Most of us imagine an unmarked grave as a place you bury someone who isn’t identifiable, or if they are known, they were buried there in haste and as an afterthought. They certainly wouldn’t be a famous actor, writer, or inventor whose work is admired by thousands if not millions of people.
Well, dealing with the death of a loved one is never easy. And when that loved one was known by the public masses, mourning privately can be difficult to do.
One way to get around that is to bury your famous family member in an unmarked grave so you can visit them without hassle any time you wish.
Check out this list of 15 famous people we had no idea were buried in marked graves.
1. Fred Gwynne
You may know Fred Gwynne from the movie, My Cousin Vinny, but we’ll always remember him as Herman Munster from The Musters. When Gwynne died at the age of 66 in 1993, he was buried in an unmarked grave at Sandy Mount United Methodist Church cemetery in Maryland.
His daughter implied that at the end of his life, he wanted to be just a man and not known as an actor.
2. Roy Orbison
Roy Orbison was a famous musician who was born in 1936 in Vernon, Texas. He died at the age of 52 and is buried in Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Westwood, California .
His family originally planned to transfer him to a separate location but never did. Now he lies with other celebrities whose graves have no name.
3. John Wayne
Movie star John Wayne was born in 1907 in Winterset, Iowa. When he died, he was buried in an unmarked grave somewhere in Newport Beach, California.
His tireless fans spent 19 years tracking down his gravesite and, once located, a plaque was placed at the site in 1998. But the cemetery still won’t give you exact directions.
4. Bobby Driscoll
Actor Bobby Driscoll was born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa in 1937. He is best known as the voice of Disney’s Peter Pan.
When he died in 1968, he was buried in an unmarked grave in New York City. But like so many child stars, he fell from grace before his death and became an addict.
His grave is unmarked because it is a pauper’s grave where he lays alongside other unclaimed bodies.
5. George C. Scott
Actor George C. Scott was born in 1927 in Wise, Virginia. He died in 1999 at the age of 71 and was buried in an unmarked grave in Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Westwood, California.
Interestingly, many celebrities are buried there and many of the graves are unmarked for privacy. In fact, Scott is buried next to the unmarked grave of Frank Zappa!
6. Steve Jobs
Steve Jobs, the famous co-founder of Apple Computers died in 2011 at the age of 56. His family had him buried in Palo Alto’s Alta Mesa Memorial Park in California, and chose to keep the location of his grave private.
But fans still wander through and leave notes for him in the places they think he may rest.
7. Bessie Smith
Bessie Smith was a blues legend born in 1894. She died in 1937 and was buried in an unmarked grave in Sharon Hill, Pennsylvania because her family didn’t have the money to purchase a headstone.
However, in 1970, fellow musician Janis Joplin purchased the stone that still stands at her gravesite to this day.
8. Casey Kasem
Casey Kasem was an entertainer born in 1932. Leading up to his death in 2014, Kasem was involved in a prolonged custody dispute which carried over into his death.
His wife requested that he be buried in an unmarked site in Oslo, Norway despite the fact that he seemed to have wanted to be buried in California.
9. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Famous musician, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, was born in 1756 in Salzburg, Austria. Standard practice at the time was to bury non-nobility in unmarked graves. So when he died in 1971, that was what took place.
There is a likely site for his grave and a memorial once stood there. But the statue was moved alongside other musicians’ graves in Vienna. Still, his body lies somewhere in St. Marx Cemetary, but no one is sure exactly where.
10. Genghis Khan
According to legend, Genghis Khan was buried in an unmarked grave in 1227. Legend has it that all those who attended his funeral were massacred by his successors, his burial site was trampled by horses to disguise it, and a river was diverted to flow over the site.
His remains have still never been found and that’s clearly how it was meant to be!
11. John Belushi
Comedian and actor, John Belushi, was born in Chicago in 1949. He had a tombstone located at Abel Hill Cemetery in Chilmark, Massachusetts, but after the site kept getting trashed by visitors, his wife had his remains moved to an unmarked location.
12. Frank Zappa
Frank Zappa was born in Baltimore, Maryland in 1940. When he died in 1993, he was buried in an unmarked grave at Pierce Brothers Westwood Village Memorial Park & Mortuary in the Westwood Village area of Los Angeles, California.
He rests alongside other unmarked celebrity graves, such as Roy Orbison and John Wayne.
13. King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia
King Abdullah was born in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. When he died, he was buried in an unmarked grave somewhere in that same city due to his family’s strict following of the Wahhabi Sunni Islamic interpretation which discourages elaborate ritual.
Now, he lays alongside the commoners of his kingdom.
14. H.P. Lovecraft
Author H.P. Lovecraft was born in Providence, Rhode Island in 1890. When he died in 1937 he was buried in an unmarked grave in a family plot.
Once his works gained more popularity, his fans raised money to install a tombstone for him.
15. Richard Trevithick
Maybe you’ve never heard of him but Richard Trevithick was an early pioneer of steam-powered transportation. He was born in 1771 and died at age 62 in 183, but unfortunately died without any money to his name.
Because of this, he was buried in an unmarked grave somewhere in Dartford, England.
Pretty amazing considering all he’s done for the world.
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