Erik Rhodes - El Reno Cemetery - El Reno, OK
Posted by: Max and 99
N 35° 31.277 W 097° 56.252
14S E 596335 N 3931372
Actor who appeared in two films with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers: The Gay Divorcee and Top Hat
Waymark Code: WMFH0G
Location: Oklahoma, United States
Date Posted: 10/19/2012
Views: 2
The final resting place of actor Erik Rhodes is at the far northeast corner of El Reno Cemetery, at the northeast corner of section 14. He has a flat marker with only his name and years of birth/death, as well as a family marker with the name Rhodes.
Text on headstone:
Erik Rhodes
1906 - 1990
Biography from wikipedia
(
visit link) :
Born Ernest Sharpe at El Reno, Indian Territory, now Oklahoma, USA, Rhodes started performing on the Broadway stage in A Most Immoral Lady (1928) using his birth name Ernest Sharpe. This was followed by two musicals The Little Show (1929) and Hey Nonny Nonny! (1932).
He first used the name Erik Rhodes when he appeared on Broadway in Gay Divorce (1932) and again in London in 1933. In this show, he gave a memorable comic portrayal of a spirited, feather-brained, thick-accented Italian character that impressed RKO executives enough to bring him to Hollywood to reprise the role in the film version, The Gay Divorcee (1934).
His last film in the pre-war years was On Your Toes (1939). By the end of the war, he was very socially active in New York City often seen with Baron Nicolas de Gunzburg, his onetime companion, and the Nordstrom Sisters at popular watering holes such as the Stork Club and 21 Club.
Between 1947 and 1964, he was back on Broadway in The Great Campaign, Dance Me a Song, Collector's Item, Shinbone Alley, Jamaica, How to Make a Man, and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. In Can-Can, as a lecherous art critic, he introduced the Cole Porter classic Come Along With Me .
He married his wife Emala in 1972 and they lived in New York City until the early 1980s.[citation needed] He died of pneumonia in Oklahoma City at age 84 and is interred with his wife in the El Reno Cemetery in El Reno, Oklahoma.