Paul Lynde

Birth Name:

Paul Edward Lynde

Birth Date:

June 13, 1926

Birth Place:

Mount Vernon, Ohio

Death Date:

January 10, 1982

Place of Death:

509 N Palm Drive, Beverly Hills, California

Age:

Cause of Death:

Heart attack

Cemetery Name:

Amity Cemetery

Claim to Fame:

Show Business

“I'll take Paul Lynde.” Not so long ago (actually a lifetime ago) if that sentence was uttered by a contestant on Hollywood Squares, lights would flash around the center cube in a grid of B-level celebrities and settle on a genuine star - Paul Lynde. He was tanned, rested and ready with a whinnying snigger (which he stole from actress Alice Ghostley) and bawdy, thinly veiled reference to his sexual orientation. Sadly his wealth and fame never made Lynde happy. He drifted from one relationship to another, often with paid escorts, and longed to be taken seriously as an actor. He died in his sleep of a heart attack at the age of 55 with, as the coroner reported, the heart of an 80-year-old.

And the rest of the story ….

As Hollywood Squares veterans Peter Marshall and Kaye Ballard confirm, Paul Lynde struggled with alcoholism and had numerous run-ins with the law, including frequent arrests for public intoxication. Fun began when he got wicked smashed, Paul became very cruel and would publicly ridicule his friends.

In July 1965, Lynde was involved in an incident in which a friend, another young actor, accidentally fell to his death from the window of their hotel room in San Francisco’s Sir Francis Drake Hotel. Lynde and 24-year-old James “Bing” Davidson had been drinking for hours when Davidson bragged that he could do a hundred chin-ups. Paul said he couldn’t do it, so Davidson set out to prove Lynde wrong and went out the window of their hotel room to do it on a fire escape, but he was drunk and he lost his grip and fell to his death.

Cemetery Information:

Final Resting Place:

Amity Cemetery

16650 Gilchrist Road. , Knox, Ohio, 43050

Mt. Vernon, Ohio, 43050

USA

North America

Grave Location Description

Paul Lynde’s grave is very close to the cemetery entrance, on the right side of the drive (about 4 rows up and 10 plots into the section). Look for the large, black “Deakins” monument and the Lynde Family monument is two rows in front and to the right (near the bench). He is buried beside his brother and sister with his parents buried in another area of the cemetery.