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Seeing Stars: the Schools of the Stars.

405 Hilgard Avenue,
Los Angeles, CA. / (310) 825-4321 or (310) 206-8147.
The beautiful campus
of the University of California at Los Angeles will probably look
familiar to you, even if you've never been there before. If you've seen
a Hollywood movie filmed on a college campus, there's a good chance that
it was shot on location at UCLA |
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The University's
film school is legendary. Actor James Dean
went to school here at U.C.L.A, and earned a degree. (He was thrown out
of the Sigma Nu fraternity house when he got into a fight.)
So did Jim
Morrison (lead singer of "The Doors"),
Jayne Mansfield
("The Girl Can't Help It"), director Francis Ford
Coppola ("The Godfather"),
comedienne Carol Burnett,
actor-director Tim Robbins
("The Player" & "Dead Man Walking"),
Elizabeth McGovern
("Ragtime"), Heather Locklear
("Spin City"), actor/director Rob
Reiner ("All In The Family"),
actors Robert Englund
('Freddy Krueger' from "Nightmare on Elm Street"), Lloyd Bridges
("Sea Hunt"), Beau
Bridges ("The Fabulous Baker
Boys"), Ally Sheedy
("The Breakfast Club"),
writer/director Paul Schrader ("Cat People"),
actor Doug McClure
("The Virginian") and John
Williams (conductor of the Boston Pops
and all those Steven Spielberg movies). And that's not to mention Los Angeles
mayor Tom Bradley... and your's truly.
Patrick Stewart
was discovered for the role of Captain Picard by Star Trek producer
Robert Justman while Stewart was giving a dramatic reading at UCLA.
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Countless
movies & TV shows have been filmed on the UCLA campus. In 1983's
"Breathless," actor Richard
Gere playfully pursued Valerie
Kaprisky through
the university's Franklin Murphy Sculpture Garden. Most of 1985's "Gotcha!"
(with Anthony Edwards)
was shot on the UCLA campus, as were scenes from Rob
Reiner's "The Sure Thing"
(1985, with John Cusak
and Daphne Zuniga),
1992's "Final Analysis" (starring Richard
Gere and Kim Basinger),
"Happy Together" (1989, with Patrick
Dempsey, Helen Slater
& Brad Pitt),
and a host of other movies.
For TV, they shot
the college campus scenes for "Buffy the Vampire Slayer"
here, and when 'Sydney' of TV's "Alias" wasn't out on
a CIA heist, she was a student at UCLA. On "The O.C.",
the UCLA campus pretended to be Berkeley (when 'Ryan' went there), while
in "Gilmore Girls", it passed for Harvard (when 'Rory'
went there).
Recently,
they shot scenes from Eddie Murphy's
hit remake of "The Nutty Professor", at various locatitons
around the campus, including on the school's famous Janss Steps. (And the
director of that movie, Tom Shadyac,
is also a UCLA graduate. He's also done "Ace Ventura,"
"Liar, Liar" and "Patch Adams.")
Historic
Royce Hall, with its dramatic archways and bell towers, has been
seen in dozens of films. Three U.S. Presidents have graced the stage at
Royce Hall over the years, as have Eleanor Roosevelt, Frank Sinatra,
Louis Armstrong,
Luciano Pavarotti,
George &
Ira Gershwin,
Arthur Rubinstein,
Ella Fitzgerald,
and Miles Davis,
to name just a few. In April of 1998, a star-studded crowd showed up on
stage to celebrate the post-earthquake renovation of Royce Hall, including
Paul Reiser,
Stevie Wonder,
Paul Simon,
Don Henley,
John Lithgow,
James Galway,
Heather Locklear,
Sidney Poitier
and Carol Burnett
The
giant UCLA Medical Center was featured each week in the TV
series "Medical Center," starring Chad
Everett; a number of Hollywood stars have
passed away at the UCLA medical center, including John
Wayne, and George
Peppard (star of "Breakfast at
Tiffany's" and "The A-Team"),
Vince Edwards (who starred in a hospital
drama of his own, as TV's doctor "Ben Casey"), Ted
Bessell (Marlo
Thomas' boyfriend in "That Girl"), and singer
Mel Torme.
At
410 acres (many times the size Disneyland), UCLA, over 140 buildings, and
a daily population of 65,000, the campus often seems like a city-within-a-city;
students almost need a motorcycle just to get between classes. But the
beauty of UCLA is evident for all to see. Nestled between charming Westwood
Village and the green foothills of Bel-Air, UCLA offers broad green
lawns and bubbling fountains, sculpture gardens & fine museums, lush
landscaping & an intriguing mix of architectural styles. UCLA is well
worth a visit.
Students
relax on the grassy quad between Royce Hall and Powell Library,
the two oldest buildings on the campus (built in 1928). These two Romanesque
buildings stand at the top of the dramatic Janss Steps, a 195-foot
brick stairway overlooking a grand vista below. It was from these same
Jann Steps that John F. Kennedy
and Martin Luther King
made historic speeches in the 1960's.
Jann
Steps overlook Pauley Pavilion below, home of the world-famous Bruins
basketball team (which nurtured such budding NBA superstars as Kareem
Abdul-Jabbar, Bill
Walton and Jamaal
Wilkes), and the scene of concerts and
performances by artists as diverse as Bob
Hope and Steppenwolf.
At the north end
of the campus, you'll find gleaming modern towers; research libraries &
art museums, as well as the Murphy Sculpture Garden, a serene stretch
of rolling lawn, filled with modern sculpture by renowned artists such
as Rodin, Moore, Miro, & Matisse.
At the south end
of campus, you'll discover the "inverted fountain," and
UCLA's beautiful botanical gardens, filled with wandering streams,
friendly squirrels, and a waterfall. On the west side is the student center
with several cafés and restaurants.
Guided tours of the
UCLA campus are available on weekdays at 10:30 AM and 1:30 PM, and on weekends
at 11 AM and 2 PM. Reservations are required for the tours, which begin
at the UCLA Visitor's Center. Phone (310) 825-4321 for exact times and
dates.
Parking:
Stop at one of the Information kiosks on the campus and ask for directions.
They will sell you a token which allow you to park in one
of the student parking garages. You will find an information kiosk in the
center of Westwood Boulevard (near the Student Store), just after you enter
the main gates and pass Circle Drive.
Getting
there:
From Rodeo Drive, go south and turn right (west) on Wilshire Boulevard.
Take Wilshire west (about two and a half miles) to Westwood Boulevard.
Turn right (north) on Westwood Boulevard and follow it four blocks to the
UCLA campus. / From the San Diego (405) Freeway, take the Wilshire
Boulevard exit. Go east on Wilshire to Westwood Boulevard. Turn left (northwest)
on Westwood Boulevard.
[For more
information on this subject, you can access UCLA's official website at:
http://www.ucla.edu.]
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