Living life a quarter mile at a time
The fictional home of Dodge Charger-driving criminal-turned-hero Dominic Toretto, played by Vin Diesel, was shot up by machine-gun-toting, motorcycle-riding Asian gangs and completely blown to bits in Fast and Furious 7. Computer animation razed the house, leaving a smoky heap on-screen. In reality, the wooden two-story residence in Angelino Heights still stands.
The house at East Kensington Road was used for filming both exterior and interior scenes. The big backyard with its view of the cinematic downtown skyline sparkled like an equally telegenic co-star behind the party scenes. And the 4,891-square-foot seven-bedroom home provided ample space for the indoor shoots.
Info
Address 722 E Kensington Road, Los Angeles, CA 90069 | Getting there Best as a drive-by, but street parking available | Hours Viewable from the street only; private residence, not open to the public.| Tip Neighboring Carroll Avenue (crossroad Edgeware Road, Los Angeles, CA 90026) is considered Los Angeles’s first suburb, and in 1983, the city designated the area its first historic district, protecting the Victorian-era homes from demolition and restricting non-period renovations.
What started as a street-racing flick morphed into a quasi-superhero film series with plenty of bulging muscles and cleavage and a good-looking multicultural cast that captured the hearts and fantasies of many. Fast and Furious has become Universal Pictures’ most lucrative franchise. Its longevity was called into question, however, when Fast and Furious star and real-life sports-car enthusiast Paul Walker died in a high-speed crash in 2013. Walker and his racing partner were coming from a charity event in Valencia, north of Los Angeles, when the Porsche they were in clipped a tree and then hit a lamppost, killing Walker and the driver almost instantly. Universal completed Fast and Furious 7 using already-shot footage of Walker, computer animation, and Walker’s brothers as stand-ins.
Fast and Furious fans, minding all traffic laws, of course, can cruise about 3 miles northwest to Silver Lake’s steep Micheltorena Street (between Lucile Avenue and Sunset Boulevard), where Walker’s character, Brian O’Connor, jumped his ride in fast and furious pursuit of the fleeing motorcycle gang.
Of all the films’ farfetched feats, the most improbable is surely finding a traffic-free road in LA for street racing.
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