Death
A week prior to the opening of the film Tabu, Murnau had driven up the coast from Los Angeles, California in a hired Rolls Royce.
The young and inexpert driver, who was a 14-year-old Philippine servant, crashed the car against an electric pole. Murnau hit his head and died in a hospital shortly afterwards, in nearby Santa Barbara, and therefore did not live to see the premiere of his last film.
Murnau was entombed in Southwest Cemetery in Stahnsdorf (Südwest-Kirchhof Stahnsdorf) near Berlin. Only 11 people attended the funeral. Among them were Robert Flaherty, Emil Jannings, Greta Garbo and Fritz Lang, who delivered the eulogy. Garbo also commissioned a death mask of Murnau, which she kept on her desk during her years in Hollywood.
Read more about this topic: F. W. Murnau
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