Make your way down the right side road in northern Los Angeles County, and you just might find a lion. But he’s not in a zoo, or in any kind of wildlife preserve. He’s lovingly interred at Los Angeles Pet Cemetery, a nearly century-old landmark in Calabasas, where some of the city’s most overlooked Hollywood history is preserved today.
Take, for example, the headstone of Tawny the lion. “With malice toward none, he bore the adversities of his life with mankind,” the engraving reads. “Gentle, lifelong protector of his adored tomcat pal, who sleeps beside him here. Beloved, always faithful companion of Mary McMillan who reared them together with loving kindness.”
People might not know his name, but they’ve seen Tawny before, likely in their own homes. He was one of the earliest MGM lions, providing the face of the production studio (but not the roar, which was actually dubbed in from a tiger).
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That very famous lion still brings in fans, including (ahem) one particular journalist who’s extremely invested in finding largely unknown bits of old Hollywood history. Stacy Tanner, longtime manager of the cemetery, is used to types like me. She sees people come in all the time looking for Tawny’s final resting place. “It’s so cute,” she told SFGATE via phone. “Somebody just left him flowers.”
A general view of the Los Angeles Pet Cemetery in Calabasas, Calif., on April 10, 2026.
Jessie Alcheh/SFGATE
The tombstone of Tawny the lion in the Los Angeles Pet Cemetery in Calabasas, Calif., on April 10, 2026.
Jessie Alcheh/SFGATE
The cemetery was founded in 1929 by Dr. Eugene Jones, a “veterinarian to the stars,” as Tanner described, and among the earliest vets to use X-rays for animals. “He got the idea that there’s burials for humans, but not the same dignified sendoffs for animals.”
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The cemetery has been a curiosity since it opened, drawing newspaper coverage from the very start. “This animal necropolis was founded nine years ago to satisfy the demands of animal lovers who resented having to send dead pets to a rendering plant for disposal,” the Turlock Journal wrote in 1936. “The Health Department of Los Angeles left no alternative, however. The ordinance covering the disposal of dead pets prohibits the burying of any dead animal within the corporate city limits, even on private property.”
“I mean, let’s be honest, it’s Hollywood,” she added. “People are going to do that.” And they did. In the cemetery’s earliest days, it attracted major celebrities — not just pet owners but famous animal actors themselves. In addition to Tawny, there are many other celebrities from the animal kingdom. Topper, the horse who belonged to Hopalong Cassidy, is buried there, as is Sonny, who played Tonto’s horse in the original “Lone Ranger” series.
In the early days of Hollywood tabloid gossip, pets of the stars got major press attention. For years, the Los Angeles Citizen News published pet obituaries, with a nearby advertisement for the cemetery. On Oct. 7, 1936, the paper reported that Carole Lombard’s dog Brownie, an 8-year-old Dachshund, had died. (Also in the pet coverage section: stories about notable LA pet lovers, winners of art and canine food contests, and a directory of breeders. “Hobbies keep a man fit,” an ad read. “Dogs are an excellent hobby. Look in the Puppy Directory.”)
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So the cemetery became famous not just for its animal actors but also for the stars who chose it as the final resting place of their beloved pets. Stars such as Lauren Bacall, Gloria Swanson, John Barrymore and Lon Chaney all interred pets there. Mae West buried her pet monkey, Boogie, at the cemetery. Charlie Chaplin laid an Airedale terrier named Teddy to rest there. “He was the ambassador to Chaplin Studios,” Tanner said, “so he was like everybody’s dog.”
A headstone and bench in the Los Angeles Pet Cemetery in Calabasas, Calif., on April 10, 2026.
Jessie Alcheh/SFGATE
The grave of Topper in the Los Angeles Pet Cemetery in Calabasas, Calif., on April 10, 2026.
Jessie Alcheh/SFGATE
Two of Alfred Hitchcock’s Sealyham terriers, Geoffrey and Stanley, are buried at the cemetery in unmarked graves. Even though you can’t find their headstones, you’ve likely seen the pets before; Hitchcock’s cameo in “The Birds” features him leaving a pet store, walking those two pups.
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Today, if you visit, you can stop in the office and ask to see a map of the interred stars. Tanner spent two years researching the older graves and learning about their histories. She unearthed information that would otherwise have been lost to time, such as the fact that the cemetery holds the remains of Jiggs, the chimpanzee who played Cheeta in the 1930s “Tarzan” movies. He died in 1938.
Today, many of the notable graves are marked with tall yellow flowers to make them easier for curious visitors to find. Like Hitchcock’s and West’s pets, many of the animals with old Hollywood ties are no longer marked with stones. Tanner suspects that Boogie’s headstone was stolen by a fan. Hitchcock chose to keep his dogs’ locations secret out of concern for that very thing.
“The best we can figure is that some fan probably lifted it,” she said. “I do have his plot marked with yellow flowers plus a little bit of swag because, come on, it’s Mae West. So he gets something a little bit more frilly and kind of ‘out there’ like she would have.”
Tanner does the same for other old celebrity pets, like Swanson’s poodle Rusty. “I’ve kind of adopted Rusty’s grave, even though he doesn’t have a headstone,” she said. “I always give him seasonal flowers.”
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A dog statue in the Los Angeles Pet Cemetery in Calabasas, Calif., on April 10, 2026.
Jessie Alcheh/SFGATE
A general view of the Los Angeles Pet Cemetery in Calabasas, Calif., on April 10, 2026.
Jessie Alcheh/SFGATE
Another of the cemetery’s most famous pets is Kabar Valentino, a Doberman pinscher who was the faithful companion of Rudolph Valentino. Valentino died in 1926 in New York, and his body was transported back to Los Angeles and is now buried at Hollywood Forever Cemetery. According to legend, Kabar, who was left behind on the East Coast, resurfaced three years later in Los Angeles, exhausted and starving and in desperate search of his owner. The pup died in 1929 and was buried by Valentino’s brother. “His story is very legendary,” Tanner cautioned. “I don’t know how true it is.”
On the anniversary of Rudolph Valentino’s death, for years and years, a fan would leave white roses on his grave. For many of those years, white roses would appear on Kabar’s gravesite, too. “After a few years, those stopped,” Tanner explained. “I imagine that whoever it was probably passed away, but I’ve kind of kept up [the tradition] in honor of her and her tenacity.” Kabar’s grave gets a little bouquet of white roses in addition to yellow flowers.
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The star power of the place hasn’t changed with time: More modern celebrities like Steven Spielberg, Bob Newhart, Tori Spelling and William Shatner all have four-legged family at the cemetery. According to a 1973 article in the Pennsylvania Leader Times, Diana Ross buried a dog and cat at the property after they were poisoned in her Las Vegas hotel room.
Famous animals still find their way there. Emily the Beagle, the “famous driving beagle” from CBS’ “Inside Edition,” died in 2024 and now rests in the shade of an old oak tree. Burials start at about $1,600 for the smallest dogs and go up from there, and contemporary high-profile burials may even be protected by nondisclosure agreements.
The headstone of Room 8 in the Los Angeles Pet Cemetery in Calabasas, Calif., on April 10, 2026.
Jessie Alcheh/SFGATE
The tombstones of Hoover Dean and Emily the Beagle in the Los Angeles Pet Cemetery in Calabasas, Calif., on April 10, 2026.
Jessie Alcheh/SFGATE
Another of the celebrity animals people often visit is Room 8, a stray cat who found his way into Echo Park’s Elysian Heights Elementary School in 1951, only to become the school’s unofficial mascot and beloved LA legend until his death in 1968.
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“He’s probably even more famous than Tawny,” Tanner said. “… People come all the time, grandchildren of the kids who attended Elysian Heights Elementary School.”
Visit the cemetery today, and you’ll quickly learn that it isn’t just a historic landmark or a curiosity for fans of old Hollywood. It’s an active burial ground, a place where the grieving say their last goodbyes to members of their families.
“To be able to prepare these pets that these people have loved so much and make them look like they’re so peaceful, they’re resting, they smell good,” Tanner explained, “and to hear their reactions when I bring them into the viewing room … it just makes everything worth it because that part has given them a peaceful closure to a horrible time.”
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To her knowledge, it’s one of the only pet cemeteries in California still accepting burials, if not the only one.
“It’s really a unique, super special place,” Tanner said. She’s a lifelong pet owner, too; today she has a horse, a “giant” bichon frise dog and four guinea pigs. “You look at our newer sections, and all the flowers and spinners and memorial items out there — you drive by a human cemetery, and you don’t see that,” she added. “It’s amazing that there’s a lot of sadness here, but also so much love. The energy here is just so benevolent.”
Flowers and decor in the Los Angeles Pet Cemetery in Calabasas, Calif., on April 10, 2026.
Jessie Alcheh/SFGATE