The ghosts of dead actors like to roam Hollywood.

Rudolph Valentino

Living legends fade with difficulty, especially when it comes to the great icons of television. The Hollywood Memorial Cemetery, recently renamed “Hollywood Forever,” is the oldest cemetery in Tinseltown. People claim that ghosts are very active here.

The cemetery borders Paramount Studios, rumored to be haunted by the ghosts of immortal stars Douglas Fairbanks and Rudolph Valentino. It seems unlikely they are content to merely visit the places where their fame once reigned.

Interestingly, the ghosts do not appear during daytime filming; instead, they wait until the loud noises in the studios have died down and the film crew has begun preparing for the next day.

The most astonishing incident occurred one evening when an engineer fell 20 feet from a lighting stand. Apparently, he was saved from certain death by a benevolent spirit who broke his fall. For a few moments, he seemed suspended in mid-air, just inches from the floor, before landing relatively safely on the floor right before the eyes of his horrified colleagues.

Another time, two prop masters suspected their colleagues were playing a prank on them after the chairs they’d carefully placed in the corner of a warehouse mysteriously returned to the center of the room. They decided to stay overnight in hopes of catching the prankster, but in the middle of the night, to their horror, they heard creaking sounds and saw the furniture moving around the room on its own.

The following night, they mustered the courage to observe the mysterious phenomenon again, but nothing happened that night. Apparently, the spirits were pleased to have attracted attention.

At Culver City Studios, carpenters whisper about a gray figure in a suit, tie, and fedora that walks right past them and disappears through a door in the opposite wall. Judging by the description, this may be the restless spirit of the studio’s former owner, Thomas Ince, who was famous for creating the studio system of filming and placing great importance on the role of the director.

He died under mysterious circumstances on William Randolph Hearst’s yacht in 1924. According to rumors, the insanely jealous newspaper magnate tried to shoot Charlie Chaplin, but mistakenly shot Ince.

For a generation of silent film fans, Rudolph Valentino was the epitome of the romantic hero. Since his death at age 31, he has become one of Hollywood’s most active ghosts. He is said to gracefully glide through the rooms of his former mansion, known as “The Falcon’s Nest,” gaze wistfully out onto the street from a second-story window, and occasionally visit the horses in the stables.

Paramount Studios workers swore they’d seen “The Sheik” in the wardrobe department, admiring the costumes. He’d also occasionally wander silently through Studio Five, where he had a dream job: seducing beautiful actresses, for which he was paid exorbitantly.

Curiously, his fans prove just as loyal. His grave in Hollywood Forever Cemetery is often visited by the ghost of a veiled woman, apparently a devoted admirer.

Universal Studios is no stranger to ghosts. It was there that the original silent version of The Phantom of the Opera (1925) was filmed, starring the legendary Lon Chaney. His ghost, in a billowing cape, is still seen on stage and in theaters. Chaney, who died in 1930, was known as the “man of a thousand faces” for his almost supernatural ability to transform himself—through makeup or acting—into eerie, hideous characters.

Actor George Reeves, who starred in the original Superman, is said to have shot himself in his Beverly Hills home in 1959, three days before his wedding. Perhaps he couldn’t come to terms with being constantly offered the same type of roles. However, his friends and family believe he was murdered. Some visitors to his home reported seeing Reeves’ ghost in a Superman costume.

Another mysterious murder/suicide occurred with Thelma Todd, who starred alongside silent comedy stars Laurel and Hardy and Buster Keaton. She made the transition to sound films, but in 1935, her body was found in the garage of her cafe, located on the coast in Malibu.

Police suspected suicide, but there were bloodstains all around, which remained unexplained. The current owners of the house claim to have seen the ghost of a film actress near the house several times and smelled exhaust fumes in the empty garage.

The Vogue Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard is said to be haunted by numerous ghosts. A projectionist who died in the projection booth and a technical engineer are said to haunt it. The site formerly housed Prospect Elementary, which burned down in a fire. The theater is now haunted by the ghosts of the schoolteacher and her students who died in the accident.

The building was often used as a broadcast studio, but there were so many instances of electrical equipment failing for unknown reasons that television companies no longer wanted to rent the space.

The Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood, a second home for many stars, is also famous for its ghostly residents. Guests often complained about the sound of a clarinet playing in the early morning, but were told it was merely the ghost of screen star Montgomery Clift, who stayed at the hotel during the filming of “From Here to Eternity.”

He was forced to learn the clarinet to land the role, for which he was nominated for a third Academy Award for Best Actor. Even then, guests complained about the early hours he chose for his practice, and they continue to complain even after his death.

The story of the mirror that once occupied a place of honor in the room where Marilyn Monroe stayed also sounds rather eerie. A maid experienced a terrible shock when, long after Marilyn’s death, she saw the actress’s face in the mirror.

The hotel management was forced to remove the object from the room and hang it in the hotel lobby. However, if a guest approached the mirror to look at themselves, the ghost of the deceased actress would reappear. Since then, the mirror has become known as the “window to the other world.”

Some ghosts loved the good life so much that even after death, they preferred not to waste time on weeping and lamenting. Writer, director, and carouser Orson Welles continues to enjoy brandy and cigars at his favorite table at Sweet Lady Jane in Hollywood. Guests dining at this table often complain about the cigar smell, but the maitre d’ refuses to compensate them.

Actor Hugh Grant is said to have heard a woman crying in the luxurious Colonial House apartment in Los Angeles, where Bette Davis usually lived.

Another great comedic actress, Lucille Ball, is also said to occasionally haunt her home at 100 North Roxbury Drive. At her previous home, someone broke the windows, furniture moved on its own, and screams were often heard. If the new owners haven’t called in ghost hunters yet, they might want to give it some serious thought.

Ghostbusters star Dan Aykroyd may have seemed like a fearless hero on the big screen, but he admits he was terrified in real life when he saw the ghost of “Mama” Cass Elliott, the lead singer of the 1960s band The Mamas and the Papas, in his bed.

“A ghost definitely haunts my house. One time, it even crawled into my bed. I rolled over and bumped into something, but then I went back to sleep. The ghost also turns on my exercise machine and moves jewelry around on my vanity. I’m sure it’s ‘Mama’ Cass, because it feels like the ghost of a large person.”

One might imagine Hollywood celebrities enjoying harmony and privacy within the walls of their luxurious mansions. However, life in the new home of actress Elke Sommer and her husband, Joe Hyams, turned into a living nightmare that could rival The Amityville Horror. On several occasions, the couple and their guests witnessed the ghost of an elderly man in a white suit wandering through the rooms.

The couple was repeatedly forced to flee the room because of the suffocating smell of smoke, which could suddenly and completely inexplicably arise at any time of the day or night.

Fire department workers made several thorough inspections of the luxury property, paying particular attention to the attic where the fire originated. However, they were unable to find the cause of the blaze, such as damaged electrical wiring. They were also puzzled by how the fire could have spread in that part of the house, as there were no flammable materials there.

Dissatisfied with the results, the couple sought help from the American Society for Psychological Research, which recorded a number of anomalous occurrences but was unable to pacify the spirits. Ultimately, Sommer and Hyams were forced to sell their dream home before it burned down, burying them inside. The house was subsequently sold 15 times, and many owners lived in it for less than a year.

Sharon Tate

One evening in the 1960s, the late Sharon Tate, actress and wife of film director Roman Polanski, had what was arguably her most terrifying ghostly encounter. Tate was in her bedroom when the ghost of a “nasty man,” as she later described him, entered and seemed to be searching for something.

She recognized him as the house’s former owner, Paul Bern, a theatrical agent who had shot himself in the upstairs bathroom after his marriage to actress Jean Harlow broke up. As Tate ran out of the room, a second apparition appeared near the stairs. This was the ghost of a woman with a slit throat.

Tate’s screams could be heard throughout the house as she recognized herself in the woman. Soon after, a gruesome ritual murder occurred in the house: members of the so-called “Manson Family” tied Tate to the stairs and slit her throat (a total of 16 stab wounds were found on Tate’s body).

From Paul Roland’s book “The Big Book of Ghosts and Hauntings.”