Where Are They Buried? (34 page)

After the war,
Life
magazine ran a cover story on Audie’s exploits and actor James Cagney became convinced that Audie’s looks and persona, as well as his status as a war hero, could make him a star. Audie was invited to Hollywood and, after a few lean years, Cagney’s hunch proved right and Audie’s career took off. He eventually appeared in some 40 films. His earliest films were war movies but by the 1950s he moved from the genre, barely, and the majority of his roles were in Westerns.

Critics generally agree that Audie’s best film performance was in Stephen Crane’s Civil War epic,
The Red Badge of Courage
, but the most popular of his 44 films was his autobiographical
To Hell and Back
. The movie was so popular in fact, that after its release by Universal Pictures in 1955, that studio did not have a higher-grossing picture until 1975’s blockbuster film
Jaws
.

With varying success, Audie branched into other arenas as well. Horse racing gained his attention, especially its gambling aspects, and he eventually became a racehorse owner and breeder. Remarkably, Audie also had a talent for songwriting, and his songs have been recorded by such renowned performers as Dean Martin, Charley Pride, and Roy Clark.

Plagued with insomnia and depression, Audie suffered from what is now called Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. The condition was then known as “battle fatigue,” which implied that its effects would wear off with time and rest. But decades after WWII had ended, many veterans, including Audie, could find no respite. In his celebrity, Audie was candid about his battle-fatigue problems and made a public call for the United States
government to study the emotional impact of war and to address its effects.

At 46, Audie and five others died when their plane crashed into the side of a mountain near Blacksburg, Virginia. Contrary to popular belief, Audie was not the pilot of that plane. Although he did hold a pilot’s license and once owned his own plane, on that tragic day he was merely a passenger on a chartered flight.

Audie was buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia.

CEMETERY DIRECTIONS:
Arlington National Cemetery is located on the west side of the Potomac River in Washington, D.C. From any of the major highways, you can easily follow the signs to the visitor parking lots.

GRAVE DIRECTIONS:
Get a map at the information booth and then walk to Memorial Drive. With the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier behind you, Audie’s grave is in front of you in Section 13.

MARCH 20, 1906 – JUNE 3, 1975

JULY 18, 1914 – OCTOBER 2, 1994

MAY 8, 1940 – DECEMBER 31, 1985

In 1952 the eight-year-old radio program
The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet
debuted as a television show and over the next 14 seasons and 435 episodes, the Nelsons became America’s ideal nuclear family. The most remarkable aspect of the slow-paced, light comedy was that the on-screen Nelson household was portrayed by the real-life Nelson family, which comprised the husband-and-wife team of Ozzie and Harriet, and their two sons, Ricky and David. Viewers especially took to the boys, who, before the viewers’ very eyes, bloomed through pubescence, dated lucky teenage girls, and
eventually married and had children of their own, all while the cameras kept rolling.

From his first appearance, the wisecracking kid brother, Ricky, was the show’s most popular character, and his trademark line, “I don’t mess around, boy,” became a catch phrase. On a 1957 telecast, Ricky sang the popular Fats Domino hit “I’m Walkin’,” which became a real-life million-seller, and Ricky began a new chapter of his career as America’s first “teen idol,” the phrase coined by
Life
magazine.

Ricky’s new popularity was, of course, engendered by the show, but it turned out that he actually was possessed of some genuine talent. Over the next half-dozen years he had a number of teen-angst, rockabilly-flavored pop hits, including “Travelin’ Man,” “Lonesome Town,” and “Hello, Mary Lou,” but the Beatles soon stole Ricky’s fans, and his career ebbed during the mid-sixties. Moving into a smoother form of country rock, in October 1971 he gigged a bill at Madison Square Garden with a number of other 1950s acts. But he was booed practically off the stage by a crowd that wanted to hear oldies; they didn’t pay to see a longhaired, rockin’ Ricky Nelson in bell-bottoms. Devastated, he reflected on the experience with a new track, “(I Went to a) Garden Party,” which became a top-ten hit. Ricky’s talents were ultimately legitimized in 1987 when he was inducted into the Rock ’n’ Roll Hall of Fame, albeit posthumously.

In 1983 Ricky purchased a vintage DC-3 that had been previously owned by Jerry Lee Lewis, and was dubbed the “flying bus” because of its sluggishness and its propensity for mechanical failure. After leaving Alabama for a New Year’s Eve concert in Dallas, Ricky, age 45, his new fiancée (fortunately for viewers, Ricky’s divorce from his first wife had occurred after the TV series was cancelled), and four members of the Stone Canyon Band were killed when the plane caught fire and was forced to crash-land in DeKalb, Texas. Upon landing, the passengers were trapped by a fire that raced through the cabin, and they all perished in its flames, though the pilot and copilot managed to escape through the cockpit window. Early press reports suggested that drug usage, specifically the free-basing of cocaine, might have played a role in the airplane’s fire, but the National Transportation Safety Board conclusively determined that the fire was caused by a malfunctioning gas heater.

After
The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet
ended its run in 1966, Ozzie and Harriet retreated from the limelight and made only occasional benefit appearances. At 69, Ozzie died after
about with cancer, and Harriet passed away at 80 of congestive heart failure.

Ozzie, Harriet, and Ricky are all buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Hollywood Hills, California.

CEMETERY DIRECTIONS:
From Highway 134, which is the connector between Highway 101 and I-210, take the Forest Lawn Drive exit. Proceed west for a mile and the park’s entrance is on the left.

GRAVE DIRECTIONS:
Get a map from the information booth and drive to the Revelation section. Across from where Crystal Lane intersects Evergreen Drive, walk up the grass hill and count thirteen rows to find Ozzie’s and Harriet’s markers. Ricky’s marker is two rows further up the hill and it’s engraved with his given name, Eric Hilliard Nelson.

JANUARY 26, 1925 – SEPTEMBER 26, 2008

In contrast to the defiant and sullen rebel as defined by James Dean or Marlon Brando, Paul Newman recreated the American male as a likable renegade, a strikingly handsome, high-spirited figure of steely blue-eyed sincerity. Through dozens of roles, from the self-destructive convict in
Cool Hand Luke
and the amicable bank robber just trying to get along in
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
to the well-heeled, middle-aged liquor salesman in
The Color of Money
and, finally, as an affable yet deadly gangster boss in
Road to Perdition
, Paul achieved what most of his peers found impossible: remaining a charismatic major star well into old age even as he redefined himself as more than a Hollywood celebrity. Paul abhorred the majesty of fame and especially mocked his sex-symbol status, maintaining that his personality was actually closest to the vulgar, second-rate hockey coach he played in
Slap Shot
.

Teamed at one time or another with virtually every other great actor and director of the last fifty years, Paul on occasion also worked with his wife and fellow Oscar winner, Joanne Woodward, with whom he had one of Hollywood’s rare long-term marriages. “I have steak at home, so why go out for hamburger?” he famously commented when asked if he was tempted to stray.

But even the movies, occasional stage role, and all the celebrity weren’t enough for him. As an amateur race-car driver,
albeit one with particularly deep pockets, he won several Sports Car Club of America national driving titles and even competed at Daytona as a 70th birthday present to himself. Stumping for liberal causes, he earned a spot on Richard Nixon’s enemies list and wryly classified the distinction as “the highest single honor I’ve ever received.”

In 1982, he and his neighbor started a company to market a salad dressing Paul had created and bottled for friends at Christmas. Thus was born Newman’s Own, a multimillion-dollar brand that’s since expanded to include lemonade, popcorn, spaghetti sauce, pretzels, and wine, to name a few. All of the company’s profits, some $600 million to date, have been donated to charity including a significant amount for Newman’s so-called Hole in the Wall Gang Camps which provide free summer recreation for children with cancer. Several years before the establishment of Newman’s Own, Paul’s only son, Scott, died at 28 of a drug overdose, and Paul’s charitable monument to him is the Scott Newman Center which seeks to prevent drug abuse through education.

At 83, Paul died of cancer. He was cremated and his ashes remain with his family.

AUGUST 2, 1924 – JUNE 21, 2001

APRIL 7, 1962 – MARCH 28, 1995

In his early years, Carroll O’Connor slogged through stage acting roles and appeared in thirty films playing indistinguishable roles. In 1968 Carroll’s break came when he was offered the lead role in an adaptation of the popular British program
’Til Death Do Us Part
. When the sitcom finally aired in 1971 as
All in the Family
, Carroll’s portrayal of its intolerant, word-mangling, bigoted star helped change not only American television, but possibly America itself.

All in the Family
marked a sharp departure from the bland comedies that the viewing public had been force-fed, and when it premiered, audiences did not quite know what to make of it. Carroll starred as the working-class ignoramus Archie Bunker who lived in Queens and was constantly at odds with his daffy but wise wife, Edith, his feminist daughter, Gloria, and her overeducated,
chronically unemployed, outspoken husband, whom Archie called “Meathead.” It might sound like typical television fare, but the storylines and content surely were not.

In the post-civil rights era, the series became a forum for social commentary and unabashedly confronted subject matter that had formerly been taboo. For the first time on American television, controversial topics of the day—racism and feminism, intolerance and bigotry, affirmative action and integration—were addressed through the eyes of Archie Bunker, a befuddled but strong-willed, somehow-likable, blue-collar guy who was trying his best to get along in a world that was changing way too fast.

The show ran for eight seasons and in that time, anyone who was even peripherally involved with the program received piles of awards. When it was over, both Archie’s and Edith’s prized living-room chairs were installed in the Smithsonian Institution.

Carroll later starred in the
Archie Bunker’s Place
spin-off, and for six seasons, beginning in 1988, starred as Chief Bill Gillespie on the well-received
In the Heat of the Night
series, frequently alongside his only child, Hugh O’Connor, who was a regular on the show. Carroll adopted Hugh in 1962, during the filming of
Cleopatra
in Italy. However, Hugh endured a long battle with drugs, and his addictions culminated in suicide at 32. Hugh was cremated and his ashes interred at a private crypt in Rome.

After Hugh’s death, Carroll became a teary public advocate urging parents to help their children abstain from drugs. He died of a heart attack brought on by diabetic complications at 76 and was buried at Westwood Memorial Park in Los Angeles, California.

CEMETERY DIRECTIONS:
This little cemetery holds numerous celebrities and is peculiarly located behind the office complex at 10850 Wilshire Blvd., about a half-mile east of I-405.

GRAVE DIRECTIONS:
Enter the cemetery, turn left at the office, and on the right, the second grave past the chapel is Carroll’s.

NOVEMBER 7, 1964 – MAY 8, 1999

At thirteen years old, Dana Plato won the role of Kimberly Drummond, the daughter of a wealthy New York
businessman who takes in two disadvantaged boys on the sitcom
Diff’rent Strokes
. Written out of the program six years later when she became pregnant, Dana hoped to return after giving birth, but the show was cancelled before she was able to make her comeback.

Having sampled fame, Dana wanted more and was dismayed that she was unable to find new acting work. Dana spent the next fifteen years chasing an ever-elusive dream, and the tragedy of her life was the self-destructive path she took in her quest to get back to her fame. After
Diff’rent Strokes
, Dana appeared in low-budget films like
Bikini Beach Race
, and to shed what she felt was her teenage girl image, shed her clothes for
Playboy
magazine in 1989. By 1991, battling alcohol and drug problems, Dana was handed a five-year probation sentence after an armed robbery of a Las Vegas video store; the following year she was arrested again for forging Valium prescriptions.

The truth is, Dana was never a very good actress, and once her arrests and substance-abuse problems became tabloid fodder, an acting career was highly unlikely. Everyone seemed to know that except for Dana, and she continued to languish on the fringes, always seeking a reentry point. Finally, after she starred in a lesbian soft-porn movie in 1997, any hopes of a legitimate acting career were gone, and, soon, so was her life.

In 1999 Dana and her fiancé, Robert Menchaca, were living in a Florida RV park when Dana, still hoping for an acting comeback, secured an appearance on Howard Stern’s radio program. After that, she flew to Robert’s parents’ home in Oklahoma, where Robert was waiting for her with the Winnebago. The next evening, Robert, seemingly distraught, called 911 to report that Dana had retired to the Winnebago to take a nap but was now unresponsive. Paramedics arrived but it was too late. Dana was dead at 34.