Ever wonder how Orson Welles or Walt Disney died?

How about exactly when they died and where the death took place?

If you could look at their death certificates, you'd know George Orson Welles died of a heart attack at his home in Los Angeles when he was 70. Walter Elias Disney was 65 when he died of a heart attack at a Los Angeles hospital.

In California and most states, with the exception of New York and Texas, death certificates are considered public documents.

For a few bucks and some research, you can discover a person's entire life story with a death certificate. That single piece of paper contains the birthplace, parents, education, length of career and what it was, residence, place, time and cause of death. The death certificate also tells what was done with the person's remains.

Mike Steen, a Fremont native who worked for 23 years as "Mortician to the Stars" at California funerals and burials, collects death certificates of famous people.

Currently, the cemetery superintendent for the city of Santa Monica has more than 600 copies of celebrity death certificates in his collection.

Out of those, Steen published "Celebrity Death Certificates" under the moniker M.F. Steen. The $39.95 book is published by McFarland & Company Inc.

"Celebrity Death Certificates" includes 170 death certificates of many of Hollywood's famous to infamous, ranging from Hollywood's silent move era, its golden era and some more recent stars. Some television stars made the book as well.

From Frank Zappa and Marilyn Monroe to Lou Costello and Cecil B. DeMille, Steen has captured a varied selection of many of America's most beloved, but deceased stars.

"I did a cross section that I thought would appeal to a broad range of people," Steen said. "People in general are fascinated by death when it's not in their family, and anything in Hollywood is just pure magic. Celebrities are fun because of their quirkiness."

Steen is in town this weekend, hoping that fascination people have with death can help keep a local cemetery in good repair.

From 10 a.m. to noon Saturday, Steen will sign and sell copies of his books at Memorial Cemetery, 800 W. 23rd St. Steen is donating the $39.95 books, so all of the money raised will go to the endowment care fund for the cemetery.

It's where my parents, two grandparents, an uncle and an aunt are buried and I want to see it kept as well as it is," he said. "As a cemetarian, I know none of us have enough money in our endowment funds."

While the event is only scheduled until noon, Steen said he thinks the cemetery wouldn't turn people away if there was still a line.

"I hope to see the place full so we can raise as much as we can," he said. "If we run out of books, I'll autograph them and send them out. No matter what, we'll have a good time."

While there are recent deaths included, he said old-time Hollywood buffs will find the book most interesting.

"If you're over 50, these are the people who kept you glued to the TV set and movie screen," he said. "I had an opportunity to meet a need and fill peo ple's curiosities — the certificates stand on their own merit."

Copyright © 2003 Fremont Tribune