"Grunge" Musician Chris Cornell 2017 Hollywood Forever Cemetery

Chris Cornell (born Christopher John Boyle; July 20, 1964 – May 18, 2017) was an American musician, singer and songwriter. He was best known as the lead vocalist for the rock bands Soundgarden and Audioslave. Cornell was also known for his numerous solo works and soundtrack contributions since 1991, and as the founder and front man for Temple of the Dog, the one-off tribute band dedicated to his late friend Andrew Wood.

Cornell is considered one of the chief architects of the 1990s grunge movement, and is well known for his extensive catalog as a songwriter, his nearly four-octave vocal range, and his powerful vocal belting technique. He released four solo studio albums, Euphoria Morning (1999), Carry On (2007), Scream (2009), Higher Truth (2015), and the live album Songbook (2011). 

Cornell received a Golden Globe Award nomination for his song "The Keeper," which appeared in the 2011 film Machine Gun Preacher, and co-wrote and performed the theme song to the James Bond film Casino Royale (2006), "You Know My Name." His last solo release before his death was the charity single "The Promise," written for the ending credits for the film of the same name. He was voted "Rock's Greatest Singer" by readers of Guitar World, ranked 4th in the list of "Heavy Metal's All-Time Top 100 Vocalists" by Hit Parader, 9th in the list of "Best Lead Singers of All Time" by Rolling Stone, and 12th in MTV's "22 Greatest Voices in Music."

Across his entire catalog, Cornell has sold 14.8 million albums, 8.8 million digital songs, and 300 million on-demand audio streams in the U.S. alone, as well as over 30 million records worldwide. He was nominated for 15 Grammy Awards and won twice.

Cornell struggled with depression for much of his life. He was found dead in his Detroit hotel room early on the morning of May 18, 2017, after performing at a Soundgarden concert an hour earlier. His death was ruled suicide by hanging. 

Chris Cornell is buried at Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles, California.

"Glen or Glenda" Actor Timothy Sperl Farrow 1989 Hollywood Forever Cemetery

Timothy Farrell (June 26, 1922 – May 9, 1989) was an American film actor, best known for his roles in the Ed Wood films such as Jail Bait, The Violent Years and Glen or Glenda. He also was the County Marshal of Los Angeles, California.

Early life

Born as Timothy Sperl, he was a native of Los Angeles and graduate of Alexander Hamilton High School. During World War II Farrell served in the Army Air Corps.[1]

Farrell worked as a Bailiff for the Los Angeles Marshal's Department while also working in sleazy low-budget movies. In 1948 he portrayed a doctor in the film Test Tube Babies, a similar role to that in the subsequent Glen or Glenda. He patiently explained to a young couple that there is no shame or scandal in test-tube fertilization. Both films were produced by George Weiss, who used Farrell in a string of lurid exploitation films in the 1950s. 

In 1951, Farrell, along with everyone else on the film set of Paris After Midnight, was swept up in a police vice raid, which caused him professional embarrassment with his courtroom career.

Characters

Farrell's career was notable for its recurring roles:

He made three low-budget exploitation movies for George Weiss in which he played the part of sleazy gymnasium owner Umberto Scalli. These films, largely a vehicle for female-wrestling footage, include 

Devil's Sleep, 

Racket Girls, 

and Dance Hall Racket. 

Scalli is gunned down at the end of Racket Girls but alive and well in Dance Hall Racket.

His character of "Joe the Pimp" appeared in Girl Gang and Gun Girls.

His character of "Dr. Wright" appeared in Hometown Girls and the aforementioned Test Tube Babies.

In 1954, his legal and theatrical careers dovetailed in the George Cukor movie A Star Is Born, in which he played a bailiff. It happened again in 1958, when he appeared as a bailiff in the short-lived television series Accused.

L.A. County Marshal's Office

He went on to work 26 years for the Los Angeles County Marshal's Office, rising through the ranks and eventually was appointed the County Marshal in 1971. However, in 1975 he was fired after his conviction on felony charges for "illegal use of deputy marshals in political activities." He was given a six-month sentence, but received probation due to poor health.[2]

Personal life

His later years were spent in business, such as operating a lumber mill in South Dakota and rental properties in Los Angeles, California. He was extremely active in the "Animal Rights and Welfare Movement," begun by his wife, Shirley. He donated some of his estate to "The Sperl Family Foundation," a no cost spay and neuter organization for animals.[3]

Death

Farrell died on May 9, 1989, aged 66, at St. John's Hospital in Santa Monica, California of a heart attack. He was preceded in death by his wife who was an actress. His wife died of natural causes. His daughter, Timmie, was a bit part actress on the soap opera General Hospital, and died from a drug overdose. His son, Anthony Kelly Sperl, runs the Sperl Family Foundation from his residence in Sun Valley, California.[4] Anthony had briefly been a police officer in Stanton, California, until March 1983 when he fatally shot 5-year-old Patrick Andrew Mason in his home, mistaking the boy's toy gun for a real weapon.[5] Sperl quit the force, claiming Post Tramatic Stress Disorder and was awarded a disability pension soon [6] after being cleared of wrongdoing.[7]

Timothy Sperl Farrow is interred at Hollywood Forever Cemetery. 

Filmography

Year Film Role Director

1948 Test Tube Babies Doctor W. Merle Connell
1949 Hometown Girl
1949 The Devil's Sleep Umberto Scalli
1951 Racket Girls Robert C. Dertano
1953 Dance Hall Racket Phil Tucker
1953 Glen or Glenda Doctor Ed Wood

1954 Jail Bait Vic Brady

1954 Girl Gang Joe, a degenerate drug dealer Robert C. Dertano

1956 The Violent Years Lt. Holmes William Morgan

1957 Gun Girls Joe Robert C. Dertano

"Shane" Cinematographer Loyal Griggs 1978 Westminster Cemetery

Loyal Griggs, A.S.C. (August 15, 1906 – May 6, 1978), was an American cinematographer.

Griggs joined the staff of Paramount Pictures in 1924 after graduating from school and initially worked at the studio's process department. He was promoted from assistant photographer to second unit photographer to camera process photographer, before becoming director of photography for three 1951 releases: Crosswinds, Passage West and The Last Outpost.

Griggs won the Academy Award for Best Cinematography for the 1953 Western Shane.[1] He was part of the production team that received an Academy Honorary Award at the 11th Academy Awards for their efforts on the Paramount film Spawn of the North.[2]

Griggs' other Paramount films as cinematographer included 

the 1954 musical White Christmas, 

the 1956 Cecil B. DeMille epic The Ten Commandments, 

and the Jerry Lewis comedies The Sad Sack (1957) 

and Visit to a Small Planet (1960). 

He was also the cinematographer on George Stevens’ 1965 United Artists release The Greatest Story Ever Told 

as well as Otto Preminger's World War II drama of that same year, In Harm's Way. 

His final film was the 1971 American International Pictures comedy Bunny O'Hare starring Bette Davis and Ernest Borgnine.[3]

Loyal Griggs is buried at Westminster Memorial Park in Westminster, California.

Selected filmography

Hot News (1928)
White Christmas (1954)
The Ten Commandments (1956)
The Sad Sack (1957)
Visit to a Small Planet (1960)
The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965)
In Harm's Way (1965)
Bunny O'Hare (1971)

References

1. Variety profile
2. "Special Award - 11th Academy Awards". Academy Awards Database.
3. New York Times /AllMovie Guide profile

"Jigsaw John" TV Series (1976)

Jigsaw John is an American crime drama television series that aired from February 2 until June 14, 1976, based on the career of real-life LAPD Robbery-Homicide Detective "Jigsaw John" St. John renowned for his investigations of many of Los Angeles’s highest-profile murder cases. It was preceded, during the previous television season, by the TV-movie They Only Come Out at Night.

Premise: John St. John is an LAPD detective who solves murder cases.

Cast

Jack Warden as "Jigsaw" John St. John
Alan Feinstein as Sam Donner
Pippa Scott as Maggie Hearn
James Hong as Frank Chen

"Jigsaw John" LAPD Homicide Detective John St. John 1995 Rose Hills Cemetery

John P. St. John (1918 – May 3, 1995), better known as “Jigsaw John,” was an American police officer and Los Angeles Police Department Homicide detective, renowned for his investigations of many of Los Angeles’s highest-profile murder cases. Upon his retirement in 1993, St. John held the highest seniority on the LAPD with 51 years of service, a distinction that earned him the privilege of carrying LAPD Detective badge No. 1.[1]

LAPD career

St. John served 43 years as a homicide detective, beginning in 1949, when he was assigned to the Department’s Homicide Division (merged to Robbery-Homicide in 1969). One of his first assignments was the notorious Black Dahlia murder,[2] a case he worked on-and-off until his retirement in 1993.[3] His nickname, Jigsaw John, originated in his early career with a dismemberment murder he solved in Griffith Park in which the victim had been cut up jigsaw-style. The moniker caught on because of his ability to piece clues together in difficult cases, resulting in many arrests and convictions.[4] He became an authority on serial murders and worked 12 of them, including the 1950s serial killer Harvey Glatman, Night Stalker Richard Ramirez, the Hillside Stranglers, the Southside Slayer, and the William Bonin Freeway Killer case. In the latter, acting on a tip, St. John tracked down the Downey, CA truck driver and, on June 11, 1980, his team captured Bonin in the act of sodomizing a victim. The killer had his murder kit in the vehicle.[5]

Investigative technique

St. John was renowned within the Robbery-Homicide Division (RHD) for his amazing memory, and dogged determination in working the minutiae that led to solving murders and getting convictions. However, as criminal science became more sophisticated he kept up with the times taking advantage of modern scientific crime analysis, forensic techniques and the benefits of a new computerized age.[6] Still, at times he simply fell back on that “dogged determination.” In the Bonin case, although the killer was in custody, the DA’s office was having trouble building a case, until one day Bonin received a letter from the mother of one of his victims begging him to tell her what happened to her son. He confessed to that and all of the other murders. As the trial date neared, St. John approached the deputy DA on the case and said, "I've got to tell you something. It wasn't the mother who wrote that letter."[7]

Fame

St. John’s cases led Los Angeles Times writer Al Martinez to write the book Jigsaw John[8] which became a 1976 NBC television series by the same name, starring veteran character actor Jack Warden.[9] 

Over the course of his career, he solved at least two-thirds of the more than 1,000 homicides he worked including cop killings such as the famed Onion Fields murder, cop-turned-contract murderer William Leasure[10] and myriad other cop killings, murders for money, gangland killings and drive-by shootings.[11] In 1982, St. John became the second recipient of the LAPD’s Distinguished Service Medal for his eight-year investigation resulting in the conviction of William Bonin. Bonin was executed by lethal injection in 1996.[12]

Death

St. John retired from the LAPD in May 1993, with the intention of becoming a technical advisor for the movie industry. It was not to be. “Jigsaw John” died of complications due to pneumonia and pancreatic cancer only two years later.[13] 

John St. John was buried at Rose Hills Memorial Park in Whittier, California. His funeral was a veritable “Who's Who” of LAPD’s powerful and famous, including O. J. Simpson detectives Tom Lange and Philip Vannatter, as well as Judge Lance Ito, who presided over the Simpson criminal trial. LAPD’s then Chief Willie L. Williams and his predecessor, Chief Darryl F. Gates (who worked with him as a young detective), eulogized him, Williams reinstating the detective to active duty as of May 2, 1995 “That he make his final journey as a detective of the Los Angeles Police Department."[14]

References

1. 'Jigsaw John' Marks 50 Years With The LAPD; Los Angeles Times, Metro; Part B; Page 2; Column 1; Metro Desk, October, 04 1991
2. Legendary LAPD Detective 'Jigsaw John' St. John Dies; Los Angeles Times, Part A; Page 1; Metro Desk; May 5, 1995, By Eric Malnic
3. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2007-03-17.
4. Times, Malnic; 05, May, 1995
5. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2007-04-12.
6. Case Closed; Famed Homicide Detective Jigsaw John Turns In Badge No. 1. Los Angeles Times, Metro; Part B; Page 1; Column 2; Metro Desk; March 8, 1993, By Miles Corwin
7. A Final Salute For 'Jigsaw John'; Funeral: More Than 200 Pay Their Last Respects To The Legendary John St. John, 77, LAPD Homicide Detective. Los Angeles Times, Metro; Part B; Page 1; Metro Desk; May, 09 1995, By Eric Malnic
8. Jigsaw John; Martinez; 1975, Hawthorn, ISBN 0-87477-039-4
9. Al Martinez: A Movie That Never Got Made: Los Angeles Times, Metro; Part B; Page 3; Metro Desk, May 9, 1995, By Al Martinez
10. Los Angeles Police Beat: Newsletter of The Los Angeles Police Department; Volume XLVI, Issue 11; November 2000
11. 'Jigsaw John' On Trail Of A Slayer; LAPD's Most Experienced, And Most Dogged, Manhunter Works Slowly But He's Sure They'll Get 'This Guy'; Los Angeles Times, Metro; Part 2; Page 1; Column 1; Metro Desk; January 16, 1986, by David Freed
12. Times, Freed, 16, January, 1986
13. Al Martinez: A Movie That Never Got Made; Los Angeles Times, Metro; Part B; Page 3; Metro Desk; May 9 1995, By Al Martinez
14. Times, Malnic, 09, May, 1995