Celebrity Graveland

September 9, 1924 – August 24, 2001

“Mine is a sissy name. It’s too bo-peepish, ingenueish, for the type of role I’ve been playing.”

When Bettejane Greer legally changed her first name to just “Jane,” she was not wrong in her observation. RKO Picture’s ‘woman with the Mona Lisa smile’ was well-known for her femme fatale roles – most notably, opposite Robert Mitchum in the film noir classic Out of the Past – and enigmatic, hard shell characters. A Bettejane, she was most certainly not. Greer was a model, a singer and an actress whose career spanned more than half a century. Continue reading →

November 14, 1921 – June 24, 1997

Brain Keith began acting at the age of two. He appeared on stage, in dozens of television shows and scores of films. He is probably best known for his role in the original The Parent Trap and for his television shows Family Affair (opposite Sebastian Cabot – who is buried just across the road from Keith) and Hardcastle and McCormick. Alright, so that last one is how I best remember him, but I digress. Keith’s career boasts an impressive number of starring and guest starring roles. He was prolific and busy. In his later life, he suffered from health issues, including emphysema and lung cancer. And in 1997, his daughter, Daisy, committed suicide. Unable to deal with his health and the death of his daughter¹, Keith took his own life just two months later. He was interred next to Daisy in Westwood. Continue reading →