a role he repeated in its sequel, The Mummy's Ghost (1944), and he played a succession of mad doctors, or their assistants, in several other Univeral horror films.
He made his final film in 1951, and died in 1965.Plot: Mausoleum of the Golden West, Sanctuary of Devotion, Crypt N-364
GPS coordinates: 33.9728584, -118.3392563 (hddd.dddd)- Writer
- Producer
- Director
Robert Riskin was born on 30 March 1897 in New York City, New York, USA. He was a writer and producer, known for It Happened One Night (1934), You Can't Take It with You (1938) and Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936). He was married to Fay Wray. He died on 20 September 1955 in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA.Plot: Mausoleum of the Golden West, Sanctuary of Eternity, Crypt L-133
GPS coordinates: 33.9727097, -118.3403473 (hddd.dddd)- Harry Robinson was born on 1 June 1872 in Des Moines, Iowa, USA. He was an actor, known for Beatrice Fairfax (1916), The New Adventures of J. Rufus Wallingford (1915) and Huns Within Our Gates (1918). He died on 8 September 1946 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Actor
- Soundtrack
Born Walker Smith, Jr., he borrowed the name of a fighter named Ray Robinson to box as an amateur so his mother wouldn't find out. Undefeated as an amateur boxer, 85-0, with 69 knockouts, 42 of them in the first round. Turned pro in 1940 and won his first 40 fights. Lost his first fight by decision to Jake LaMotta. Robinson would defeat LaMotta five out of six times. He joined the U.S. Army and boxed countless exhibitions alongside World Heavyweight Champ Joe Louis. Robinson won his next 93 straight fights. He was a six-time world champion, winning the Welterweight Title and then the Middleweight Title five times. His career lasted 25 years. He defeated many of the greatest boxing champions of his day, among them LaMotta, Kid Gavilan, Gene Fullmer, Carmen Basilio, Randolph Turpin and Carl "BoBo" Olsen. Only stopped once in over 200 fights. Scored over 100 knockout victories. Lost his last fight to Joey Archer in 1965. Friends with Frank Sinatra. Once owned an entire city block in Harlem. Spent millions on a jet-setting lifestyle.Plot: Pinecrest. Near the middle
GPS coordinates: 33.9674301, -118.3399734 (hddd.dddd)- Actress
- Composer
- Music Department
M.C. Trouble was born on 30 July 1970 in Los Angeles, California, USA. She was an actress and composer, known for MC Trouble feat. The Good Girls: I Wanna Make You Mine (1990) and Soul Train (1971). She died on 4 June 1991 in Los Angeles, California, USA.Plot: Pinecrest. Near the middle. Grave B, Lot 20
GPS coordinates: 33.9674683, -118.3398209 (hddd.dddd)- Actor
- Soundtrack
Tall, suave and sophisticated Cesar Romero actually had two claims to fame in Hollywood. To one generation, he was the distinguished Latin lover of numerous musicals and romantic comedies, and the rogue bandit The Cisco Kid in a string of low-budget westerns. However, to a younger generation weaned on television, Romero was better known as the white-faced, green-haired, cackling villain The Joker of the camp 1960s TV series Batman (1966), and as a bumbling corporate villain in a spate of Walt Disney comedies, such as chasing a young Kurt Russell in the fun-packed The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes (1969). Fans and critics alike agreed that Romero was a major talent who proved himself an enduring and versatile star in an overwhelming variety of roles in a career as an actor, dancer and comedian that lasted nearly 60 years.
Cesar Romero was born of Cuban parents in New York City in February 1907. He attended the Collegiate School and Riverdale Country School before working as a ballroom dancer. He first appeared on Broadway in the 1927 production of Lady Do, and then in the stage production of Strictly Dishonorable. His first film role was in The Shadow Laughs (1933), after which he gave strong performances in The Devil Is a Woman (1935) and in the Shirley Temple favorite, Wee Willie Winkie (1937).
Critics and fans generally agree that Romero's best performance was as the Spanish explorer Cortez in Captain from Castile (1947). However, he also shone in the delightful Julia Misbehaves (1948) and several other breezy and lighthearted escapades. In 1953 he starred in the 39-part espionage TV serial Passport to Danger (1954), which earned him a considerable income due to a canny profit-sharing arrangement. Although Romero became quite wealthy and had no need to work, he could not stay away from being in front of the cameras. He continued to appear in a broad variety of film roles, but surprised everyone in Hollywood by taking on the role of "The Joker" in the hugely successful TV series Batman (1966). He refused to shave his trademark mustache for the role, and close observation shows how the white clown makeup went straight on over his much loved mustache! The appearances in Batman were actually only a small part of the enormous amount of work that Romero contributed to television. He guest-starred in dozens of shows, including Rawhide (1959), 77 Sunset Strip (1958), Zorro (1957), Fantasy Island (1977) and Murder, She Wrote (1984). However, it was The Joker for which his TV work was best remembered, and Romero often remarked that for many, many years after Batman ended, fans would stop him and ask him to chuckle and giggle away just like he did as The Joker. Romero always obliged, and both he and the fans just loved it!
With a new appeal to a younger fan base, Romero turned up in three highly popular Disney comedies: The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes (1969), Now You See Him, Now You Don't (1972) and The Strongest Man in the World (1975) as corrupt but inept villain A.J. Arno. Throughout the remainder of the 1980s Romero remained busy, and even at 78 years of age the ladies still loved his charm, and he was cast as Jane Wyman's love interest in the top-rated prime-time soap opera Falcon Crest (1981), playing Peter Stavros from 1985 to 1987.
Although Romero stopped acting in 1990, he remained busy, regularly hosting classic movie programs on cable television. A talented and much loved Hollywood icon, he passed away on New Year's Day 1994, at the age of 86.Plot: Mausoleum of the Golden West, Alcove of Music, Niche 408. Near stained glass window.- Evelyn Selbie was born on 6 July 1871 in Ohio, USA. She was an actress, known for The Silver Treasure (1926), Dangerous Paradise (1930) and The Prisoner's Story (1912). She died on 7 December 1950 in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Iva Shepard was born on 23 April 1886 in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA. She was an actress, known for While the Children Slept (1913), I Love Lucy (1951) and The Straight Road (1914). She was married to Lyle Clement and Joseph Singleton. She died on 26 January 1973 in Arcadia, California, USA.Plot: Mausoleum of the Golden West, Sanctuary of Dawn, Crypt A-29
- Kenny Sinclair is known for Tootsie (1982) and The Reading (2020).
- Actress
- Writer
Born in Chicago in 1885, silent screen actress Myrtle Stedman's (née Lincoln) musical talents developed quite early, finding herself on stage at age 12 singing light opera in the chorus. She had progressed to singing leads in shows by the time she decided to abandon her music career altogether for the movies.
She and actor-husband Marshall Stedman were signed by the Selig Polyscope Co. in 1911 and Myrtle's first credit was The Two Orphans (1911), a three-reeler. She was often directed or paired up with Marshall during those early years, but Myrtle was the one who stood out with moviegoers. Known as "the girl with the pearly eyes," she was not only an adorably enchanting and enigmatic presence in film drama, her athletic abilities also complemented westerns and action adventures.
She moved to the Bosworth Company in 1914 and appeared in such noteworthy silents as The Country Mouse (1914), Jane (1915), Peer Gynt (1915), and, most notably, the classic Hypocrites (1915), the last helmed by pioneer lady director Lois Weber. She increased her reputation as a fine actress with The American Beauty (1916), As Men Love (1917), In the Hollow of Her Hand (1918) and The Teeth of the Tiger (1919). Her son, Lincoln Stedman, made his debut as a juvenile player about this time. She and her husband divorced in 1919.
Following her rich roles in Reckless Youth (1922) and The Famous Mrs. Fair (1923), which was considered one of her finest, her star began to fade and she began to support other stars such as Colleen Moore in Flaming Youth (1923); May McAvoy in Tessie (1925); and Mary Astor in No Place to Go (1927).
Come the advent of sound, Myrtle seemed to move with ease into matronly secondary roles in such films as The Jazz Age (1929), Little Accident (1930), Beau Ideal (1931), Klondike (1932) and The Widow in Scarlet (1932), but by 1933, she had regressed to unbilled roles and pretty much stayed in that capacity up until the time of her death. Myrtle suffered a heart attack in late 1937 and declined quickly, dying on January 8, 1938 at age 52. Her ex-husband died in 1943 and her son, Lincoln, died in 1948.- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Born in Albuquerque, New Mexico in 1892, rustic-looking George "Slim" Summerville possessed one of those malleable mugs that made you laugh even before he opened his mouth. Young Slim ran away from home as a youth and lived a rather wanderlust life until a chance meeting with Mack Sennett through his comedian friend Edgar Kennedy changed everything.
Slim broke into silent films at age nineteen as one of Sennett's pie-hurling Keystone Kops and became part of the stock company of players. Making an unbilled appearance in Keystone's first feature film Tillie's Punctured Romance (1914), Summerville's gangly build and naive innocence, not to mention his potato-like nose, mournful mug, and slim, curling upper lip, helped set him apart -- so much so that Summerville eventually branched out into his own short vehicles.
Much more comfortable in rumpled clothes and overalls than a suit and tie, he later learned the ropes of directing and in the 1920s helmed a string of short films for both Fox and Universal studios. He refocused on acting come the advent of sound and made a rather easy transition, standing out in a number of commercial films, both comedic and dramatic, including the mammoth war epic All Quiet on the Western Front (1930), the landmark musical film King of Jazz (1930), Hecht-MacArthur's classic The Front Page (1931), the Shirley Temple vehicles Captain January (1936) and Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1938), and John Ford's Tobacco Road (1941). In addition, Slim scored in a series of short comedies opposite Zasu Pitts, and a slew of supports in Hoot Gibson westerns.
Usually playing much older than he was, the sleepy-eyed, slow-drawling Summerville played his last role in The Hoodlum Saint (1946), before dying of a stroke on January 5, 1946, at the not-so-old age of 53. He left a strong enough legacy, however, to be remembered as one of the screen's more reliable comedians. He was survived by his wife Eleanor and son Elliot.Plot: Utopia Plot, Lot 217, Division C- Stunts
- Actor
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
He first came to the USA as a boy member of the famed acrobats, the Mazetti Troupe, that had been engaged by Barnum & Bailey Circus. Richard began in films, supposedly, as a stunt double for Doug Fairbanks, Sr., then graduated to films under his own name.Plot: Sequoia Section- Actor
- Soundtrack
Billie Thomas was an African-American child actor who was best-known for appearing in the "Our Gang" film series from 1934 to its end in 1944.
Born and raised in Los Angeles, Thomas auditioned for an "Our Gang" role when he was three years old. He was cast as a background player in the short films "For Pete's Sake!", "The First Round-Up", and "Washee Ironee", all from 1934.
With the short film "Mama's Little Pirate" (1935), Thomas became the third actor to portray the character "Buckwheat", who had at first been depicted as a bowed-pigtailed female character at first, portrayed by Carlena Beard (1929-1972) and Willie Mae Walton (1918-2018); Thomas was effectively cross-dressing for the role. Buckwheat eventually became a more masculine character, and was first credited as male in "The Pinch Singer" (1936). He gained an entirely-new costume for "Pay as You Exit" (1936), where he played a slave in search of a master. Thomas kept this new look--overalls, striped shirt, oversized shoes, and a large, unkempt Afro--for the duration of playing this role, until 1944.
Thomas performed in "Our Gang" for 10 years. During this time, he was only absent for a single film, "Feed 'em and Weep" (1938), because he was ill. His character was paired with that of Eugene "Porky" Lee: they were "the little kids" who outsmarted "the big kids": George "Spanky" McFarland and Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer.
As a young child, Thomas had a speech impediment; this was transferred to his character and used as a comic device. Both Buckwheat and Porky spoke in "garbled dialogue" and pronounced "OK" as "O-tay!"
The series' original short films were produced by Hal Roach Studios, but production was taken over by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1938. From 1938 to 1944, MGM produced 52 "Our Gang" short films and Thomas was the only cast member to appear in all of them. He was the only holdover from the Hal Roach era to remain in the series until its end.
Thomas' team-up with Eugene Lee ended when Lee was replaced by new cast member Robert Blake. By 1940 Thomas had outgrown his speech impediment, and Buckwheat started speaking clearly as well. The series' final film was "Dancing Romeo" (1944), and Thomas was 12 years old during its production.
While Buckwheat became synonymous with the "pickaninny" stereotype of African-American children, Thomas himself was well-liked for being depicted as a playmate and equal to the white children of the series. "Our Gang" featured a desegregated cast during the Jim Crow Era.
Thomas largely retired from acting following the 1940s. He served in the United States Army from 1954 to 1956 and received both a National Defense Service Medal and a Good Conduct Medal. Following his discharge, Thomas was offered new acting roles but he rejected them. He viewed an acting career as "a rat race ... with no security". Instead, he chose a more modest career as a film lab technician for the Technicolor corporation.
In the summer of 1980, surviving "Our Gang" cast members appeared in the second annual meeting of the fraternal organization the Sons of the Desert (named after a Laurel and Hardy film). Thomas received a spontaneous standing ovation by 500 fans, and cried in response. On October 10, 1980, he suffered a heart attack and died. He was 49 years old.
Thomas was survived by his son William Thomas Jr. In 1992, the younger Thomas created the Buckwheat Memorial Scholarship for students of California State Northridge University. The scholarship was named in honor of his father and his best-known role.Plot: Acacia Slope Plot, Lot 773, Grave D. In Northeast corner of plot, next to roadway and directly across from Fairhaven Plot
GPS coordinates: 33.9640007, -118.3370972 (hddd.dddd)- Actress
- Soundtrack
Big Mama Thornton was born on 11 December 1926 in Montgomery, Alabama, USA. She was an actress, known for Vanishing Point (1971), A Few Good Men (1992) and The Dreamers (2003). She died on 25 July 1984 in Los Angeles, California, USA.Plot: 'M' Plot, Lot 2486-B
GPS coordinates: 33.9647713, -118.3438034 (hddd.dddd)- Actor
- Soundtrack
David Torrence was the second child born out of eleven children to Henry Torrance Thomson and Janet Bryce. Davis given name was 'David Bryce Thomson." Born on Jan 17,1863 in Edinbough,Scotland. David's brother was character star 'Ernest Torrence' who was 15 years younger than David. Ernest was the first of the two to come to California and become actors. Educated in both England and Germany, David moved with equal ease from stage to screen in the early part of the 20th century. Following the completion of the classic silent films Tess of the D'Urbervilles (1913) with the legendary stage actress Minnie Maddern Fiske, and The Prisoner of Zenda (1913), however, David returned to focus on Broadway plays and enjoy life on a Mexican ranch. A steep reversal of fortunes aggravated a necessary return to Hollywood following World War I, and, fortunately for his fans, he stayed for nearly two decades. Playing a number of leads during his silent heyday, many of them men of influence, his portrayals of stern-faced villains may not have rivaled that of brother Ernest, but David made for quite a contemptible gent in a few. In his first sound picture, the historical drama Disraeli (1929), he played an austere-looking anti-Semitic head of the Bank of England whose refusal to finance the Suez canal results in action taken by Prime Minister Disraeli, played by George Arliss. David also went on to lend Arliss prime support in the comedy drama A Successful Calamity (1932), and in another biopic history lesson, Voltaire (1933). Come the advent of sound, his characters continued to prestigious characters (bankers, merchants, lawyers, and attorneys), but grew smaller in size until he faded out in unbilled parts, such as in The Dark Angel (1935) and Lost Horizon (1937). Comedy fans might remember David for his performance as Scots attorney Mr. Miggs in the Laurel and Hardy feature Bonnie Scotland (1935). His last roles included, Rulers of the Sea (1939) and Stanley and Livingstone (1939). David Torrence died Dec 26,1951 Beverly Hills, Ca. and is buried at the Inglewood Cemetery while others give 1951.Plot: Mausoleum of the Golden West, Sanctuary of Hope, Alcove of Pines, Niche 7-A