Scarcely any other city has so many "famous" cemeteries, and none is more famous than Forest Lawn, which is said to have more than a million visitors every year - a number exceeded by no other cemetery. Its founder Hubert Eaton acquired a small cemetery in 1917 and over the years converted it into a last resting place with the atmosphere more of a park than a cemetery.
Leonardo da Vinci's "Last Supper" represented in a church window, can be seen in the "Memorial Court of Honor"; American history is conjured up in the "Court of Freedom", and a 18x30ft/5.5x9m mosaic reproduction of a famous painting shows the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776. You can see a copy of Michelangelo's larger than life sculpture of David, as well as a painting 95ft/29m longx44ft/13.5m wide of the "Crucifixion". The graves are allowed to have only a simple plaque or sculpture, which must be passed by an art committee created specially for that purpose.
In the words of its founder, "I want to establish a large park, without ugly monuments and other signs of death, but filled with tall flowers, the greenest of lawns, bubbling fountains and fine memorials".
Well-known film actors are buried here, including Clark Gable, Alan Ladd, W. C. Fields, Charles Laughton, Carole Lombard, Jean Harlow, Errol Flynn, Humphrey Bogart, Spencer Tracy and Chico Marx, as well as numerous personalities from public life.
There are a chain of Forest Lawn Memorial Parks located in different cities. The Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Hollywood Hills is the last resting place of pop star Michael Jackson.
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