How to Find a Grave at Holy Cross Cemetery Culver City

Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City is one of Los Angeles's most historically significant Catholic cemeteries — 200 acres of rolling hills overlooking Santa Monica Bay, with nearly a century of burials and some of the most recognizable names in entertainment history. Bing Crosby, Bela Lugosi, Rita Hayworth, and Sharon Tate are all here, clustered near the area known as "The Grotto" in the cemetery's southwest corner. This guide walks you through how to find a specific grave, what to expect when you arrive, and the most effective tools available before and during your visit.

About Holy Cross Cemetery

Holy Cross Cemetery opened in 1939 and is operated by the Catholic Cemeteries & Mortuaries of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles — the same organization that runs Calvary Cemetery in East Los Angeles and nine other Catholic cemeteries throughout the region. The cemetery sits at 5835 West Slauson Avenue, straddling the border of Culver City and the Ladera Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles.

The grounds span approximately 200 acres of gently rolling terrain, with the Mausoleum positioned at the highest point — a hilltop with wide views toward the coast on clear days. Holy Cross maintains a strict flat-plate-only marker policy, which keeps the landscape open and visually consistent. There are no upright headstones, so once you've located a section on the map, navigation is straightforward — the grave plates sit flush to the ground and are readable at a slow walking pace.

A full mortuary operates on the property, including a Risen Christ chapel where daily Mass is celebrated on weekdays. The campus also features The Grotto — a shrine in the southwest section of the cemetery that became the gathering point for many entertainment industry burials throughout the mid-20th century. Most of the celebrity graves at Holy Cross are within walking distance of this landmark.

How to Find a Specific Grave at Holy Cross

1. Search Find A Grave First

Holy Cross Cemetery has a well-documented presence on Find A Grave. The cemetery's volunteer community has catalogued thousands of memorials, many with grave photos and GPS coordinates. A GPS coordinate is the most practical tool you can have — drop it into Google Maps or Apple Maps and walk directly to the spot without guessing which row or section you're in.

Search using the full legal name, not a stage name. Bela Lugosi, for example, was born Béla Ferenc Dezső Blaskó but is indexed under the professional name he used throughout his career. If the initial search fails, try alternate spellings or maiden names.

2. Check BillionGraves

BillionGraves uses GPS-tagged grave photography and indexes many burials that Find A Grave hasn't captured. It's particularly useful for older interments from the 1940s and 1950s where Find A Grave coverage may be incomplete. Run both searches before concluding a record doesn't exist online.

3. Call the Cemetery Office

If the volunteer databases come up empty, call (310) 836-5500 during office hours. The cemetery's records staff can look up any burial in their database by name and give you the exact section, lot, and space number. Have the full name and approximate year of death ready — it speeds the lookup considerably.

Once you have section and lot details, ask the office staff to point out the section on the map. They can describe where to enter and which driveway runs closest to the plot, which saves time on a large property.

4. Use RestBloom's Cemetery Search

RestBloom maintains a searchable directory of burials across Los Angeles cemeteries. Browse the cemetery directory to search by name — if the burial is in our index, you'll find the plot reference and can arrange fresh flower delivery directly to the gravesite from anywhere in the world.

Navigating the Grounds

Holy Cross is organized into numbered sections that run across the property's rolling terrain. Flat grave plates and open lawns make walking between sections easy once you know which area you're heading toward. Section maps are available at the main office — pick one up before you start walking, as the property is large enough that entering at the wrong driveway adds significant distance to your route.

Key landmarks to orient yourself:

• The Grotto — Located in the southwest corner of the cemetery, this shrine is the most important landmark for visitors seeking celebrity graves. Bing Crosby, Bela Lugosi, and Sharon Tate are all buried within a short walk of The Grotto. If you're visiting a well-known figure from Hollywood's mid-century era, start here.
• The Mausoleum — Positioned at the highest point on the property, on the Ladera Heights side of the cemetery. Several notable interments are housed inside the mausoleum rather than in ground-level plots. The building is open during cemetery hours.
• The Risen Christ Chapel — Adjacent to the mortuary complex near the Slauson Avenue entrance. Daily Mass is celebrated here on weekdays. The chapel is open to all visitors and provides a useful geographic anchor when navigating from the entrance.
• Garden sections — The grounds include ponds, a waterfall, and multiple garden areas with religious statuary. These are well-maintained and tend to be visually distinct, making them useful navigational markers even without a map.

The flat-plate-only marker policy means you'll need to walk rows slowly to read individual plates rather than scanning upright headstones from a distance. For celebrity graves in The Grotto area, GPS coordinates from Find A Grave are the most efficient navigation method available.

Notable Interments

Holy Cross draws visitors from across the world specifically because of the concentration of entertainment figures buried here. Many arrived at the cemetery through Catholic faith connections or through the geographic convenience of its Westside location for the studio industry. Most of the highest-profile graves cluster near The Grotto in the cemetery's southwest section.

• Bing Crosby (1903–1977) — The singer, actor, and entertainer who defined popular music across four decades. Crosby won the Academy Award for Best Actor for Going My Way (1944) and recorded "White Christmas," the best-selling physical single in history. He is buried four rows from The Grotto, close to Sharon Tate's grave and to the left of Bela Lugosi's. His first wife, Dixie Lee (1909–1952), is also buried at Holy Cross.
• Bela Lugosi (1882–1956) — The Hungarian-American actor who became the definitive Count Dracula in the 1931 Universal Horror film. Lugosi was buried in his full Dracula cape and costume — a decision made by his family that he himself never requested, but which became the most-cited detail about his burial. His grave is a frequent destination for horror enthusiasts and is among the most-photographed at Holy Cross.
• Rita Hayworth (1918–1987) — The actress and dancer known as "The Love Goddess" for her pin-up fame during World War II. Hayworth starred in Gilda (1946) and Cover Girl (1944) and was one of Columbia Pictures' biggest stars of the 1940s. She was interred at Holy Cross following her death from Alzheimer's disease.
• Sharon Tate (1943–1969) — The actress and model who was murdered by members of the Manson Family at age 26. Tate had appeared in Valley of the Dolls (1967) and was married to director Roman Polanski. She is buried near The Grotto, close to Bing Crosby. Her grave draws consistent visitors and is treated with notable solemnity by most.
• John Candy (1950–1994) — The beloved Canadian comedian and actor known for Planes, Trains and Automobiles, Cool Runnings, and Uncle Buck. Candy died of a heart attack while filming in Mexico at age 43.
• Mario Lanza (1921–1959) — The operatic tenor and MGM star whose voice became a cultural phenomenon in the early 1950s. Films including The Great Caruso (1951) and Because You're Mine (1952) made him one of the highest-paid entertainers in Hollywood.
• Rosalind Russell (1907–1976) — The actress nominated four times for the Academy Award, best known for His Girl Friday (1940) and Auntie Mame (1958).
• Loretta Young (1913–2000) — The Academy Award–winning actress who starred in films from the 1930s and 1940s before transitioning to one of early television's most successful variety shows, The Loretta Young Show.

A note on visiting celebrity graves: Holy Cross staff can confirm burial locations by phone but will not provide directions to celebrity graves on the grounds. For navigation, Find A Grave GPS coordinates are the most reliable tool publicly available.

Visiting Tips

Getting There

Holy Cross Cemetery is at 5835 West Slauson Avenue, accessible from both the 405 and 10 freeways. From the 405 southbound, take the Slauson Avenue exit and head east approximately one mile — the cemetery entrance is on the right. From the 10 westbound, take the Centinela Avenue exit, turn left onto Centinela, travel north for about half a mile, then turn right onto West Slauson Avenue. The entrance is on the left.

By public transit, Metro Bus Line 207 (the Slauson line) stops near the cemetery entrance. The cemetery is approximately 25 minutes from downtown Los Angeles by car without significant traffic, and about 15 minutes from Santa Monica.

What to Expect on Arrival

The entrance is on West Slauson Avenue, and free parking is available in the lot just inside the gate. The office is visible from the entrance and is the best first stop — staff can pull up burial records, provide a section map, and describe which driveways to take to reach your destination efficiently.

The grounds are genuinely beautiful. The rolling terrain, ponds, waterfall, and garden shrines make Holy Cross as much a landscape park as a burial ground. Many visitors spend time at the religious statuary and garden areas beyond the specific grave they came to find. The Mausoleum at the property's high point offers panoramic views toward the coast on clear days.

Wear comfortable walking shoes. The property is large and the flat-plate layout requires walking slowly through rows to locate specific plots. Summer temperatures in the Culver City area can exceed 90°F — water is advisable for afternoon visits between June and September.

Cemetery Etiquette

Active funeral services take place at Holy Cross any day of the week. Give service parties wide distance and be quiet near active services. Photography of celebrity graves is common and generally accepted; photographing strangers or active services without permission is not. The cemetery is a working religious site — Mass is celebrated in the Risen Christ Chapel on weekdays — and the corresponding atmosphere is appropriate throughout.

Sending Flowers If You Can't Visit in Person

If you can't make the trip to Culver City, RestBloom coordinates fresh flower delivery to gravesites at Holy Cross and throughout Los Angeles. After delivery, we send you a photograph of the arrangement placed at the gravesite.

Arrangements can be ordered from anywhere in the world through the RestBloom cemetery directory. Orders typically deliver within 2–3 business days.

Planning visits to other Los Angeles cemeteries? Read our guides to Hollywood Forever Cemetery, Forest Lawn Glendale, and Rose Hills Memorial Park.

RestBloom is a flower delivery service serving cemeteries across Los Angeles. For official cemetery records, plot locations, and interment services at Holy Cross Cemetery, contact the cemetery office directly at (310) 836-5500 or visit catholiccm.org/holy-cross-cemetery-mortuary-culver-city.