Mark J. Masek, Author of the Celebrity Cemetery Guidebook ‘Hollywood Remains to Be Seen,’ Dies at 68
With a great sense of history and “without spectacle,” he wrote about the gravesites of Douglas Fairbanks Sr., Liberace, Al Jolson, Marlyn Monroe and many others.
Mark J. Masek, who wrote Hollywood Remains to Be Seen: A Guide to the Movie Stars’ Final Homes, an insightful 2001 book about 14 Los Angeles-area cemeteries and their celebrated residents, has died. He was 68.
Masek died on New Year’s Eve of an apparent heart attack inside his home in Alhambra, California, his girlfriend of 19 years, Jayne Osborne, told The Hollywood Reporter.
Masek, who moved to Southern California in 1999 from the Chicago area, was “always a fan of old movies and history, and I thought cemeteries were a way to combine those two,” he explained in a 2011 interview.
So, he embarked on his book, with each of its 14 chapters devoted to a walking tour of a cemetery: Forest Lawn Glendale (the final resting place for Michael Jackson and Jimmy Stewart, one of Masek’s favorite actors); Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills (Buster Keaton, Freddie Prinze); Hollywood Forever Cemetery (Tyrone Power, Mel Blanc, Hattie McDaniel); Westwood Memorial Park (Marilyn Monroe, Walter Matthau); Holy Cross (Mary Astor, Bing Crosby); Hillside Memorial Park (Jack Benny, Lorne Greene); Mount Sinai Memorial Park (Phil Silvers, Brandon Tartikoff); Oakwood Memorial Park (Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers); Calvary Cemetery (Pola Negri, Ramon Novarro); Home of Peace Memorial Park (Curly Howard, Louis B. Mayer); Eden Memorial Park (Groucho Marx, Lenny Bruce); Inglewood Park Cemetery (Betty Grable, Cesar Romero); San Fernando Mission Cemetery (Walter Brennan); and Valhalla Memorial Park (Oliver Hardy).
Masek said one of the most impressive gravesites he encountered was that of Douglas Fairbanks Sr., who is buried at Hollywood Forever in a white mausoleum complete with Roman pillars and his profile in brass in front of a 120-foot-long reflecting pool. He stood on the same spot where Charlie Chaplin delivered a eulogy in 1939.
He also admired Al Jolson’s resting place at Hillside, a domed monument featuring a life-sized statue of the entertainer atop a cascading waterfall, and Liberace’s tomb at Forest Lawn Hollywood, which features a musical score set on white marble.