"Fred Mertz" Actor William Frawley Dies at the Knickerbocker Hotel 1966 SF Mission Cemetery

William Clement Frawley (February 26, 1887 – March 3, 1966) was an American stage entertainer, screen and television actor. Although Frawley acted in over 100 films, he achieved his greatest fame playing landlord Fred Mertz for the situation comedy I Love Lucy.

Death

Frawley made two final on-screen appearances before his death. An appearance on I've Got a Secret consisted of contestants guessing Frawley's, "secret," which was that he was the first performer ever to sing "My Melancholy Baby" in 1912. He then performed the song one last time. His final on-camera performance was in October 1965, making a brief cameo appearance in Lucille Ball's second television sitcom The Lucy Show with Frawley playing a horse trainer and Lucy commenting, "He reminds me of someone I used to know." (Vivian Vance, who by then had left The Lucy Show except for an occasional guest appearance, does not appear in that episode.)

Hollywood Boulevard and Ivar Avenue

On March 3, 1966, Frawley collapsed of a heart attack while walking down Hollywood Boulevard after seeing a movie, Inside Daisy Clover. He was dragged to the nearby Knickerbocker Hotel, where he had previously lived for many years, by his male nurse — a constant companion since his prostate cancer operation more than a year before. He was then rushed to the nearby Hollywood Receiving Hospital (now the Hollywood LAPD Precinct) on Wilcox Ave, where he was pronounced dead.

Soon after his death, Desi Arnaz paid for a full-page advertisement in the newspaper Hollywood Reporter. It had a picture of Frawley, surrounded in black, the dates of his birth and death, and the caption, "Buenas Noches, Amigo!" ("Good Night, Friend!"). Arnaz, Frawley's My Three Sons co-star Fred MacMurray, and executive producer Don Fedderson were pallbearers at Frawley's funeral.

Lucille Ball issued the statement: "I've lost one of my dearest friends and show business has lost one of the greatest character actors of all time. Those of us who knew him and loved him will miss him."

In memoriam

William Frawley is buried in the San Fernando Mission Cemetery in Mission Hills, Los Angeles, California.

Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6322 Hollywood Blvd. He is buried in the San Fernando Mission Cemetery in Mission Hills, Los Angeles, California.

For his achievements in the field of motion pictures, Frawley was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, at 6322 Hollywood Blvd.

Frawley is memorialized in the Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Center in Jamestown, New York, which also contains his "Hop-Along the Frog" costume from an episode of I Love Lucy.

Actor & Comedian Lou Costello 1959 Calvary Cemetery

Louis Francis "Lou" Costello, born Cristillo, (March 6, 1906 – March 3, 1959) was an American actor and comedian best remembered for the comedy double act of Abbott and Costello, with Bud Abbott. Costello played a chubby, bumbling character. His catchphrase was "Heeeeyyy, Abbott!"

Abbott and Costello split up in July 1957, after troubles with the Internal Revenue Service forced both men to sell off their large homes and the rights to some of their films. Costello then pursued a solo stand up career, including stints in Las Vegas, and sought out film projects for himself. He appeared several times on Steve Allen's television show, but most often in variations of his old routines, with Louis Nye or Tom Poston taking on the straight man role.

Family and death of son

On January 30, 1934, Costello married Anne Battler, a burlesque dancer. Their first child, Patricia "Paddy" Costello, was born in 1936, followed by Carole on December 23, 1938, and Lou Jr. (nicknamed "Butch") on November 6, 1942. In March 1943, after completing Hit the Ice, Costello had an attack of rheumatic fever and was unable to work for six months. On November 4 of that year he returned to the team's popular radio show, but a tragic event overshadowed his comeback. Upon arriving at the NBC studio, Lou received word that his infant son Lou Jr. had accidentally drowned in the family pool. The baby was just two days short of his first birthday. Lou had asked his wife to keep Butch up that night so the boy could hear his father on the radio for the first time. Rather than cancel the broadcast, Lou said, "Wherever he is tonight, I want him to hear me," and went on with the show. No one in the audience knew of the death until after the show when Bud Abbott explained the events of the day, and how the phrase "The show must go on" had been epitomized by Lou that night. On August 15, 1947, their last child, Christine, was born.

Death
After making one solo film, The 30 Foot Bride of Candy Rock, Costello died of a heart attack at Doctors' Hospital in Beverly Hills on March 3, 1959, three days before his 53rd birthday. A funeral Mass was held at his parish, St. Francis de Sales Catholic Church in Sherman Oaks. He is interred at the Calvary Cemetery in East Los Angeles, California.

The crypts of Lou Costello and his wife Anne.

His last words as reported in the March 4, 1959 Los Angeles Times and Los Angeles Evening Mirror News were "I think I'll be more comfortable," according to a private nurse who was the only person in the room with him at the time. The widely reported claim that he died in the presence of friends and that his last words were actually "that was the best ice-cream soda I ever tasted" appears to have been fabricated some time after the event, possibly as a dig against Costello's weight. Anne, his wife, was at his side most of the day, but was sent home by her assuring husband only an hour before his death at 3:55pm. That same year on December 5, Lou's widow Anne died from an apparent heart attack at age 47.

Producer, Screenwriter & Author Samuel Marx 1992 Westwood Village Cemetery

Samuel Marx (January 26, 1902, New York City - March 2, 1992, Los Angeles, California) was an American film producer, screenwriter and book author.

Life

He started working in 1919 as an office boy at the New York office of Universal Pictures, where he met Irving Thalberg, then secretary of Universal boss Carl Laemmle.

On May 24, 1930, he arrived at the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) Studios and was hired by Thalberg as Story Editor, the executive in charge of the screenwriting department.

Following Irving Thalberg's death in 1936, Marx became a producer and was behind a number of popular films, including Lassie Come Home (1943) and Son of Lassie (1945). During the 1950s he began working as an executive producer for Desilu Productions, where he was responsible for films and shows such as The General Electric Hour. During the 1970s, he returned to writing books, such as Mayer and Thalberg: The Make-Believe Saints (1975). Marx also helped Hollywood historians with their research for television shows. One such show, the TNT special series MGM: When the Lion Roars, was telecast in 1992 during the month Marx died.

Deadly Illusions

In 1990, Samuel Marx and Joyce Vanderveen published Deadly Illusions. Marx was MGM's Story Editor and a friend of both Paul Bern and Irving Thalberg at the time of Bern's death.

In 1932, Marx had gone to Bern's house before the police were informed of the body's discovery. Thalberg told Marx that Bern was dead, and that he should not go inside, but rather he should go home. The next day, Marx was among the studio executives who were told by Louis B. Mayer that, to avoid scandal, the death would have to be ruled "suicide because of impotence."

In the 1980s, Marx re-investigated the case, scrutinizing the available evidence. He concluded that Louis B. Mayer and Howard Strickling, with Irving Thalberg's collusion, had ordered the evidence be tampered with before the police arrived.

Marx concluded that Bern was murdered by his former common law wife, Dorothy Millette. Two days after Bern's death Millette jumped from the Delta King, a ferryboat traveling from San Francisco to Sacramento. Her shoes and her jacket were found on the boat, while her body was found a few days later by men fishing on the Sacramento River.

Marx also concluded that the alleged "suicide note" had in fact been written by Bern some weeks prior to his death. Bern had given roses to Harlow to apologize for a minor quarrel about the secluded location of their home. With the roses was a note later presented as a "suicide note" by Los Angeles District Attorney Buron Fitts, who was bribed by MGM to suppress the case.

Samuel Marx is buried at Westwood Village Memorial Park.

References

Samuel Marx and Joyce Vanderveen: Deadly Illusions (Random House, New York, 1990), re-published as Murder Hollywood Style - Who Killed Jean Harlow's Husband? (Arrow, 1994, ISBN 0 09 961060 4)

"Uncle Fester" Actor Jackie Coogan 1984 Holy Cross Cemetery

 

John Leslie "Jackie" Coogan, Jr. (October 26, 1914 – March 1, 1984) was an American actor who began his movie career as a child actor in silent films. He appeared opposite Charlie Chaplin in "The Kid" (1921). Many years later, he became known as Uncle Fester on 1960s sitcom "The Addams Family." In the interim, he sued his mother and stepfather over his squandered film earnings and provoked California to enact the first known legal protection for the earnings of child performers.

 

Death

On March 1, 1984, Coogan died of cardiac arrest at the age of 69 at Santa Monica Medical Center in Santa Monica, California. He was buried in Culver City's Holy Cross Cemetery.

 

Valentine's Day at Woodlawn Cemetery

Blue Hearse

Howard McNear "Floyd the Barber" Remembered

In this episode William Conrad and Parley "Mayor Stoner" Baer share their memories of Mayberry's favorite barber, Howard McNear.