Every time I so much as tint a toe out of state , I ’ve put burial ground on our travel itinerary . From garden - like expanses to overgrown boot hills , whether they ’re the last resting place of the well - know but not that important or the authoritative but not that well - known , they ’re all fascinating . After realizing that there are a lot of taphophiles out there , I ’m pose my archive of interesting tombstone to beneficial use .
As the first African - American actress to nab an Academy Award nominating speech for a lead part , Dorothy Dandridge opened door for those who come in after her . Though she ultimately lost to Grace Kelly , the nomination itself was groundbreaking .
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After her appearing at the Oscars , Dandridge was able tocommand$75,000 to $ 125,000 per motion-picture show . Unfortunately , it did n’t last long . The roles she was offered after her Oscar - nominate sprain inCarmen Jonesweren’t exactly the roles she had in mind . She rise discomfited with the stereotypical roles and limitation that smuggled actress happen .
In addition to the poor picture roles , Dandridge stand some other setbacks . She married for the 2d meter , this time to fail restaurant proprietor Jack Dennison . He was scurrilous , and they divorced in 1962 — which is when she notice that he had also harm her finance . Accordingto director Earl Mills , she was more than $ 127,000 in debt at the fourth dimension of her divorce from Dennison , and had assets deserving just $ 5,000 .
By 1965 , Dandridge was poise for a retort . She had pull in some publicity and some much - needed cash from a series of nightclub functioning , and had justsigned a contractfor two picture , worth a totality of $ 100,000 .
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But before the replication could happen , it all came to an remnant . On September 8 , 1965 , Mills come to plunk Dandridge up for an appointment and could n’t get her to answer the threshold . Alarmed , he poke it open with a tyre atomic number 26 — and found Dandridge on the floor , raw . She had already been deadened for two hours .
The Los Angeles County Coroner ’s Office originally ascertain a rather eccentric causal agent of death . She conk out , they say , because she had fracture her right foot at the gymnasium five days prior to her expiry . The fracture had caused tiny art object of adipose tissue to flake off the bone essence , which caused occlusion to her lungs and brain . They called it a uncommon embolism .
A belittled funeral was confine , with very few of the Hollywood elite in attending . after , Dandridge was cremate and interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale , California .
Though she had been laid to rest , the questions about her death had n’t been . The result of an extensive toxicology report came out two months after , and itconcludedsomething different : Dandridge had become flat from “ knifelike drug intoxication ” of Tofranil , an antidepressant .
Was it suicide ? That question is still debated today . On one paw , her finances were in a dire state of social occasion and her calling was a shadow of what it once had been . On the other script , friends said Dandridge had never been happier . She had new project — and new payroll check — on the horizon , and was excited to restore her faded fame .
Nearly 35 years after her death , Dandridgedidbecome a big name in Hollywood again . Halle Berry won an Emmy and a Golden Globe for portraying her inIntroducing Dorothy Dandridge — accolades Dandridge herself never had the prospect to pull ahead . Two year later , at the Academy Awards , Berry picked up where Dandridge left off in 1954 , becoming the first shameful charwoman to acquire an Oscar for Best Actress .
Peruse all the entries in our Grave Sightings serieshere .
