Celebrity Graveland

September 26, 1895 – November 24, 1980

Some people are typecast from birth. For George Raft (Ranft), he was born to play a gangster. The rugged character actor was also an adept dancer and was a solid box office draw during his early career. But, when you are even friends with legit gangsters in real life, sometimes the image is hard to shake. Still, he turned it to his advantage, appearing opposite other perennial screen gangsters like Jimmy Cagney, he was poised to break through to be one of the biggest leading men of his generation. Inexplicably, Raft turned down roles that would have made this a certainty (roles that, in turn, made another actor – Humphrey Bogart – the biggest leading man of his generation) and his career declined. He later was given the opportunity to spoof his gangster image in Billy Wilder’s Some Like It Hot. But, appearing in one of the greatest comedies of all time does not a comeback make. Raft spent the last 20 years of his life making cameo appearances and working in casinos and clubs. George Raft died of leukemia at the age of 79.

Burial

Forest Lawn Memorial Park – Hollywood Hills, CA

Specific Location

Court of Remembrance, Sanctuary of Light,  Crypt 2356 – On the right side of this small sanctuary between the second and third courts (behind Liberace), second row up, just three spaces from the end and one space to the right of Freddie Prinze.

This entry was posted on December 16, 2013 at 1:06 pm and is filed under Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills with tags Actors, Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills, Some Like It Hot. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.