Archive for the Hollywood Forever Cemetery Category

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Tyrone Power

Posted in Hollywood Forever Cemetery with tags , , on November 30, 2018 by Cade

May 5, 1914 – November 15, 1958

Following in the footsteps of silent-era swashbuckler, Douglas Fairbanks and contemporaries like Errol Flynn, Tyrone Power Jr. was one of the biggest box office draws of the 1930s and ’40s. Coming from a long line of performers, Power worked with his own father from an early age to study acting. While the senior and junior Powers prepared for a play in 1931, his father suffered a heart attack and died. From that moment on Power dedicated his life to being an actor. His good looks and deft swordwork made him a marketable and successful matinee idol. Continue reading →

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Darla Hood

Posted in Hollywood Forever Cemetery with tags , , , , on November 26, 2018 by Cade

November 8, 1931 – June 13, 1979

By the ripe old age of 10, Darla Hood had already appeared in more than 45 of the classic Hal Roach Our Gang/Little Rascals shorts. After that, everything else was gravy. Originally from Oklahoma, Darla was discovered in New York by a Roach associate and was immediately shipped off to L.A. where she appeared in her first Our Gang short at just 4 years old. Ostensibly the only girl in the “classic lineup,” Darla often played the “love interest” of one or more of the other Rascals, including – perhaps most famously – Carl Switzer‘s Alfalfa. When she walked away from the series in 1941, Hood went on to find success as a recording artist and singer. Continue reading →

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Nelson Eddy

Posted in Hollywood Forever Cemetery with tags , , on November 15, 2018 by Cade

June 29, 1901 – March 6, 1967

Nelson Ackerman Eddy was a celebrated, classically-trained baritone who rose to prominence on the Philadelphia opera stages in the 1920s and early ’30s. His talent, charisma and good looks made for a successful career giving concerts all across the U.S.. One such concert occurred in 1933 in Los Angeles when he subbed for Lotte Lehmann at the last minute. The audience for that concert was full of Hollywood producers and studio folk and before Eddy could blink, he was under contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. After struggling at first to find a place to showcase their newfound golden voice, MGM finally paired Eddy with an established star – Jeanette MacDonald – in 1935’s Naughty Marietta. Continue reading →

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Cecil B. DeMille

Posted in Hollywood Forever Cemetery with tags , on November 9, 2018 by Cade

August 12, 1881 – January 21, 1959

In the closing moments of Billy Wilder‘s 1950 masterpiece, Sunset Boulevard, a deranged Norma Desmond (played by Gloria Swanson,) believing she is making a triumphant return to film-making, utters one of the most memorable lines in all of moviedom: “Alright, Mr. DeMille. I’m ready for my close-up.” The iconic meta moment naturally featured director DeMille – THE name in filmmaking for decades – as himself aiding the charade from behind the camera. Cecil Blount de Mille was the first celebrity director in Hollywood. In fact, he was the first director AT ALL in Hollywood, choosing the previously-unremarkable neighborhood to shoot his films in when he migrated west from New York in 1913. DeMille parlayed his early career as a stage actor and relationships with his entrepreneurial friends (Jesse Lasky and Samuel Goldwyn) into a booming silent film production business. Continue reading →

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Toto

Posted in Hollywood Forever Cemetery with tags , on November 7, 2018 by Cade

November 17, 1933 – September 1, 1945

TOTO IS NOT BURIED AT HOLLYWOOD FOREVER. BUT, A NICE MEMORIAL HAS BEEN PUT UP IN HIS (HER) HONOR, SO I’VE INCLUDED HIM (HER) ANYWAY. WHY AM I YELLING?

Terry the Cairn Terrier was trained to be a performer by famous Hollywood dog trainer, Carl Spitz. She is most widely recognized as Toto, the faithful, on-screen companion of Judy Garland‘s Dorothy in the 1939 classic, The Wizard of Oz. Though it was Terry’s only credited role, there are few canines in cinematic history as recognizable or iconic.

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Darren McGavin

Posted in Hollywood Forever Cemetery with tags , on November 5, 2018 by Cade

May 7, 1922 – February 25, 2006

“Fra-gee-lay” …it must be Italian!”

Darren McGavin’s career spanned more than 40 years. He appeared in films ranging from 1955’s Summertime with Katharine Hepburn to Adam Sandler’s Billy Madison in 1995. His second most well-known role was that of Carl Kochak in the TV movie The Night Stalker and its subsequent sequel and spin-off series. McGavin’s MOST well-known role was, of course, as the comically gruff and oblivious old man in the 1983 holiday classic, A Christmas Story. Continue reading →

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Maila Nurmi

Posted in Hollywood Forever Cemetery with tags on October 31, 2018 by Cade

December 11, 1922 – January 10, 2008

At a masquerade party in Los Angeles in 1953, fledgling actress Maila Nurmi showed up decked in all black – an homage to Morticia Addams from the classic comic strip, The Addams Family. She was immediately noticed by a local television producer who asked her if she wanted to host late night horror movies on TV. She said yes and the original and quintessential horror host, Vampira, was born. Nurmi – as Vampira – went on to local stardom and some national acclaim. She hosted The Vampira Show on two different L.A. channels, appeared on national programs like The Red Skelton Show and in LIFE magazine. She notably appeared in Ed Wood’s infamous camp classic Plan 9 from Outer Space. Continue reading →

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Peter Lorre

Posted in Hollywood Forever Cemetery with tags , on October 22, 2018 by Cade

June 26, 1904 – March 23, 1964

Born in Vienna, Peter Lorre (László Löwenstein) was already on his way to stardom in Europe appearing on the German stage as well as in films including – most notably – Fritz Lang’s 1931 chiller, M. Then in 1933, the Nazis took control of Germany and Lorre fled to England where he was able to continue his career. He appeared in Hitchcock’s The Man Who Knew Too Much before sailing to the United States. In Hollywood, Lorre found success in bit roles and B-movies usually playing sinister foreign characters. In 1941, he went to work for Warner Bros. in the John Huston classic The Maltese Falcon. The film changed the trajectory of Lorre’s career and he went on to appear in numerous films with co-stars Humphrey Bogart, Claude Raines and Syd Greenstreet including the all-time opus, Casablanca. Continue reading →

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Anton Yelchin

Posted in Hollywood Forever Cemetery with tags , , , on October 19, 2018 by Cade

March 11, 1989 – June 19, 2016

The infamous and hypothetical Forever 27 club doesn’t discriminate. While the most well-known members are musicians who battled substance abuse or other demons, the club also contains artists and actors who just got unlucky. Rising star, Anton Yelchin, joined the club in 2016 after breakthrough roles in Terminator Salvation and 2009’s Star Trek reboot (as well as two of its sequels). Yelchin portrayed Chekov, the young navigator for the U.S.S. Enterprise – the role made famous in the original TV series by Walter Koenig. Continue reading →

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Clifton Webb

Posted in Hollywood Forever Cemetery with tags , on October 12, 2018 by Cade

November 19, 1889 – October 13, 1966

Clifton Webb was already a 20+ year veteran of the Broadway stage – where he starred in memorable classics like As Thousands Cheer, Blithe Spirit and the Gershwins‘ Treasure Girl – when he landed his first major film role in 1944’s noir classic, Laura, opposite Gene Tierney. Webb’s portrayal of the charismatic newspaperman in the film earned him his first of three Academy Award nominations. Continue reading →

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