Haunted Hollywood

Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel

The Hollywood Boulevard hotel is chockablock filled with paranormal activities, including manifestations of Marilyn Monroe and Montgomery Clift. Back in the early 1950s, Clift stayed in Room 928 while he was filming the classic “From Here to Eternity.” His ghost has been seen pacing the floor’s hallway and people have heard him practicing the bugle — the instrument his character played. And there have been many cold spots in his room and people have felt taps on their shoulders while they were lying down on the bed. Monroe’s face has been known to appear in the mirror that was in Suite 1200 and Carole Lombard’s ghost has been spotted on the 12th floor where she and Clark Gable used to stay. Plenty of cold spots have been felt in the Blossom Room, the site of the first Academy Awards eight decades ago. Among the non-star ghosts is a little girl who calls herself Caroline who has been spotted in the lobby.  (Lori Shepler / Los Angeles Times)

Culver Studios

For years, the ghost of the studio’s founder, Thomas Ince, has been seen roaming the facilities he founded in 1918. An apparition who resembles Ince has been spotted in the main administration building heading to the executive screening room, which had been his own private screening room. He’s also been known to verbally criticize the studio’s various owners. Ince died under mysterious circumstances on William Randolph Hearst’s yacht in 1924. Other spirits have been witnessed roaming the studios, including that of a woman.  (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)

The Pantages Theater

The legit Hollywood theater, currently home to the musical “Wicked,” began its life as a lavish movie palace in 1930. And one of its oldest ghosts has been in the theater since 1932 — a female patron who died in the mezzanine during the screening of a musical. She can be heard singing when the theater is dark and during a live performance of a musical in 1994 her trilling was actually picked up by a microphone. Supposedly, she always wanted to be a singer. Howard Hughes, who bought the theater in 1949, supposedly haunts the second-floor offices. Among the other spirits who haunt the theater include Alexander Pantages, the man after whom the theater is named.  (Lori Shepler / Los Angeles Times)

Rudolph Valentino

Where doesn’t cinema’s famed “Latin Lover” haunt? Valentino, who died tragically at the age of 31 in 1926, is one restless spirit. His famous Beverly Hills manse on Bella Drive, Falcon’s Lair, left, is said to be a favorite haunt of Valentino, with his ghost often popping up in his bedroom, as well as in the stable with horses. The beach house that he stayed in in Oxnard while making 1921’s “The Sheik” has also had its share of Rudy sightings, with people believing a dark “phantom” character to be the late heartthrob. Visitors at Room 210 at the Santa Maria Inn in Santa Maria — which was one of his frequent getaway locales — have been awakened by literally things that go bump in the night — knocking sounds as well as a feeling of someone on the bed. Even Rudy’s beloved Doberman pinscher/Great Dane Kabur, who died just six months after his master’s death, is a ghost. He supposedly licks visitors near his grave at the Los Angeles Pet Cemetery.

And speaking of cemeteries, Rudy is also known to haunt his final resting place, the Hollywood Forever cemetery. He’s not alone. Clifton Webb, Virginia Rappe -- the woman who died after having sex with Fatty Arbuckle -- and William Randolph Hearst are among those who have also been seen at the cemetery.  (Mark Harmel / HGTV and Unknown photographer / Kino Video)

The Silent Movie Theatre

The vintage movie theater is haunted by the first owner, James Hampton, who opened it in 1942 and died in 1990. He’s been known to frequent the theater’s upstairs lounge, which was his apartment for several decades, as well as the projection booth. The theater’s second owner, Lawrence Austin, who reopened the place in 1991, was murdered in the lobby on Jan. 17, 1997, during the screening of the comedy short starring Larry Semon. Austin has been known to appear in the lobby.  (Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times)

Graumann’s Chinese Theater

The 81-year-old movie palace has more than its share of things that go bump in the night, like the stagehand who hanged himself backstage years ago, and Annabelle, a little girl who wanders around behind the curtains. Employees and guests have heard strange noises, felt cold spots and even had the feeling they were being watched.

The outer courtyard where the cement footprints of the rich and famous are on display even has its own ghost, actor Victor Kilian, who was murdered at his apartment about a block away from the theater in 1982. He’s been seen in front of the Chinese, looking for the murderer who has never been caught.  (Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)

Paramount Studios

Right next door to Hollywood Forever, the vintage studio is one of the most haunted in Hollywood. Needless to say, Rudolph Valentino likes to drop by every once and a while in the costume department. The sound stages closest to the cemetery are Nos. 29-32, with the most spirit activity on Stages 31-32. In fact, Redd Foxx had a heart attack and died on No. 31 during production of “The Royal Family,” and people have heard him laughing. In the Hart Building, named after William S. Hart, people have reported being pushed and shoved by invisible entities and have expressed the feeling they were being watched. Supposedly, an apparition paces the catwalk on Stage 5. And the ghost of young actress Heather O’Rourke of “Poltergeist” fame supposedly has been seen on the stage where she shot “Happy Days” before her untimely demise at age 12.  (Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times)

The Hollywood Sign

On Sept. 18, 1932, a struggling actress named Peg Entwistle, depressed that she couldn’t get her big break, used a ladder and climbed 50 feet to the top of the “H” in the Hollywood sign and jumped to her death. Ever since, people have seen the ghost of a young woman jumping off the sign.  (Don Ryan / Associated Press)