Today’s Catholic celebrities like Martin Scorsese, Mark Wahlberg, and Jonathan Roumie may be familiar to most.
But years ago, actors and filmmakers with roots in the Church had also left an indelible mark on Hollywood. Here’s a few early Catholic radio and TV personalities, including the “Master of Suspense” and one of the most iconic horror figures of all time.
Gracie Allen
Allen was the zany partner of husband George Burns. The comedy duo launched a radio program in 1934 that aired until 1950, and later teamed up for the CBS half-hour sitcom The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show, from 1950 to 1958.
Allen was born in San Francisco in 1895 to two parents of Irish Catholic descent.
She died in 1964, which left her Jewish husband in a quandary. He had hoped to eventually be buried with his wife, but, as a non-Catholic, he was not allowed to be buried in consecrated ground.
So, in true Burns fashion, he reasoned that a Protestant Episcopal rite would be a “compromise” and chose an interfaith cemetery, Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California, for her interment. In 1996, he was able to join her in a companion crypt.
From the Jewish News of Northern California, at JWeekly.com:
[Burns] treated any religious problem arising out of the marriage to Gracie Allen with equal levity. "I'm the only Jew in the family," he said. "Because of Gracie, the two children were raised as Catholics and I've got seven Catholic grandchildren and four [now five] great-grandchildren. I used to eat fish every Friday, but always with my hat on."
Desi Arnaz
Arnaz starred as the beloved Ricky Ricardo opposite his famous comedian wife Lucille Ball in the 1950s hit TV sitcom I Love Lucy.
Arnaz was born in Cuba in 1917 but was forced to flee to the U.S. during the country’s revolution. He met Ball (who was Protestant) on the set of the 1940 musical comedy Too Many Girls, and they eloped that same year with her.
But, at the urging of his mother the couple celebrated their “second wedding” in 1949 at Our Lady of the Valley (Catholic) Church in Canoga Park, California.
From the Library of Congress:
By the late 1940s, Ball and Arnaz still had no children. And Ball came to attribute this—at least in part—to the fact that they had been married by a judge and not in a church. In 1949 the two were married again at Our Lady of the Valley Church in Canoga Park, California. Ball and Arnaz continued to live at their Desilu ranch with daughter Lucie (b. 1951) and son Desi, Jr. (b. 1953) until the family moved to Beverly Hills in 1954.
Arnaz was deeply patriotic and a lifelong Catholic. He died of lung cancer on 1986, and his funeral was held at St. James Roman Catholic Church in San Diego County. He was cremated and his ashes scattered at sea (however, scattering was not in line with Church teaching).
Here's a news report about his funeral (one of the speakers is fellow Catholic Danny Thomas):
John Ford
Ford directed 147 short and feature films during his prolific career and received four Academy Awards, along with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Ford made John Wayne (a Catholic convert, whose grandson became a priest) a star in Stagecoach (1939) and cast 12-year-old Roddy McDowall (also a Catholic) in How Green Was My Valley (1941).
Born John Martin Feeney in 1894 in Maine to two Irish Catholic immigrant parents, Ford admitted he wasn’t a regular churchgoer and distrusted the clergy, although he liked to carry a St. Christopher medal and arrange for the Mass on his movie sets.
His characters often found redemption, especially in The Informer (1935) and Three Godfathers (1948).
Ford grew up in Portland, Maine, where he attended school at St. Dominic’s Roman Catholic Church. St. Dominic eventually became the Maine Irish Heritage Center and now houses a collection of items memorializing his life and legacy.
Ford died in 1973 and was buried in Holy Cross Catholic Cemetery in Culver City, California. His tombstone reflects his service in the U.S. Naval Reserve during World War II, after which he was placed on the Honorary Retired List as a Rear Admiral.
From the Jesuit publication America:
Professor Anthony B. Smith at the University of Dayton, who has closely studied Ford’s films, suggests that while most of them do not deal with overtly Catholic subjects, there is a Catholic approach. In his study of Catholic filmmakers, Richard A. Blake, S.J., who has reviewed many films for America, argues that the “core of Catholic belief” imprinted what he calls an “afterimage” on Ford’s films, giving them “a characteristically Catholic view of the world.” Ford’s emphasis on the community rather than the individual gives his films a distinctly Catholic feel.
Ford also loved the Baptist hymn Shall We Gather at the River so much that he included it in eight films:
Bela Lugosi
The suave but dangerous bloodsucking vampire in Universal’s 1931 classic Dracula, was born in 1882 in the Kingdom of Hungary (now Romania).
Lugosi first starred as Count Dracula in Broadway’s 1927 adaptation of Bram Stoker's novel, noted for its strong Catholic symbolism. Lugosi himself had come from a Roman Catholic family.
Lugosi didn't live the most orthodox life, but as the National Catholic Register observed:
In the small hours of Aug. 16, 1956, Bela Lugosi died.
Subsequently he was buried in his Dracula cape at Holy Cross, Hollywood’s Catholic cemetery. Upon the grave stone are written the words:
BELA LUGOSI
BELOVED FATHER
1882 – 1956Alongside the inscription is a cross. On it are carved the letters: IHS.
In hoc signo vinces.
One can only pray that, as in the best horror tales, the Cross did indeed prevail.
Here's a profile that local L.A. station KTTV did of Lugosi in 2019:
For those who love Hollywood trivia, here are both Ford's and Lugosi's graves at Holy Cross Cemetery:
Alfred Hitchcock
The “Master of Suspense” was known for his sinister and twisted movies and TV series. He boasted a career that spanned over six decades.
Throughout his life Hitchcock remained loyal to the Catholic Church. He was born in London in 1899 and was raised Catholic by his Irish forebears, then attended a Jesuit high school. His screenwriter wife Alma converted to the Catholic faith just before their marriage.
Hitchcock’s stories highlighted recurring themes of fear and guilt, but his characters showed little sense of redemption that had been so prevalent with Ford’s movies. Hitchcock knew that sin sells and probed humanity’s dark side in his many films, namely Psycho (1960) and Vertigo (1958).
The filmmaker was knighted Sir Alfred Hitchcock only a few months before he died in 1980. His funeral was held at Good Shepherd Catholic Church in Beverly Hills, after which his body was cremated.
Image credits: (top) Church of the Good Shepherd in Beverly Hills, California/Shutterstock; (embedded) graves of Bela Lugosi and John Ford/Angela Aleiss
Angela Aleiss, Ph.D. is an author, writer, and film historian, and has taught at UCLA and CalState Long Beach.
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