Western RoundUp: Final Resting Places, More Western Filmmakers

Final Resting Places: More Western Filmmakers

This
month we’ll be taking another of our unique tours through Western film history,
paying tribute to a variety of actors as we visit their final resting places.

We begin
with longtime “B” Western star Johnny Mack Brown. I was glad to
finally locate his final resting place at Forest Lawn Glendale after a couple
of unsuccessful attempts. The onetime college football star had a long film
career, beginning in silent movies; he appeared in countless “B”
films, including many playing characters named either Johnny Mack or Marshal
Nevada Jack MacKenzie. Brown also offered excellent support in the Rod Cameron
Western Stampede (1949). He’s interred along with his
daughter.

Herb
Jeffries was a unusual ’30s “B” Western star; of mixed-race heritage,
he played a black singing cowboy in a quartet of Westerns released from 1937 to
1939. His movies included interestingly titled films such as Harlem on
the Prairie (1937) and Harlem Rides the Range (1939).
Jeffries’ film career was fairly short, and he focused mainly on singing from
the ’40s on, including a few years performing with Duke Ellington. Jeffries
lived to be 100, and his final resting place is at Hollywood Forever Cemetery.

Another
singing cowboy, Ken Carson, is buried at Rose Hills Memorial Park in Whitter,
California. As a member of the Sons of the Pioneers, Carson appeared onscreen
frequently in Roy Rogers films from 1943 to 1946. He also voiced the Wise Old
Owl in Disney’s lovely So Dear to My Heart (1948). Carson died
of Lou Gehrig’s disease in 1994. His gravestone features a guitar and
references his career as a singing cowboy.

Oscar-winning
actress Donna Reed first appeared in Westerns early in her career, playing the
leading lady in “B” films such as Apache Trail (1942)
and Gentle Annie (1944). Throughout the ’50s she appeared in a
number of good Westerns, including Hangman’s Knot (1952) with
Randolph Scott, Gun Fury (1953) with Rock Hudson, and Backlash (1956)
opposite Richard Widmark. She then moved on to TV success starring on The
Donna Reed Show (1958-66). She’s buried at Westwood Memorial Park.

Under
her birth name Laraine Johnson, Laraine Day was George O’Brien’s leading lady
in a trio of his excellent RKO “B” Westerns, released in 1938 and
1939; along with O’Brien’s “B” films with Virginia Vale, these are
great favorites of mine. Later in 1939 she moved to MGM, where as Laraine Day
she played beloved nurse Mary Lamont in the Dr. Kildare movie series. She made
one Western at MGM, The Bad Man (1941) starring Wallace Beery.
Thanks to her marriage to baseball manager Leo Durocher, which lasted from 1948
to 1960, Day was also known as “the First Lady of Baseball.” She’s at
Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills.

While
she didn’t have an extensive career in Westerns, British actress Binnie Barnes
was memorable appearing opposite Randolph Scott in one of the very first Westerns
I wrote about for Classic Movie Hub, Frontier Marshal (1939).
She also starred opposite John Wayne in In Old California (1942).
Over the course of her career Barnes worked with actors like Laurence Olivier
and Ralph Richardson, but she told an interviewer the best actor she worked
with was none other than Wayne. Barnes married the adoptive son of actor Joe E.
Brown and is buried in the Brown family plot at Forest Lawn Glendale.

Oscar-winning
British character actor Donald Crisp, known for films like How Green
Was My Valley (1941) and National Velvet (1944), may
not spring to mind as a Western actor, but he added his considerable gravitas
to a number of fine Westerns, including Ramrod (1947), Whispering
Smith (1948), The Man From Laramie (1955), and Saddle
the Wind (1958). He’s buried at Forest Lawn Glendale.

Character
actor Jay C. Flippen worked steadily in Westerns throughout the ’50s, appearing
in a trio of fine Anthony Mann Westerns, Winchester ’73 (1950), Bend
of the River (1952), and The Far Country (1954). His
other Westerns films included Devil’s Canyon (1953), Man
Without a Star (1955), and Night Passage (1957). His
wife was movie and TV screenwriter Ruth Brooks Flippen. He’s at Westwood
Memorial Park

Richard
Farnsworth had an interesting career, beginning as a stuntman in 1937.
Farnsworth was on the stunt crew for many Westerns, including favorites such
as Angel and the Badman (1947) and Red River (1948).
Farnsworth later moved into acting, receiving Oscar nominations for Comes
a Horseman (1978) and The Straight Story (1999). His
son, Diamond Farnsworth, also worked as a movie stuntman. Richard Farnsworth’s
final resting place is at Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills.

We’ll
conclude this month with a trio of actors who appeared in movie Westerns but
are best known for their TV Westerns. Clayton Moore appeared in numerous
supporting roles in “B” Westerns beginning in 1937 and running into
the 1950s, but of course he’s best known as TV’s immortal The Lone
Ranger (1949-57). He’s buried at Forest Lawn Glendale.

Chuck
Connors appeared occasionally in Western films, including The Hired Gun (1957),
before becoming a major Western TV star as The Rifleman (1958-63).
His gravestone at San Fernando Mission Cemetery in Mission Hills pays tribute
to his most famous Western role, along with his sports careers with the
Dodgers, Cubs, and Boston Celtics.

Hugh
O’Brian first appeared in movie Westerns in 1950, playing a supporting role in
Gene Autry’s Beyond the Purple Hills (1950). He appeared in
numerous Westerns throughout the ’50s, many for Universal Pictures, before
hitting it big in the title role in TV’s The Life and Legend of Wyatt
Earp (1955-61). He’s at Forest Lawn Glendale.

For additional photos of the burial sites of Western filmmakers, please visit my columns from May 2019, February 2022, November 2, 2022, November 29, 2022, April 2023, and November 2023.

…

– Laura Grieve for Classic Movie Hub

Laura can be found at her blog, Laura’s Miscellaneous Musings, where she’s been writing about movies since 2005, and on Twitter at @LaurasMiscMovie. A lifelong film fan, Laura loves the classics including Disney, Film Noir, Musicals, and Westerns.  She regularly covers Southern California classic film festivals.  Laura will scribe on all things western at the ‘Western RoundUp’ for CMH.