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What Famous People Have Been Cremated?

Funerals · 7 min read · First published 2006 · Updated November 2026

Rows of white headstones under tall trees, in black and white
Photo by Davide Ragusa on Unsplash

Where are their ashes now?

Celebrities have a flair for drama, and in the case of Hunter S. Thompson, that continued after death. At a private farewell at his home in Colorado in 2005, his ashes were fired from a cannon.

Most families choose something quieter. The Cremation Association of North America (CANA) reports that 62.8 percent of people who died in the United States in 2025 were cremated (its 2026 report), and the number keeps rising. Cremated remains can be scattered, kept at home, buried or placed in a niche, and families often take their time deciding. Many well-known people have been cremated over the years. Here are some of the more interesting stories.

  • Desi Arnaz - Actor, musician and Lucille Ball's husband on I Love Lucy. His ashes were scattered at sea.
  • Marlon Brando - The actor famous for The Godfather was cremated, and his ashes were scattered in Tahiti and in Death Valley.
  • Greta Garbo - The star of Hollywood's golden age died in 1990. Her family buried her ashes in 1999 at Skogskyrkogarden cemetery in her home city of Stockholm.
  • Rock Hudson - Hudson was cremated. His publicist said his will asked that his ashes be scattered over the Catalina Channel, off Los Angeles, where he loved to sail.
  • Janis Joplin - Joplin's ashes were scattered from a plane over the Pacific Ocean.
  • Jerry Garcia - The Grateful Dead's guitarist died in 1995. Half of his ashes were scattered off San Francisco, as his will asked, and half in the Ganges River in India.
  • John F. Kennedy Jr. - After the plane crash in 1999, the ashes of John, his wife Carolyn Bessette Kennedy and her sister Lauren were scattered at sea from the Navy destroyer USS Briscoe, off Martha's Vineyard.
  • Vivien Leigh - The Gone With the Wind actress died in 1967. Her ashes were scattered on the lake at her country home, Tickerage Mill, in East Sussex, England.
  • Groucho Marx - Groucho's ashes rest at Eden Memorial Park in Los Angeles. In 1982 they were stolen, and they were found the same day outside the gates of another cemetery. The cemetery has kept them in a more secure place ever since.
  • Steve McQueen - The star of The Magnificent Seven had his ashes scattered over the Pacific Ocean.
  • Robert Mitchum - Mitchum's ashes were scattered at sea from a schooner off the California coast near his home in Montecito.
  • Gene Roddenberry - The creator of Star Trek had a portion of his ashes carried into space more than once, beginning with a space shuttle flight in 1992.
  • Robin Williams - After his death in 2014, his ashes were scattered in San Francisco Bay, according to his death certificate.
  • Carrie Fisher - Her ashes were carried to her funeral in a giant urn shaped like a Prozac pill, which her brother Todd said was her favorite possession. She and her mother, Debbie Reynolds, were laid to rest together at Forest Lawn in the Hollywood Hills.
  • Neil Armstrong - The first person to walk on the Moon died in 2012. His cremated remains were buried in the Atlantic Ocean during a Navy ceremony aboard the USS Philippine Sea.
  • Margaret Thatcher - Britain's first woman prime minister died in 2013. She was cremated in a private service after her ceremonial funeral, and her ashes were later placed in the grounds of the Royal Hospital Chelsea in London, beside those of her husband, Denis.
  • Fidel Castro - The longtime Cuban leader died in 2016. His ashes were interred in a private ceremony at Santa Ifigenia cemetery in Santiago de Cuba on December 4, 2016.
  • David Bowie - The singer died in 2016 and was cremated in New Jersey. His will asked that his ashes be scattered in Bali.
  • Stephen Hawking - The physicist died in 2018. His ashes were buried in the nave of Westminster Abbey in London in June 2018, between the graves of Sir Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin.
  • Burt Reynolds - The actor died in 2018 and was cremated a few days later. In February 2021 his cremated remains were placed in a grave beside a lake at Hollywood Forever cemetery in Los Angeles.
  • Sean Connery - The first screen James Bond died in 2020. His widow said it was his wish that his ashes be scattered in the Bahamas and in his native Scotland.
  • Nichelle Nichols - The Star Trek actress who played Lt. Uhura died in 2022. In January 2024 her cremated remains were launched into space aboard a rocket headed for an orbit around the sun.

Whether the choice is dramatic or quiet, the question we all end up asking is the same: where would I want to rest, and where would my family want to visit? There is no wrong answer. If you are deciding what to do with a loved one's ashes, whether a person's or a pet's, see What You Can and Can't Do With Cremated Remains.

Sources

Written by Words to Comfort

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