The Hollywood Forever Memorial Park certainly lives up to its name.
Looking north through its front gates, you can see the Hollywood Sign up atop the Hollywood Hills. Looking south, you can see the historic back lot of the famous Paramount Studios. And interred throughout the cemetery grounds are some of the most famous stars in the history of Old Hollywood, including Rudoph Valentino, Douglas Fairbanks, Nelson Eddy, Peter Lorre, Janet Gaynor, Tyrone Power and Clifton Webb.
Unlike most modern cemeteries, this isn't a "lawn park," it boasts an admirable collection of old-fashioned standing headstones, monuments and statues.
This is a large cemetery, with two huge indoor mausoleums and countless outdoor graves. You will need a map if you are going to locate any of the stars' burial sites. Fortunately, the administration here is cooperative, and you can pick up a map of the grounds as you enter the park, from the flower shop at the main gate, which highlights the locations of many of the stars buried here.
This is also an
old cemetery - established in 1899, and filled with tall, old-fashioned headstones and towering monuments, including a few unusual ones shaped like obelisks and rocket ships. The cemetery is so picturesque, in fact, that it has been used as a background location for many Hollywood movies (such as 1991's "Hot Shots." with Charlie Sheen and that same year's "L.A. Story." with Steve Martin - as well as TV shows such as "Charmed".)
Some sections of the cemetery grounds are a little unkempt (more than a handful of tombstones are broken or tilted by overgrown tree roots), but the tranquil area by the lake is beautiful.
There are two major mausoleums, both filled with Hollywood movie stars. And despite their age, both buildings are white and sunny (illuminated by stained-glass skylights), not at all the sort of dark & spooky environs your imagination might conjure up when you think of an old mausoleum.
We will first visit the mausoleum on the far west side of the park, which is named the "Abbey of the Psalms." Here, you will find the crypts of actress Norma Talmadge (and her sisters Constance & Natalie); famed director Victor Fleming, actress Joan Hackett, movie mogul Jesse Lasky, actress Darla Hood, and Charlie Chaplin Jr.
(Most of the crypts here aren't numbered, but as you enter each section, note that the names of the various hallways and corridors are conveniently written on the tile floor.
