| Interment Location | Visited | |
|---|---|---|
| Los Angeles, CA | April 4, 2023 |
“The world will remember,” says Eve Arden’s grave marker at Westwood Village Memorial Park in Los Angeles. She spent her life as a wife, a mother, and an author, on top of decades as an actress. Her best known role is high school English teacher Connie Brooks in the multi-media franchise Our Miss Brooks, which from 1948 to 1957 reached audiences via the radio, television, and a theatrical film. In February 1954, Arden’s portrayal netted her the first ever Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series (then called Best Female Star of a Regular Series).
Apart from her starring role on Our Miss Brooks, Arden made guest appearances and cameos on popular TV programs such as I Love Lucy, My Three Sons, Bewitched, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In, Maude, and The Love Boat. On the big screen, her credits include Ida Corwin in 1945’s Mildred Pierce, for which she received an Oscar nomination. Arden also acted in the 1939 Marx Brothers vehicle At the Circus and Otto Preminger’s Anatomy of a Murder. Her final film role was in 1982’s Grease 2. She reprised the character she played in the initial 1978 musical, Principal McGee of Rydell High School.
Arden is buried with her second husband, actor Brooks West, whose flush marker is positioned above the Emmy winner’s. Below Arden is Academy Award-winning producer Harold Hecht. Businessman Oscar Lerman was once buried to the left of Arden, but his remains were exhumed and placed in a crypt with those of his widow, writer Jackie Collins.
Fast Facts
Born: April 30, 1908 in Mill Valley, California
Spouses: Edward Grinnell Bergen (m. 1939-1947); Brooks West (m. 1952-1984)
Emmy Award: Best Female Star of a Regular Series (1954)
Died: November 12, 1990 in Beverly Hills, California
Cause of Death: Arteriosclerotic Heart Disease; Cardiac Arrest
Age: 82
Interment: Westwood Village Memorial Park, Westwood Village, Los Angeles, California
"I backed into the thing. Before this I'd been in radio shows but all I did was read gag lines. When CBS first approached me about this idea I told them to go away."
- Eve Arden
1949, on her initial refusal to accept the role of Connie Brooks on the radio program Our Miss Brooks
Sources Consulted and Further Reading
Adams, Val. “SHE LIKES SCHOOL: Eve Arden Enjoys Role She Did Not Want.” New York Times. September 4, 1949. https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1949/09/04/93327010.html?pageNumber=51.
IMDb. “Eve Arden (1908-1990).” Accessed July 29, 2023. https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000781/.
Krebs, Albin. “Eve Arden, Actress, Is Dead at 83; Starred in TV’s ‘Our Miss Brooks.'” New York Times. November 13, 1990. https://www.nytimes.com/1990/11/13/obituaries/eve-arden-actress-is-dead-at-83-starred-in-tv-s-our-miss-brooks.html.
