Ben Finney, a close friend of La Marr, contested the claims of drug use, stating: "It is inconceivable that during our close friendship I would not have known if she were a junkie," adding, "She did well enough with booze." Death On January 30, 1926, La Marr died of complications associated with tuberculosis and nephritis at her parents' home in Altadena, California, at the age of 29. Her friend, film director Paul Bern, was with her when she died. La Marr's son later speculated that Bern may have been his biological father, though this eventually was disproved; Bern died in a mysterious shooting six years later. La Marr's funeral at the Walter C. Blue Undertaking Chapel in Los Angeles attracted over 3,000 fans, and five women reportedly fainted in the crowd and had to be removed by police to safety. After her removal from the church during the funeral procession, hundreds of fans flooded the chapel hoping to obtain flowers from the decorative arrangements. She was interred in a crypt at Hollywood Cathedral Mausoleum, in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. For her contribution to the motion picture industry, La Marr has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1621 Vine Street. In popular culture Producer Louis B. Mayer named actress Hedy Lamarr after La Marr on behalf of his wife, a longtime admirer of La Marr. She is also referred to in the popular 1932 Flanagan and Allen song "Underneath the Arches" during a break in which Ches Allen reads the headlines from a 1926 newspaper. Children's author Edward Eager set an episode of his 1954 book Half Magic at a showing of La Marr's Sandra and includes ironic descriptions of the movie. Filmography See also List of actors with Hollywood Walk of Fame motion picture stars Notes References Works cited Further reading Sherri Snyder (2017). Barbara La Marr: The Girl Who Was Too Beautiful for Hollywood. University Press of Kentucky. External links Barbara La Marr at Virtual History funeral of Barbara LaMarr(archived) 1896 births 1926 deaths 20th-century American actresses Actresses from Washington (state) Actresses from Portland, Oregon American child actresses American film actresses American people of English descent American people of German descent American silent film actresses American stage actresses American women screenwriters American burlesque performers Burials at Hollywood Forever Cemetery Deaths from nephritis 20th-century deaths from tuberculosis Tuberculosis deaths in California People from Yakima, Washington Vaudeville performers