Where Are They Buried?: How Did They Die? Fitting Ends and Final Resting Places of the Famous, Infamous, and Noteworthy

By Tod Benoit

Book Overview

This enlightening and browsable guide features more than 500 profiles of the lives, deaths, and final resting places of our most influential figures from sports, music, film, television, literature, and politics. This unparalleled compilation of profiles of the deceased--from Abbott & Costello to Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, from Arthur Ashe to Andy Warhol--offers all of the pertinent details on their lives, deaths, and grave sites, providing a pop-cultural road map for anyone fascinated by celebrity, history, and travel. Listings include Mark Twain, Sonny Bono, Dr. Seuss, Salvador Dali, Mickey Mantle, Marvin Gaye, Jimi Hendrix, Ingrid Bergman, William Shakespeare, Andy Kaufman, Bob Crane, Louis Armstrong, Walt Disney, Errol Flynn, Al Capone, Ella Fitzgerald, Mae West, Gertude Stein, and hundreds more. Fifty photos and a number of informative sidebars (on such topics as how to find the grave of anyone you choose) round out this entertaining look at the permanent addresses of our most significant late citizens. And each listing offers concise directions to both the cemetery and the grave itself, an added benefit for tombstone travelers.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1579122876
• ISBN13: 9781579122874
• Release Date: May 2003
• Publisher: Black Dog & Leventhal
• Length: 560 Pages
• Weight: 2.21 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.5" x 1.5" x 5.5"

Customer Reviews

published in 2003 copy

The author researched deaths, found graveside locations, & then added his own 2 cents about famous peoples deaths. It was kind of like reading an entertainment magazine. Some good info on the famous deceased and backstory on feuding, etc. I didn't care for the authors opinion & speculation he added into a lot of the research. He wasn't around in 1867-1959 so adding his own gossip about the deceased was a turn off. The end of the book has a chapter entitled "How To Find Where Someone is Buried" which basically gives you instruction on how to lie to funeral or cemetery personnel so they'll give out famous people's plot numbers. For example, inquiring about your dear great aunt Mrs. Grace Allen (George Burn's wife) to find out where George is buried since their plots are next to each other or asking where Leonard Oswold who died in the 60's plot is & the clerk saying they have a Lee Oswold (bingo, now you know where the assassin is buried) A little underhanded & lurid.

Quick, fun read!!

What a fun, trivia filled book! A book to pick up and quickly read and share some fun facts about the dearly departed with your family and friends!

I've been bringing this book along with me whenever I travel

This book is totally cool. The author is very witty and he shares alot of interesting tidbits about each famous person - and there are 450 entries in the book, someone for everyone. If they had a particulalry interesting death, he explains those circumstances but, if they just croaked from cancer or something he just moves along and doesn't try to make something of nothing. Finally, he lends very concise directions to every cemetery and to the exact grave once you've arrived at the cemetery. I travel for work alot and I've been bringing this with me wherever I go. I've visited Joe DiMaggio, Judy Garland, Charles Schulz, Jackie Gleason, Jimi Hendrix, John Gotti, Lee Harvey Oswald, Bette Davis and many others with the help of this book. It's a great read and it's really useful too. Totally cool.

Recommended to Everyone I know!!

This book is packed with information and it's the most interesting read I've found in a long time. The author makes it easy to find all the cemeteries and exact grave locations of hundreds of celebrities, plus his sardonic wit and amusing writing style entertain. Tod has really gone out of his way to unearth (no pun intended) many nuggets of our heroes - and anti heroes! I love it!!

Each famous individual's demise is succinctly recounted

Where Are They Buried? How Did They Die?: Fitting Ends And Final Resting Places Of The Famous, Infamous, And Noteworthy is a unique anthology of information concerning the deaths and final resting places of more than 450 memorable historical and cultural figures ranging from Elvis Presley and River Phoenix, to John Dillinger, Thomas Edison, Ernest Hemmingway, Bob Marley, and 444 more! Each famous individual's demise is succinctly recounted, and accompanied by precise directions for reaching the cemetery where they are buried, as well as relevant information on paying memorial respect to that particular person's gravesite.

Grave Thoughts

I have never, ever written a review before, but this book was such a terrific read that I just had to say something. Tod Benoit has found a unique subject and presented it in a fascinating format. The title caught my eye immediately and from the first page, I was hooked. The biographies were interesting and the grave directions were so precise that I may just spend my next free afternoon checking out the cemeteries in my own neighborhood. Who needs Beverly Hills? I can now claim several celebrities within a 4 mile radius of my home(of course, they're all dead, but what the heck). I would definitely recommend this book not only for the subject matter, but for the easy-going style in which it was written. I did find one huge biographical mistake, but I'll let future readers find it. Get this book...you won't be sorry.

Whatta Deal/A BIG BANG FOR AN INEXPENSIVE BOOK

This book attempts to go where many others have gone before and manages to do a very good job... for a good quality hardcover book. It contains the locations of approximately 500 celebrity graves and is just a lot of fun.The book is arranged by type of celebrity (sports figures, singers, authors, etc.). For each personality the author Tod Benoit provides a date of birth and death, a lengthy biography which summarizes pertinent facts concerning his subject's life, the manner in which his subject died, the burial location and/or the method of disposal, instructions as to how to find the cemetery using main highways and local streets, and explicit instructions for finding gravesites.Aside from being just packed with good info, Tod Benoit has a wonderfully wry sense of humor which is good because it takes a lot of the sting out of a grim subject like death. I particularly enjoyed his take on finding grave locations at Forest Lawn in Glendale CA and his not-too-subtle suggestions for averting cemetery security. This man is hysterical!Another very enjoyable section could have been subtitled "Tod's Practical And Sometimes Whacky Methods Used To Get Information". Odd as my subtitle sounds, the author's suggestions are quite inventive and I applaud him for his overall creativity. In truth, I can really see them being quite effective. This is probably because I've tried some, and will try the ones I haven't.At the date of publication, all the information provided regarding grave locations was correct with the exception of Lucille Ball who was recently moved to a cemetery in Jamestown NY. There were a few biographical errors which I caught, but nothing that would interfer with the general pleasure I derived from this book.Now please buy this book, so he'll write another one. It is that good.