10 Celebrity Tombstones Worth a Laugh

You don't really even know there's a cemetery hidden amongst all of the big buildings until you're practically inside Westwood Village Memorial Park. A vast majority of the tombs were set into walls and the ones that weren't were pretty standardized. Which is why it was really apparent when someone went the extra mile to stand out by showing a little humor on their tombstones.

Merv Griffin's had my husband in stitches (sorry about the reflection):

Equally funny was Jack Lemmon's, who made it to one final marquee:

Jack-Lemmon-Tombstone.jpg
Jack-Lemmon-Tombstone.jpg

Fans of Grumpy Old Men and The Odd Couple will be pleased to know that Walter Matthau is buried nearby.

rodney-dangerfield-tombstone.jpg
rodney-dangerfield-tombstone.jpg

As a writer, Billy Wilder's is especially close to my heart:

billy-wilder-tombstone.jpg
billy-wilder-tombstone.jpg

Meanwhile, Marilyn Monroe's is pretty nondescript:

marilyn-monroe-tombstone.jpg
marilyn-monroe-tombstone.jpg

Visiting Westwood made me wonder what other celebrities wanted to keep people laughing long after their deaths, so I did a little investigating.

Mel Blanc

The Man of a Thousand Voices knew how to leave his audience wanting more. On the off-chance that you're not familiar, Mel was the voice of Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig, Daffy Duck, Sylvester the cat, Tweety Bird, Yosemite Sam and Foghorn Leghorn (among others). How fitting, then, that he chose to have this engraved on his headstone:

mel-blanc-tombstone.jpg
mel-blanc-tombstone.jpg

Robert Frost

You might expect one of Frost's famous quotes to be inscribed on his tombstone: "In three words I can sum up everything I have learned about life: it goes on." Instead, he went with something equally thought-provoking:

robert-frost-grave.jpg
robert-frost-grave.jpg

("I had a lover's quarrel with the world," in case you can't read it.)

Edgar Allan Poe

Such a dark and macabre writer such as Edgar Allan Poe would surely have something similarly creepy on his headstone, and he does not disappoint.  "Quoth the raven, 'Nevermore'," is what the text on the arch over the raven says.

edgar-allan-poe.jpg
edgar-allan-poe.jpg

Ed Wynn

You may not know Ed Wynn by name, but Disney fans will recognize him as the voice of the Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland. Later, he played crazy Uncle Albert in Mary Poppins. Prior to Alice, he was a headliner on Broadway who found his way under W.C. Fields' tutelage. Wynn remembered who was responsible for all of his success and made sure to note so on his memorial:

ed-wynn.jpg
ed-wynn.jpg

Finally, you wouldn't expect a legend like Frank Sinatra to go out without last words to remember him by:

sinatra-grave.jpg
sinatra-grave.jpg

Stop squinting. It says, "The Best Is Yet To Come."

What are some other entertaining, thought-provoking or otherwise interesting epitaphs we should know about?