Celebrity Cemeteries
Whether you’re strolling along London’s West End, Paris’s Champs-Élysées, New York’s Times Square or the star-covered sidewalks of Hollywood’s Walk of Fame, we all love to happen upon a celebrity sighting. But celebrity sightings are so rare, even if you’re taking a tour of the stars’ homes. In fact, there’s only one foolproof way to ensure having a celebrity sighting, and that’s to go to a celebrity cemetery. Here are some of the most celebrity-filled final resting places in the world.
Highgate, London
Located in north London, the Grade I-listed Highgate Cemetery is also on the English Heritage Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England. Opened in 1839 as one of the “Magnificent Seven” cemeteries to ring the city, Highgate contains many beautiful old buildings, elaborately carved Victorian mausoleums and some stunning landscaping using trees, shrubbery and wild flowers. Of course, that’s not why we’re here. We’ve come today to see stars, and there are plenty to see, from celebrities from the distant past like the wife and parents of Charles Dickens to those of the present, like Sex Pistols manager and co-creator Malcolm McLaren. Though the cemetery is mostly known for its oversized bust of Karl Marx, you’ll also find “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” author Douglas Adams, iconic actor Sir Ralph Richardson, iconic director Carl Mayer and Alexander Litvinenko, the Russian exile who so famously met his end at the hands of Russian agents several years ago. In Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula, Lucy Westenra is buried in Highgate Cemetery, where she awakes to prey on young children. If you don’t mind being so close to vampires, there are plenty of great London hotels where you can spend the night.
Père Lachaise Cemetery, Paris
Visiting the grave of Jim Morrison and leaving the Doors singer gifts has become almost as popular a Paris activity as climbing to the top of Notre Dame Cathedral. But the Lizard King is only one of many famous citizens of the world buried in France’s premier celebrity cemetery. The Cimetière du Père-Lachaise in the 20th arrondissement is reputed to be the world’s most-visited cemetery and features not just one but three World War I memorials. Other musicians found here include the Polish-born Frédéric Chopin, whose heart is entombed in within a pillar at the Holy Cross Church in Warsaw. Punk rocker Stiv Bators reportedly has his ashes sprinkled on Morrison’s grave. Here you’ll also find writers like Honoré de Balzac, artists from Eugène Delacroix to Gustave Doré, actors from Sarah Bernhardt to Yves Montand and of course the world’s most famous mime, Marcel Marceau. Another unique grave belongs to Oscar Wilde, whose visitors are known to kiss the grave while wearing lipstick. Two-star Hotel Paris Gambetta offers economical accommodation in a classic building, right next to the cemetery and its Metro stop.
Green-wood Cemetery, Brooklyn, New York
Crossing the Atlantic, we land in New York City’s borough of Brooklyn, where we find the beautiful Green-Wood Cemetery. Founded in 1838 as a rural cemetery, it now boasts an impressive gate and a chapel that was designed in 1911 by Beaux-Arts masters Warren and Wetmore, who also designed Manhattan’s iconic Grand Central Station. The cemetery has been quite popular among mobsters, including Albert “The Mad Hatter” Anastasia of Murder, Inc. and Crazy Joey Gallo. Laura Keene, the star of the play Lincoln was watching during his assassination is buried here, as is Samuel F. B. Morse, inventor of the Morse Code. Though Theodore Roosevelt rests elsewhere, his first wife Alice, mother Martha and uncle Robert are all here, as are Horace Greeley, founder of the New York tribune and graffiti artist Jean-Michel Basquiat. There’s plenty more to see in Brooklyn and plenty of Brooklyn hotels from which to see it.
Hollywood Forever, Los Angeles
And now we come to the Mecca of celebrity cemeteries, the top of the heap, the Pantheon: The 1899 Hollywood Forever Cemetery. Once called Hollywood Memorial Park, this place is so Hollywood that its south side borders Paramount Studios. A lively place, it hosts outdoor movie screenings during the summer during which thousands of young hipsters sip wine and dine on cheese while watching movies projected on the wall of Rudolph Valentino’s mausoleum. As beautiful as a movie set, the cemetery has its own lake with a bridge going out to an island. Nearly anyone who was anyone in Hollywood can be found here, from directors John Huston and Cecil B. DeMille, to stars Douglas Fairbanks (who has his own reflecting pool) and Tyrone Power, to rockers Johnny and Dee Dee Ramone, to Columbia studio head Harry Cohn. Mel Blanc, the voice of Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig and a thousand other Warner Brothers cartoon characters has a fitting epitaph; “That’s All, Folks.” A celebrity in his own right, Bugsy Siegel is also buried here. Hollywood historian Karie Bible leads cemetery tours, and if you want to experience a little bit of old Hollywood in your accommodation, consider a stay at the Hollywood Historic Hotel, set in a classic building right down the street from Paramount Studios.
Westwood Village Memorial Park
As you gaze up at the modern office buildings rising up all around the intersection of Wilshire and Westwood Boulevards, it’s hard to imagine any cemetery in the area, let alone anything green. Yet tucked away in a tiny lot surrounded by high-rises is the Westwood Village Memorial Park, which packs more star power into a smaller space than anyplace else on the planet. This place is tiny, and most of the dearly departed are in the walls as opposed to being under the ground. In this tiny oasis of peace and quiet in busy Westwood, you’ll find Donna Reed, Dean Martin, Natalie Wood, Roy Orbison, Carroll O’Connor, Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau, Don Knotts, Eddie Albert, Peggy Lee, Mel Torme, George C. Scott, Burt Lancaster, Eve Arden, Carl Wilson, Eva Gabor and Truman Capote. But that’s not what brings visitors to the cemetery. Westwood Village Memorial Park’s number one attraction is that actress who was born as Norma Jean Baker and ended up becoming Marilyn Monroe. Just feet from the cemetery, one of those modern buildings is the Crescent at Legacy Hotel.
