All the Best… Funeral requests by famous people.

What famous people have said about their funeral wishes.

Lots of famous people have spoken candidly about what they’d like at their funerals.  Some of their requests speak volumes about their personalities and their own senses of humour. It’s well-known that Spike Milligan had once quipped that he wanted his headstone to bear the words: “I told you I was ill.” In actual fact it doesn’t.  Not in English anyway. The Chichester diocese refused to allow this epitaph as they didn’t feel it was in the best of taste.  The stone does however bear the inscription translated into in Gaelic – “Dúirt mé leat go mé breoite”, as a compromise, with an additional motto in English, “Love, light, peace”.

In 1980, during the funeral of fellow Goon Peter Sellers, Milligan joked with Harry Secombe (well-known for his rather fruity tenor voice), “I’m hoping you die before I do; I don’t want to have you singing at my funeral.” When it came to it, however, Milligan, who outlived Secombe, did have a recording of his old friend’s dulcet tones played at his memorial service.  

The uncle of the late Duke of Edinburgh and last Viceroy of India, Lord Mountbatten, once said, “I can’t think of a more wonderful thanksgiving for the life I have had than that everyone should be jolly at my funeral,” expressing a desire for joy rather than sorrow at his death.

In similar vein, beloved comedian Victoria Wood pre-planned a funeral that was private but filled with humour and celebration, reflecting her own comedic legacy. Attendees, including her close friend and comedy partner, Julie Walters, remarked on the strong element of laughter during the service, as she had wished.

Her funeral was conducted by a humanist celebrant at Golders Green Crematorium on 4^th May 2016.  

The punk impresario’s funeral featured a personalized coffin sprayed with the slogan “Too Fast To Live Too Young To Die”.  McLaren’s funeral was attended by Vivienne Westwood, Sex Pistols bandmates Paul Cook and Glen Matlock, and celebrities such as Bob Geldof, Tracey Emin and Adam Ant. The funeral was held at One Marylebone, a deconsecrated church in central London. His body was buried in Highgate Cemetery, North London, to the strains of the Sid Vicious version of ‘My Way’.

The legendary American author and journalist, famous for writing ‘Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas’, requested that his ashes be fired from a cannon into the air. On 20^th August 2005, in a private funeral, this dramatic gesture was actually carried out.  Thompson’s ashes were fired from a cannon, accompanied by red, white, blue, and green fireworks, and to the tune of Norman Greenbaum’s ‘Spirit in the Sky’ and Bob Dylan’s ‘Mr Tambourine Man’.  This, some might say egotistical display, epitomizing his larger-than-life approach to both living and dying.

The self-titled ‘Greatest’ heavy-weight boxer of the world, Muhummad Ali, had planned his own funeral meticulously for several years before his death.  He and other members of his family and friends started to imagine his send-off as a response to his being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 1984.  He wanted it to be a vibrant, inclusive celebration, aimed at bringing people together. 

When it came to it in June 2016, the two-day event began with an Islamic Janazah prayer service at Freedom Hall in Louisville.  The funeral procession then passed through the city streets ending at Cave Hill Cemetery, where his body was interred during a private ceremony. While this was happening, a public memorial service for Ali was taking place at the KFC Yum! Centre, at which Billy Crystal, his wife Lonnie Ali, sports journalist Bryant Gumbel and former President Bill Clinton all gave the eulogies.  The pallbearers included Will Smith, Lennox Lewis and Mike Tyson, with honorary pallbearers including George Chuvalo, Larry Holmes and George Foreman.  Ali’s wish had been for his funeral to reflect the exuberance and unity he valued in life.  The memorial service was watched by an estimated 1 billion viewers worldwide.

In tribute, Bob Dylan said of Muhummad Ali

“If the measure of greatness is to gladden the heart of every human being on the face of the earth, then he truly was the greatest. In every way he was the bravest, the kindest and the most excellent of men”.

In stark contrast to this and indeed to his own flamboyant stage persona, the famous rock musician David Bowie requested a private, no-frills funeral. After his death, he was cremated in a ceremony attended only by close family and friends, with his ashes scattered privately in a Buddhist ceremony in Bali. Bowie’s understated farewell was exactly as he had planned.

Lemmy’s memorial service took place at on 9^th January 2016 in Hollywood Hills and was streamed live over YouTube with more than 230,000 people logging on to watch, while others gathered at the Rainbow. His body was cremated following the funeral and his remains were placed in a 3D-printed urn shaped like his trademark cavalry hat and emblazoned with the slogan “Born to lose, lived to win”.  The urn was on display during his funeral and was afterwards interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park. However, it appears that not all the ashes were interred.  It was later revealed that some were, at Lemmy’s own request, put into bullets and sent to his closest friends, including Whitfield Crane of the rock band Ugly Kid Joe, Rob Halford of Judas Priest, and the American TV and radio personality, Riki Rachtman.  It was also reported in 2023 that some of Lemmy’s ashes were scattered into the mud at Wacken Open Air music festival in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany where Lemmy and  Motörhead had first played in 1997 and considered very much a second home.

Another famous interred resident of Forest Lawn–Hollywood Hills Cemetery is the famous comedian and film actor, Stan Laurel. In February 1965, he was sat in his apartment a few days after having had a heart attack. He told the nurse tending him that he’d rather be out skiing.  She replied that she wasn’t aware he was a skier. “I’m not,” said Laurel, “but I’d rather be doing that than getting all these needles stuck in me!” A few minutes later he died quietly in his armchair.

At his funeral service, his fellow silent-movie colleague, Buster Keaton said of Stan Laurel, “Chaplin wasn’t the funniest. I wasn’t the funniest; this man was the funniest.” 

Before his death Laurel had quipped, “If anyone at my funeral has a long face, I’ll never speak to him again.”  

Dick Van Dyke gave the eulogy as a friend, protégé and occasional impressionist of Laurel during his later years; he read The Clown’s Prayer.