How a Hollywood tour guide discovered an unknown celebrity grave

Ever since her death in 1986, it was taken as common knowledge that Elsa Lanchester - who became a horror movie icon by playing the title character in the Bride of Frankenstein - had been cremated and her ashes sprinkled in the ocean.

But then Scott Michaels, the founder of Dearly Departed Tours, discovered that her cremated remains were interred in a rose garden under her married name, Elsa Lanchester Laughton.

"For almost 40 years no one had made the connection – until now," he says.

Mr Michaels, 63, is a historian who specialises in the dark side of Hollywood. A go-to for programmes about dead Hollywood celebrities and murder, he has consulted for Quentin Tarantino's Manson murder film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Mr Michaels' museum of memorabilia and oddities was also a local must-see, before it closed during the pandemic, for its eclectic collection, which included the Buick Electra that Jayne Mansfield died in in 1967.

Deeply passionate about unsung Hollywood, he has also made it a habit to organise fundraisers and events for marginalised, forgotten or cult actors, like Schlitzie ("Pinhead" in Freaks) and Ken Weatherwax ("Pugsley" from the television Addams Family).

It was this interest that led Mr Michaels to delve further into what happened to the remains of Lanchester.

Born on October 28, 1902 in Lewisham, London, Lanchester was a child actor in theatre and cabaret, and even made records of ancient Victorian songs and ballads.

At 25 she met and married fellow actor Charles Laughton, and starred alongside him as Anne of Cleeves in 1933's The Private Life of Henry VIII, for which Laughton won the Best Actor Oscar.

He played the title role in The Hunchback of Notre Dame in 1939, and the couple worked on twelve films together, most notably Witness for the Prosecution in 1957, for which they were both Oscar-nominated.

Lanchester had been nominated before, in 1949's Come to the Stable, and after Laughton's death she continued to work steadily, including on a number of Disney films including Mary Poppins and That Darn Cat!.

Actor Bruce Davison played Willard alongside Lanchester as his controlling mother Henreitta. He speaks fondly of that time, and especially of her sense of humour.

"She told me: 'You know when a director is giving you a load of codswallop? What you do is say 'Oooh, that's very interesting, let me do that.' And then just do whatever the hell you want!" he laughs.

Davison also recalled something that would tantalise horror fans today.

"I used to take a Super 8 camera to set, and one time I filmed her at the top of the stairs when she did The Bride for me, staring down and giving me that sneer! She was glad for the Bride role," he added, "she understood what it had done for her."

Although the Bride of Frankenstein – in which Lanchester's own long hair stretched up over a wire beehive contraption to startling effect - did indeed earn her a place in film history, the issue of what exactly happened to her remains after her death was less well recorded.

In her autobiography, Lanchester wrote that she did not like the location of her husband's burial plot in Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills cemetery – Laughton died in 1962. She wrote she would prefer to be cremated with no funeral service, which is partly why everyone assumed for decades she had her ashes scattered.

An interest in death began early for Mr Michaels, who was born and grew up in Detroit. He recalls seeing the tented graveside set-up at a family funeral and asking his mom "are we going to the circus?" He was three years old.

More than that, the family home was on one of the most dangerous intersections in the city. A young Mr Michaels heard – and saw – so many car accidents that it almost became business as usual, and the springboard for an unusual career celebrating those who have died, he says.

When he learned of Lanchester's interment, during the course of his regular research into historic death certificates, he decided she would be his next memorial project.

Her seven-minute, dialogue-free appearance alongside Boris Karloff as the Bride was legendary – she deserved to have her legacy remembered.

She was, after all, basically the only female star of the Universal Horror cast, he says.

"Many people also forget that she played Mary Shelley, who tells her frightening tale of man trying to play God to poets Shelley and Byron, at the beginning of the film," Mr Michaels says.

Interest in Lanchester had been sparked earlier in the year when Universal Studios released merchandise and special editions of Bride of Frankenstein to celebrate the film's 90th anniversary. In July, a blue plaque was unveiled at Lanchester's childhood home in Battersea, London, that also noted her mother Edith, who was a socialist, feminist, and suffragette.

It was a surprise when Mr Michaels discovered that Lanchester's agent, Herschel Green, had interred her at Valhalla Memorial Park, in North Hollywood - and that her ashes had not been scattered as had been widely believed.

"Maybe she didn't really care much about what happened after she was gone," he suggests.

In less than 36 hours, Mr Michaels had crowdfunded enough for a formal wall marker to recognise this horror legend. The unveiling ceremony will be held on 28 October – her birthday.

"I wanted to celebrate on her 123rd birthday," Michaels says, "and honestly I forgot that it was just a few days before Halloween."

James Bartlett is a culture/travel journalist and true crime author living in Los Angeles