Seeing Stars: Where the Movies Were Shot (on Location)
1985
To Live & Die
in L.A.
filming locations
The 1985 movie,
"To Live & Die in L.A.",
is one of the quintessential Los Angeles films, shot almost entirely
in the L.A. area, with dozens of different filming locations around the
southland, from the L.A. River to the San Pedro harbor.
However, one of the problems
with doing a locations report on a 1985 movie is that many of the filming
locations have disappeared in the intervening years.
[
Warning: Due to the gritty nature of the movie, many
of the filming locations are
located in potentially dangerous parts of L.A. Exercise reasonable
caution. ]
The movie opens
with a shot of the Presidential motorcade,
as it heads towards the hotel where the President will stay in Los
Angeles.
The motorcade
is seen driving west (southwest) on Santa Monica Blvd;
as they pass Century Park East
and the towers of Century City on
their left side.
( Ironically, driving west would actually take them AWAY
from the Presidential hotel... )
They wind up
at the hotel where
the President is staying, and where our hero, Secret Service agent 'Richard Chance'
(William Petersen),
does his job of protecting him.
This hotel is actually Merv Griffin's Beverly Hilton
Hotel, located at the corner of Wilshire
and Santa Monica Blvd, at 9876 Wilshire Blvd,
in Beverly Hills.
The motorcade turns down (what is now) Merv Griffin
Way and winds up at the hotel's circular
entrance way (which has changed a bit over the years).
Chance finds
a terrorist in the hotel and corners him on the roof, where the terrorist
blows himself up.
That scene was
actually shot on the roof of
(the main building of) the Beverly Hilton
(the southeast side of that roof, to be exact).
(If you look
closely at the background, you can see the steeple of the Mormon Temple
in the distance).
The green bridge
that Chance jumps off of is actually the
Vincent Thomas Bridge
in San Pedro.
The bridge links
the mainland of the Los Angeles Harbor with Terminal Island.
( Quite a few
of the scenes in "To Live & Die in L.A." were shot down near
the L.A. harbor docks, in this general Wilmington / San Pedro area.)
( As
Chance bungee jumps, you can see behind him the S.S.
Princess Louise. Built in Canada as a
passenger ship, the Princess Louise was retired in 1964 and was transformed
into a popular floating restaurant, docked in the L.A. Harbor, across the
channel from Ports O'Call Village. Unfortunately, she sunk around 1990.
)
At Rick Masters
house, we see Masters set a painting canvas
afire and watch it burn.
The house in this scene is located near the border of Santa Monica,
Pacific Palisades & Brentwood, at 757 Kingman Ave,
in Santa Monica.
(Thanks, Aaron!)
[ Warning: This
is a private home. Do not trespass on their property,
knock on their door, or do anything else that might disturb the residents.
]
It turns out this house has a real-life Hollywood history of its own.
It was built in 1930 as a home for early screen legend Dolores Del Rio and
her husband, Cedric Gibbons (who won 11 Oscars for art direction at MGM).
(Thanks, Pascal!)
The Longshoreman
bar, where Chance gives his partner a
fishing rod as a retirement present, was actually Utro's Cafe,
which, in 1985, was originally located (on Beacon Street?) in San Pedro.
But the original location was torn down, and the Cafe relocated.
It is now located in the parking lot of
Ports O'Call Village, in San Pedro.
The desert
warehouse, where Chance's partner, Jim
Hart, goes snooping around and is murdered by Masters' men after he discovers
counterfeit money thrown away in the trash bin behind the warehouse.
It is located
at 40038 170th Street E,
in the desert community of Palmdale,
about half a mile north of Lake Los Angeles. That's about 80
miles northeast of downtown Los Angeles.
It appears to
be (or have been) a feed store called “Hitching Post Feed & Pet Supplies”.
170th is the
street towards which the cars head away at the end of the scene (see the
photo below).
But the best
view is seen looking west from 171st Street, just south of Glenfall Ave.
Here
is a good Google StreetView of the building and the familiar rock formations
behind it, seen from that spot.
The area, which
looked completely undeveloped back when the movie was filmed in 1985, has
filled in a lot in the intervening decades. There are homes now on
the other side of 170th. But as of 2009, the barn-like building itself
is still very recognizable (although they appear to have added a porch
to the north side).
( Major congratulations
to Chas Demster
for tracking down this particularly obscure location. Thanks, Chas!
)
We then get
to see Chance and his new partner at his house
on the beach, talking about how Masters
killed his original partner and how Chance is out for revenge.
The condo is actually located right on the beach, at 22664 Pacific
Coast Highway, in Malibu,about 760 yards east of the Malibu
Pier.
[ Warning:
This is a private home. Do not trespass on their property,
knock on their door, or do anything else that might disturb the residents.
]
The airport
scenes, where Chance spots a counterfeiter
passing bad bills at the counter, chases him down, and corners him in a
restroom, were shot at LAX (Los
Angeles International Airport).
The church,
where the cops staked out Waxman's law office across the street (for surveillance
purposes) is actually the First Congregational Church,
at 464 E. Walnut Street,
in Pasadena,
CA. (The door in the photo above is located on the west side of the church,
and faces N. Los Robles Avenue.)
Waxman's law
office, which was across the street, is gone now, replaced by the Westin Pasadena
Hotel, part of the larger Plaza las Fuentes, which was built
in 1989 (four years after the movie was filmed).
(The ARCO service station,
seen in the scene to the left (north) of the church, is still there.)
On the way to
Ruth's house, we see Chance driving along a curving road at dusk. On his
right side are two places with big signs reading "BAIT" and "BAIL".
On the left side is the harbor. This was shot on the Wilmington/San
Pedro border, down by the docks of L.A.
Harbor. The bend in the street is where John S. Gibson
Blvd is renamed N. Pacific Avenue,
They are driving southeast as they take that turn, and are headed towards
the Vincent Thomas Bridge. *
Ruth's (Darlanne
Fluegel) hilltop house was located atop
the small but steep Knoll Hill,
in San Pedro,
just west of the Vincent Thomas Bridge (you can see the bridge in the background
as Chance walks to the door).
To reach the house, Chance turns up the steep Knoll Hill Street,
then turns left on Center Street at the top of the hill, and appears
to end up at the east dead-end of Viewland Place.
Alas, most of the homes that used to stand atop this small hill are now
gone, including the one where they filmed these scenes. But the view of
the bridge and harbor below remains the same.
( My best guess is that the home was the duplex that used to stand at 255 Viewland Place,
in San Pedro, now the right field of a brand new baseball diamond
on the south side of what was that Viewland dead end - the middle of three
such diamonds up there. The dead end no longer exists. With the addition
of the new park, Viewland east now ends at Center St. )
