What lies beneath
By Daily Bruin Staff
April 3, 2001 9:00 p.m.
 Photos by JENNIFER YUEN/Daily Bruin Senior Staff Actor
Natalie Wood, whose gravestone is shown in this picture, is one of
the many famous people buried at the Pierce Brothers Westwood
Memorial Park, which is located between Glendon Avenue and Wilshire
Boulevard.
By Carolina Reyes
Daily Bruin Contributor
Every August, the Marilyn Remembered fan club holds a memorial
service at the Pierce Brothers Westwood Memorial Park, where
Marilyn Monroe, the blond bombshell and timeless sex symbol, enjoys
her eternal rest in a white mausoleum crypt, according to Steve
Sann, Westwood historian and UCLA alumnus.
Idolized and worshiped in life by thousands of fans, Monroe
still receives admiration even after 40 years.
“Joe Dimaggio had red roses sent to her crypt for decades
after her death,” Sann said. “Fans make pilgrimages and
in almost any given week, people leave flowers, notes, pictures and
an occasional lipstick mark on her crypt.”
But Monroe isn’t the only celebrity buried in the 2.9-acre
expanse of prime ground. Many stars, who had lucky breaks and
tragic ends, call the cemetery home.
 Marilyn Monroe’s crypt is also located at the
Pierce Brothers Westwood Memorial Park.
Yet despite the myriad well-known people buried there, most
students don’t know that a cemetery lies nestled between the
tall buildings on Glendon Avenue and Wilshire Boulevard.
Frank Nevarez, program coordinator of the Center for Academic
and Research Excellence, is one of the few people on campus who has
heard of the cemetery.
“Yeah, that’s the place where Marilyn Monroe is
buried and where Joe Dimaggio would bring her flowers,” he
said.
The cemetery is a unique oasis of tranquility and is one of
Westwood’s famous cemeteries besides the Veteran Memorial
Cemetery, Sann said.
Pierce Brothers Westwood Memorial Park and Mortuary is one of
the oldest and smallest developments in Westwood.
Established in the late 1800s, the cemetery was known as the
Sunset Memorial Cemetery.
In 1904 the current owners, the Pierce Brothers, took over the
cemetery and gave it a new name. Since that time, it has become the
final resting place of many celebrity figures including Burt
Lancaster, Frank Zappa and Roy Orbison, according to cemetery
records.
Today, people are jumping ahead of their time to choose a
plot.
Recently, Hugh Hefner, founder of Playboy Magazine, purchased
the crypt next to Monroe, according to Sann. “Hugh Hefner
launched her career,” he said.
Monroe’s stint as the first Playboy centerfold helped
establish her fame.
But Randy Ziegler, general manager of Westwood Memorial, said he
was not aware of such a purchase.
As a burial place for so many celebrities, the cemetery has
attracted various “grave hunters” whose main hobby
includes touring sites where famous people are buried.
Although Monroe’s crypt receives a plethora of visitors,
Natalie Wood, another well-known actress, gets her share of fans,
according to the Seeing Stars, a grave-hunter information Web
site.
Wood was nominated twice for the Academy Award for Best Actress
and starred in such movies as “Rebel Without a Cause,”
“West Side Story” and “Miracle on 34th
Street.”
In 1981, at the age of 43, Wood accidentally drowned at Catalina
Island off the yacht owned by her husband, Robert Wagner.
Young or tragic deaths appear to be common threads linking many
of the celebrities buried at the cemetery.
Dominique Dunne, who played the older sister in
“Poltergeist” is also buried there. Dunne, then 22, was
strangled by her boyfriend when she tried to break off the
relationship.
But the apparent curse on “Poltergeist” actors
doesn’t stop there.
Heather O’Rourke, who played Carol Anne in the movies, is
buried nearby in a crypt above ground. O’Rourke died in 1988
from complications with an intestinal infection.
In the past, Metro Goldwyn-Mayer studios worried that tabloids
would scare people into believing the “Poltergeist”
movies where responsible for their deaths, since an actor died
after the making of each of the three films.
Julian Beck, who played the evil Rev. Kane in “Poltergeist
II,” died in 1985.
Also buried there is Playboy model and 1980 Playmate of the Year
Dorothy Stratton, who was brutally killed in 1980 by her estranged
husband.
Her headstone contains an epitaph from Ernest Hemingway’s
novel “A Farewell to Arms.”
Part of it reads: “(The world) kills the very good and the
very gentle and the very brave impartially. If you are none of
these you can be sure that it will kill you too but there will be
no special hurry.”
Other celebrity figures buried at the park include, Donna Reed,
Armand Hammer, Eva Gabor and most recently Walter Matthau, known
for his work in “Grumpy Old Men” and as Mr. Wilson in
“Dennis the Menace.”
Because of the notoriety of its buried clientele, the cemetery
has had problems in the past.
In 1976, vandals tried to pry off the brass plaque of
Monroe’s tomb which is located here in Westwood, according to
a 1976 issue of The Los Angeles Times.
To prevent such incidents, many gravesites at the burial grounds
are unmarked.
Family members often prefer unmarked graves because they want to
keep the sites from turning into shrines.
For example, rock musician Jim Morrison’s grave, which is
located in Paris at the Piere la Chaise graveyard, has fallen
victim to numerous acts of vandalism. In the past, people would
carry out drug parties, black masses and trysts with prostitutes,
according to the Oct. 8 issue of The Los Angeles Times.
Singer Roy Orbison who sang such hit songs as “Oh Pretty
Woman,” “Only the Lonely” and
“Crying” is buried in an unmarked grave.
The cemetery is active and funerals services are still held
there. It is also open to the public.
“If people visit the cemetery, they should remember to be
mindful and hold the utmost respect for family members and loved
ones,” Sann said.
