Final Resting Places, Western Filmmakers
In this month’s column we once again visit the final resting places of a number of key Western actors.
Last spring I made my first visit to Riverside National Cemetery, where a number of actors who were also veterans are interred; those buried there include a couple well-known John Ford Western players.
Woody Strode, a former UCLA football star, played the title role in Ford’s Sergeant Rutledge (1960) and then played John Wayne’s loyal friend Pompey in Ford’s The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962). Offscreen Strode was also a close personal friend of the great director.
Not far from Woody Strode lies another actor who appeared in John Ford Westerns, John Agar.
Agar starred in two of Ford’s famous “Calvary Trilogy” films, Fort Apache (1948), which was his film debut, and She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949). Agar’s other Westerns included Along the Great Divide (1951) and Star in the Dust (1956). As a side note, Agar was married for half a decade to his Fort Apache costar, Shirley Temple.
Billy Lee was a child actor who was in ‘30s “B” Westerns including Wagon Wheels (1934) with Randolph Scott and Arizona Raiders (1936) with Larry “Buster” Crabbe. Later a Korean war veteran, he is buried under his full name, Billy Lee Schlensker.
Also at Riverside National Cemetery is Jeff Richards, buried under his real name, Richard M. Taylor. Richards was Benjamin in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954) and also appeared in Westerns such as Many Rivers to Cross (1955) and Waco (1966).
We had an unusual experience last spring when, along with thousands of other people, we had to evacuate our home due to a chemical accident. We made the most of a bad situation by visiting family in the Santa Barbara area, and as part of that trip we stopped in for walks at two different cemeteries.
At small Carpinteria Cemetery, located in Carpinteria, California, we visited the gravesite of the great character actor John Dehner, whose career also included working as a Disney animator along with an impressive career acting in radio.
Dehner was in many movie Westerns, including Powder River (1953), Gun Belt (1953), Southwest Passage (1954), and The Fastest Gun Alive (1956) to name just a small handful. He also appeared on many TV Westerns, where he was best known as Banker Bates in the famous Maverick episode “Shady Deal at Sunny Acres” (1958).
We next visited the much larger, beautifully maintained Santa Barbara Cemetery, where numerous filmmakers are interred.
It was particularly special for me to visit the gravesite of one of my all-time favorite actresses, Jeanne Crain. Her Westerns included Man Without a Star (1955), The Second Greatest Sex (1955), The Fastest Gun Alive (1956), and Guns of the Timberland (1960). In addition to a busy acting career, she was the mother of seven children born over an 18-year period.
Another Western leading lady buried in Santa Barbara is ice skater-turned-actress Vera (Hruba) Ralston, who was married to Republic Pictures head Herbert J. Yates from 1952 until his passing in 1966. The tribute on her gravestone is from her second husband, Charles de Alva, whom she married in 1973.
Favorite Westerns Ralston appeared in include Dakota (1945) with John Wayne, Wyoming (1947) with Bill Elliott, and Jubilee Trail (1954) with Joan Leslie and Forrest Tucker. At the recent Lone Pine Film Festival I saw her in a newly restored print of Spoilers of the Forest (1957), costarring Rod Cameron.
Fess Parker is especially known for playing Davy Crockett and Daniel Boone on TV – note the coonskin cap on his gravestone! – but he also appeared in several Western films, including Disney’s Westward Ho, the Wagons! (1956) and Old Yeller (1957).
As a childhood fan of Daniel Boone, it was especially moving for me to visit Fess Parker’s gravesite. A few months after that cemetery visit, I had the chance to chat with the actor who played Parker’s TV son Israel, Darby Hinton, at the Lone Pine Film Festival. Darby signed a Daniel Boone cast photo for me. We’re seen together in the next photo.
Tab Hunter lived in the Santa Barbara area for many years, where a relative who dealt with him in a business setting had positive things to say about him. Hunter’s Westerns included Gun Belt (1953), Track of the Cat (1954), and The Burning Hills (1956).
Finally, one may not associate the great Ronald Colman with Westerns, but he starred in a very fine silent Western, The Winning of Barbara Worth (1926), and deserves inclusion here for that film alone.
Of course, it’s also a chance to share his particularly magnificent grave marker.
Finally, a view from Ronald Colman’s gravesite:
For additional photos of the burial places of Western filmmakers, please visit my tribute columns from May 2019, February 2022, November 2, 2022, November 29, 2022, April 2023, November 2023, March 2024, July 2024, February 2025, November 2025, and April 2026.
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– Laura Grieve for Classic Movie Hub
Laura can be found at her blog, Laura’s Miscellaneous Musings, where she’s been writing about movies since 2005, and on Twitter at @LaurasMiscMovie. A lifelong film fan, Laura loves the classics including Disney, Film Noir, Musicals, and Westerns. She regularly covers Southern California classic film festivals. Laura will scribe on all things western at the ‘Western RoundUp’ for CMH.
