Archive for Actors

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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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Paul Walker

Posted in Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills with tags , on October 16, 2018 by Cade

September 12, 1973 – November 30, 2013

Look. I’m not above “low-hanging-fruit” jokes. It would be EASY to make a The Fast and the Furious joke at the expense of Paul Walker. The fact that he was most widely-known for his starring role in the drift-happy street racing film franchise AND happened to die in a souped-up Porsche on a curve well known for high-speed drifting is RIFE with irony. It wouldn’t be right, mind you. But, it WOULD be obvious and lazy. 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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Estelle Getty

Posted in Hollywood Forever Cemetery with tags , , on October 10, 2018 by Cade

July 25, 1923 – July 22, 2008

All you need is one role.

For 10 years, Estelle Getty portrayed the wise-cracking octogenarian Sophia Petrillo over the course of four television shows: The Golden Palace, Empty Nest, Nurses and The Golden Girls.  It was, of course, on The Golden Girls where audiences met and fell in love with the irascible Sicilian mother of Bea Arthur’s Dorothy. Getty won an Emmy and a Golden Globe for her performance and was nominated many other times. Continue reading →

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Rudolph Valentino

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

May 6, 1895 – August 23, 1926

Before Michael Jackson. Before Elvis. Before Marilyn. There was Valentino.

Rodolfo Alfonso Raffaello Pierre Filibert Guglielmi di Valentina d’Antonguella, known to the world as “Rudolph Valentino” was an Italian-born silent film actor who was an international sex symbol and one of the first Hollywood superstars. And his life and career had all the trappings of a Hollywood superstar: getting caught up in a murder in New York, fleeing to Los Angeles and stumbling into the motion picture industry, marrying too many women at the same time. You know, the standard tropes. His exotic good looks and dancing ability enabled him to play a range of characters from a sheik in 1921’s The Sheik to a Spanish bullfighter in 1922’s Blood and Sand. Continue reading →

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Wayne Rogers

Posted in Westwood Memorial Park with tags , , on October 3, 2018 by Cade

April 7, 1933 – December 31, 2015

Sometimes, you just have to walk away. That’s exactly what Wayne Rogers did in 1975 when he left the massively successful sitcom, M*A*S*H after playing “Trapper” John McIntyre for the show’s first 72 episodes. Similar to fellow M*A*S*H alumnus (and fellow season 3 departer,) McLean Stevenson, Rogers – despite enjoying his time on the show immensely – grew tired of constantly playing second fiddle to Alan Alda’s “Hawkeye” Pierce. Continue reading →

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Don Adams

Posted in Hollywood Forever Cemetery with tags , on September 25, 2018 by Cade

April 13, 1923 – September 25, 2005

“Missed it by THAT much.”

Don Adams (Donald Yarmy) gave life to one of the most memorable and imitated television characters of all time. In 1965, Adams was under contract with NBC, who decided he should play the role of Maxwell Smart on their new show, the Mel Brooks-created spy spoof, Get Smart. Adams took bits and catchphrases from his early stand-up days and wrapped them in a distinct speaking style to bring Agent 86 to the small screen for 5 seasons. Continue reading →

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Bill Paxton

Posted in Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills with tags , on September 24, 2018 by Cade

May 17, 1955 – February 25, 2017

In the year and a half or so since his abrupt and untimely death at the age of 61, it’s still hard to imagine a world without Bill Paxton. The actor turned up so often for so long that one can be forgiven for still expecting to see him show up in some new movie or TV show today. Working often with director James Cameron, Paxton graced the screen in dozens of the most popular movies in the world for the better part of 3 decades. Small but memorable roles in the 1980s (Alien, Weird Science) led to blockbuster roles in the ’90s (Titanic, Tombstone, Twister) and lucrative TV roles in the 2000s (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Big Love – the latter of which earned him a number of Golden Globe and Emmy nominations.) He was literally everywhere. He even started a new wave band in 1982 because why not? Continue reading →

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Carl “Alfalfa” Switzer

Posted in Hollywood Forever Cemetery with tags , , , on September 20, 2018 by Cade

August 7, 1927 – January 21, 1959

The same day that renowned director Cecil B. DeMille died, a fight broke out in a Mission Hills, California home. The fight was over $50 and left a 31 year-old former child star dead of a gunshot wound. The newspapers the next day were all about DeMille, but if one looked hard enough, they would see that Carl Switzer – “Alfalfa” from the Our Gang (Little Rascals) shorts of the 1940s – had been killed.

Alfalfa was arguably the most famous character of the film series which saw dozens of children come and go over its 22 year run.Along with other members like “Spanky,” “Darla” and “Buckwheat,” Switzer’s cowlick’d, off-key prankster helped define what many consider the “classic” line up.

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Jack Klugman

Posted in Westwood Memorial Park with tags , , on September 14, 2018 by Cade

April 27, 1922 – December 24, 2012

Whether you remember him as Dr. Quincy (Quincy, M.E.), Oscar (The Odd Couple) or as Juror #5 (12 Angry Men), Jack Klugman is one of those actors that’s instantly recognizable. From stage to screen, The Twilight Zone to Gypsy, he was seemingly everywhere for more than 50 years. He is probably most widely regarded for bringing the role of Oscar Madison from the stage – where he replaced Walter Matthau – to the small screen – opposite Tony Randall – in Neil Simon’s The Odd Couple. 

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