The Objects 10 Celebrities Took to the Grave

Favorite alcoholic beverages, signature accessories, and reading material are a few of the items that these artists took with them to the afterlife.

By Stacy Conradt |
Elizabeth Taylor, Bela Lugosi, and Bob Marley were buried with some of their most treasured possessions.
Elizabeth Taylor, Bela Lugosi, and Bob Marley were buried with some of their most treasured possessions. / Sunset Boulevard/Corbis via Getty Images (Taylor), Mabel Livingstone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images (Lugosi), Chris Walter/WireImage (Marley), Justin Dodd/Mental Floss (dividers)

Ancient Egyptians buried their dead with meaningful artifacts they might need in the afterlife. The ritual is still a common occurrence today, although our reasons are probably different: Now, it’s usually intended as a final tribute to the deceased. Here are the items that 10 celebrities took with them.

  1. Frank Sinatra // A Flask of Jack Daniels
  2. Tony Curtis // An iPhone and Splenda
  3. Humphrey Bogart // A Golden Whistle
  4. Roald Dahl // Snooker Cues, HB pencils, a Power Saw, Chocolates, and Red Wine
  5. Leonard Bernstein // Alice in Wonderland
  6. Ronnie Van Zant // Fishing Pole and Black Hat
  7. Bela Lugosi // A Dracula Cape
  8. Bob Marley // Red Gibson Les Paul Guitar and Weed
  9. Andy Warhol // Interview Magazines and Estée Lauder Perfume
  10. Elizabeth Taylor // Her Last Love Letter from Richard Burton

Frank Sinatra // A Flask of Jack Daniels

Frank Sinatra and then-wife Ava Gardner
Frank Sinatra and then-wife Ava Gardner / Hulton Archive/GettyImages

In life, Sinatra always drank two fingers of Jack on ice with a splash of water. After the entertainer’s death in 1998, Sinatra’s family thought it would be fitting to send Ol’ Blue Eyes off with a flask for the road. Rumor has that they also left him with a roll of dimes, just in case he wanted to make some phone calls from the great beyond.

Tony Curtis // An iPhone and Splenda

Tony Curtis and a few of his possessions.
Tony Curtis and a few of his possessions. / Dan Tuffs/GettyImages

Tony Curtis’s family may have had the same thought the Sinatra clan did. When the actor died in 2010, he was buried with his iPhone, a Stetson hat, driving gloves, seven packets of Splenda, a single dose of Percocet, and much more.

Humphrey Bogart // A Golden Whistle

In her movie debut in To Have and Have Not (1944), Lauren Bacall told Humphrey Bogart, “You know how to whistle, don’t you, Steve? You just put your lips together and ... blow.” Sometime during their fabled love affair and marriage, Bogie gave Bacall a golden whistle charm to honor the meeting. When he died in 1957, the charm was buried with his ashes. Bacall had it engraved with the phrase, “If you want anything, just whistle.”

Roald Dahl // Snooker Cues, HB pencils, a Power Saw, Chocolates, and Red Wine

Roald Dahl and his preferred pencil.
Roald Dahl and his preferred pencil. / Ronald Dumont/GettyImages

When the author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory passed away in 1990, his family made sure that he took all of his favorite things with him. That included his favorite HB pencils, the instruments used to write nearly all of his works.

Leonard Bernstein // Alice in Wonderland

In addition to his baton and the score of Mahler’s Fifth Symphony, Leonard Bernstein was buried in Brooklyn’s Green-Wood Cemetery with a copy of the book he always took with him on his travels—Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

Ronnie Van Zant // Fishing Pole and Black Hat

After a tragic plane crash claimed the life of Van Zant and Steve Gaines of Lynyrd Skynyrd, Van Zant was laid to rest wearing his trademark Texas Hatters hat, with his favorite fishing pole at his side.

Bela Lugosi // A Dracula Cape

Bela Lugosi in his signature cape.
Bela Lugosi in his signature cape. / United Archives/GettyImages

The key phrase here is a Dracula cape, not the Dracula cape. Before his death in 1956, Lugosi gave his famous cape to his wife and asked her to keep it for their son. The family decided that Lugosi had to be buried in his trademark costume, though, and sent him off wearing a lightweight version of the cape that he wore for personal appearances. The “real” cape failed to sell when it was put on the auction block in 2011. The actor’s son and granddaughter eventually donated it to the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures.

Bob Marley // Red Gibson Les Paul Guitar and Weed

Though there seems to be some dispute as to what kind of guitar Marley was buried with, this first-hand account says it was a red Les Paul. The same account says Marley’s widow Rita tucked “a stalk of ganja” in with him before the casket was closed.

Andy Warhol // Interview Magazines and Estée Lauder Perfume

Andy Warhol.
Andy Warhol. / Powell/GettyImages

Warhol’s items weren’t exactly sanctioned by the family. Instead, as his casket was being lowered into the ground, his longtime friend Paige Powell ran forward and tossed some of Andy’s magazines and a bottle of Estée Lauder’s Beautiful perfume into the hole. Though the significance of the perfume is not known, Warhol liked to wear fragrances for three months, and then “catalog” them to remember certain periods in his life by the scent.

Elizabeth Taylor // Her Last Love Letter from Richard Burton

Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor.
Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor. / Hulton Archive/GettyImages

Although Taylor and Burton’s love affairs were highly publicized and their love letters quoted in various biographies, this was one she kept to herself. Written three days before Burton died in 1984, Taylor received the note when she arrived home from Burton’s funeral. She kept it by her bedside for the rest of her life and was buried with it at her request.

Read More About Celebrities:

manual

A version of this story was published in 2016; it has been updated for 2024.

Home / CELEBRITIES