Melvin Franklin

AKA:
Blue
Birth Name:
David Melvin English
Birth Date:
October 12, 1942
Birth Place:
Montgomery, Alabama
Death Date:
February 23, 1995
Place of Death:
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, California
Age:
52
Cause of Death:
Multiple health issues including rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes, necrotizing fasciitis, seizures and heart failure
Cemetery Name:
Forest Lawn Memorial Park – Hollywood Hills
Claim to Fame:
Music
Associates:
It has been over five decades since The Temptations were first founded and in that time there have been 22 different members of the group, but it is the ‘Classic Five’ (and the post-Classic Five, Dennis Edwards) line-up that most fans consider the best. Central to that line-up was the incredible bass voice of Melvin Franklin, dubbed by the group and by their fans as ‘the world’s greatest bass singer’.

Fun Fact

If you haven’t seen the 4-hour long Temptation movie/docu-series (which is fantastic, by the way) there’s a few things you should know which is true and which is fiction:

  • towards the end of his life, Melvin was confined to a wheel chair and only stood for concert performances due to his sever rheumatoid arthritis
  • Melvin did not die in his mother’s kitchen in Detroit but rather died in a coma in a hospital in Los Angeles
  • Melvin wasn’t buried on a hillside in a tree-lined graveyard but rather the stark, soulless Forest Lawn cemetery in Hollywood Hills in a wall unit just around the corner from Lemmy and Ronnie James Dio
  • The producers of the drama filmed most of the scenes in Philadelphia, not Detroit

Cemetery Information:

Final Resting Place:

Forest Lawn Memorial Park – Hollywood Hills

6300 Forest Lawn Drive

Los Angeles, California, 90068

USA

North America

Map:

Map of Forest Lawn Memorial Cemetery in Hollywood Hills
Map of Forest Lawn Memorial Cemetery in Hollywood Hills

Grave Location:

Courts of Remembrance, C-3571

Grave Location Description

As you enter the cemetery turn left and head for the large outdoor mausoleum. From the front walk along the right on the outside of mausoleum past Lou Rawls and Andy Gibb and keep going until you find David English.

Grave Location GPS

34.149189, -118.320236

Photos:

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Read More About Melvin Franklin:

Videos Featuring Melvin Franklin:
The Temptations - Ol' Man River Live
The Temptations - My Girl
Jordan the Lion - Birmingham's Tribute to the Temptations
The Temptations "Just My Imagination" on The Ed Sullivan Show
Otis Williams Talks About Becoming Friends With Melvin Franklin

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claim_to_fame: Music

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age: 23

cause_of_death: Complications from uremia caused by kidney failure

claim_to_fame: Music

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popular name: Furry Lewis

date_of_death: September 14, 1981

age: 88

cause_of_death: Heart failure

claim_to_fame: Music

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