{"id":2229622,"date":"2026-01-10T16:12:36","date_gmt":"2026-01-10T16:12:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2229622"},"modified":"2026-01-10T16:12:36","modified_gmt":"2026-01-10T16:12:36","slug":"author-of-hollywood-cemetery-guidebook-was-68","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/author-of-hollywood-cemetery-guidebook-was-68\/","title":{"rendered":"Author of Hollywood Cemetery Guidebook Was 68"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tMark J. Masek, who wrote <em>Hollywood Remains to Be Seen: A Guide to the Movie Stars\u2019 Final Homes<\/em>, an insightful 2001 book about 14 Los Angeles-area cemeteries and their celebrated residents, has died. He was 68.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tMasek died on New Year\u2019s Eve of an apparent heart attack inside his home in Alhambra, California, his girlfriend of 19 years, Jayne Osborne, told <em>The Hollywood Reporter<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tMasek, who moved to Southern California in 1999 from the Chicago area, was \u201calways a fan of old movies and history, and I thought cemeteries were a way to combine those two,\u201d he explained in a <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/themorbidone.wordpress.com\/2011\/11\/18\/gravecast-podcast-ep07-interview-with-mark-masek\/\" target=\"_blank\">2011 interview<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><iframe id=\"pmc-polymarket\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-popups allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\" title=\"pmc-polymarket\" src=\"https:\/\/embed.polymarket.com\/market.html?market=will-kpop-demon-hunters-win-best-motion-picture-animated-at-the-83rd-golden-globes&amp;features=volume&amp;theme=light&amp;width=Infinity&amp;features=volume&amp;theme=light&amp;height=170pxl\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" style=\"width: 600px; height: 170px;margin-top: 15px !important; border: 0px;&#10;&#9;padding: 0px;\"><br \/>\n<\/iframe><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tSo, he embarked on his book, with each of its 14 chapters devoted to a walking tour of a cemetery: Forest Lawn Glendale (the final resting place for <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/t\/michael-jackson\/\" id=\"auto-tag_michael-jackson_1\" data-tag=\"michael-jackson\">Michael Jackson<\/a> and <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/t\/jimmy-stewart\/\" id=\"auto-tag_jimmy-stewart_1\" data-tag=\"jimmy-stewart\">Jimmy Stewart<\/a>, one of Masek\u2019s favorite actors); Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills (<a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/t\/buster-keaton\/\" id=\"auto-tag_buster-keaton_1\" data-tag=\"buster-keaton\">Buster Keaton<\/a>, Freddie Prinze); Hollywood Forever Cemetery (Tyrone Power, Mel Blanc, <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/t\/hattie-mcdaniel\/\" id=\"auto-tag_hattie-mcdaniel_1\" data-tag=\"hattie-mcdaniel\">Hattie McDaniel<\/a>); Westwood Memorial Park (<a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/t\/marilyn-monroe\/\" id=\"auto-tag_marilyn-monroe_1\" data-tag=\"marilyn-monroe\">Marilyn Monroe<\/a>, Walter Matthau); Holy Cross (Mary Astor, <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/t\/bing-crosby\/\" id=\"auto-tag_bing-crosby_1\" data-tag=\"bing-crosby\">Bing Crosby<\/a>); Hillside Memorial Park (Jack Benny, Lorne Greene); Mount Sinai Memorial Park (Phil Silvers, Brandon Tartikoff); Oakwood Memorial Park (<a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/t\/fred-astaire\/\" id=\"auto-tag_fred-astaire_1\" data-tag=\"fred-astaire\">Fred Astaire<\/a>, Ginger Rogers); Calvary Cemetery (Pola Negri, Ramon Novarro); Home of Peace Memorial Park (Curly Howard, Louis B. Mayer); Eden Memorial Park (Groucho Marx, Lenny Bruce); Inglewood Park Cemetery (Betty Grable, Cesar Romero); San Fernando Mission Cemetery (Walter Brennan); and Valhalla Memorial Park (Oliver Hardy).<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tMasek said one of the most impressive gravesites he encountered was that of Douglas Fairbanks Sr., who is buried at Hollywood Forever in a white mausoleum complete with Roman pillars and his profile in brass in front of a 120-foot-long reflecting pool. He stood on the same spot where Charlie Chaplin delivered a eulogy in 1939.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tHe also admired Al Jolson\u2019s resting place at Hillside, a domed monument featuring a life-sized statue of the entertainer atop a cascading waterfall, and Liberace\u2019s tomb at Forest Lawn Hollywood, which features a musical score set on white marble.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tMasek\u2019s work \u201cwas never about spectacle,\u201d Allan R. Ellenberger <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thehollywoodlandrevue.com\/blog\/2911757_mark-masek-the-man-who-remembered-where-hollywood-was-laid-to-rest?fbclid=IwY2xjawPOinNleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBicmlkETFmRG90YzlUb1llQ1ptMjJxc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHkI91h1nSfzwTMq2daLy52TUn89mGxeohNhiMG9jJLQIbP2TkpsQ5Ml8X0pR_aem_vcJB8z1Ys7MNnqhgX3oETA\" target=\"_blank\">wrote<\/a> on the website <em>The Hollywoodland Revue<\/em>. \u201cIt was about documentation \u2014 names, locations, dates, stories \u2014 quietly ensuring that Hollywood\u2019s dead were not erased simply because their careers had faded.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t\u201cNo place held his expertise in higher regard than Hollywood Forever and other Southern California graveyards, where he had a near-cartographic sense of who was where and why. To historians, preservationists and aficionados, Masek was viewed as an expert \u2014 a person who not only knew the facts but the patterns: which stars got honor, which shame, which oblivion, and what that says about what the industry held dear.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tMark Joseph Masek was born on June 13, 1957, in Joliet, Illinois. In high school, he and teammates entered the Joliet Correctional Center \u2014 once the home of Baby Face Nelson and James Earl Ray \u2014 to play baseball against the prisoners there.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tHe graduated from the University of Illinois in 1979 and served as a local news editor at the <em>Daily Herald<\/em> in Arlington Heights. And after coming west, he worked for <em>The Press-Enterprise<\/em> in Riverside, the San Gabriel Valley Newspaper Group and the <em>Los Angeles Times<\/em> before getting laid off in 2008.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t<em>Hollywood Remains to Be Seen <\/em>includes about 400 Hollywood luminaries who have left us, among them Rudolph Valentino, <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/t\/clark-gable\/\" id=\"auto-tag_clark-gable_1\" data-tag=\"clark-gable\">Clark Gable<\/a>, Clara Bow, Jean Harlow, <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/t\/elizabeth-taylor\/\" id=\"auto-tag_elizabeth-taylor_1\" data-tag=\"elizabeth-taylor\">Elizabeth Taylor<\/a> and W.C. Fields.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tHe noted that he often dealt with security guards at cemeteries while doing research \u2014 he said he was asked to delete photographs he had taken of Jackson\u2019s grave soon after the performer\u2019s death in 2009 \u2014 and sometimes asked to leave the premises.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tAnd when he told people what he was writing about, he would typically get one of three reactions: some could not care less, others were \u201cshocked and horrified by it\u201d and others were \u201ccloset grave hunters; they thought they were the only people that do this and wanted behind-the-scenes information.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tMore recently, Masek published several e-books on individual cemeteries \u2014 including one on Graceland Cemetery in Chicago \u2014 for visitors to take with them to gravesites.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tSurvivors include his brothers, Rick and Terry. He will be cremated, with his ashes buried next to his parents in Joliet, Osborne said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tIn his 2011 interview, Masek said \u201ccemeteries are like libraries, and every grave is a story. Some are more interesting than others, but the deceased deserve to be remembered.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><em> \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.hollywoodreporter.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mark J. Masek, who wrote Hollywood Remains to Be Seen: A Guide to the Movie Stars\u2019 Final Homes, an insightful 2001 book about 14 Los Angeles-area cemeteries and their celebrated residents, has died. He was 68. Masek died on New Year\u2019s Eve of an apparent heart attack inside his home in Alhambra, California, his girlfriend [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2229623,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25177],"tags":[380182,406718,431270,49217,413404,431271,366469,314148,304696,22064],"class_list":["post-2229622","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-celebrities","tag-bing-crosby","tag-buster-keaton","tag-clark-gable","tag-elizabeth-taylor","tag-fred-astaire","tag-hattie-mcdaniel","tag-jimmy-stewart","tag-marilyn-monroe","tag-michael-jackson","tag-obituaries"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Author-of-Hollywood-Cemetery-Guidebook-Was-68.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2229622","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2229622"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2229622\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2229624,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2229622\/revisions\/2229624"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2229623"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2229622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2229622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2229622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}