
Map of Mulholland Drive (orange) and Mulholland Highway (brown) in Los Angeles County.
'Mulholland Drive' is a very well-known road in
Los Angeles,
California named after engineer
William Mulholland. A portion of it is also called '
Mulholland Highway'.
The mostly two-lane, minor
arterial road loosely follows the ridgeline of the
Santa Monica Mountains and the
Hollywood Hills, connecting two sections of the
U.S. Route 101, and crossing
Sepulveda Boulevard,
Beverly Glen Boulevard,
Coldwater Canyon,
Laurel Canyon Boulevard,
Nichols Canyon and
Outpost. It offers spectacular views of both the Los Angeles basin and the
San Fernando Valley.
The eastern terminus of Mulholland Drive is at its intersection with Cahuenga Boulevard at the
Cahuenga Pass over the
Santa Monica Mountains (at this point Cahuenga Boulevard runs parallel to the 101). The road continues to the west offering vistas of the
Hollywood Sign, downtown Los Angeles and then
Burbank,
Universal City and the rest of the San Fernando Valley.

A Mulholland Drive street sign in a residential neighborhood in
Woodland Hills.
The road winds along the top of the mountains until a few miles west of the
405 Freeway. At this point (the intersection with Encino Hills Drive) the drive becomes an unpaved route not open to motor vehicles. It is popular with hikers, horseback riders, and
mountain bikers, and offers connections to other unpaved
fire roads and mountain bike trails as well as a decommissioned
Project Nike command post that has been turned into a
Cold War memorial park .
The paved road begins again just east of Topanga Canyon Boulevard. Shortly thereafter, Mulholland Drive splits into Mulholland Drive and Mulholland Highway. Mulholland Drive terminates at the 101 where it becomes Valley Circle Boulevard. Mulholland Highway continues to the southwest until it terminates at
California State Route 1 in
Leo Carrillo State Park near the
Pacific Ocean and the border of
Los Angeles and
Ventura Counties.
The main portion of the road, from the Cahuenga Pass in Hollywood westward past the Sepulveda Pass was originally called
Mulholland Highway and was opened in 1924. It was built by a consortium of Hollywood Hills landowners hoping to make money by bringing development to the Hollywood Hills.
Mulholland Drive in popular culture

View of Hollywood and Los Angeles from Mulholland Drive.
;Movies
★ The movie ''
Mulholland Drive'' was named after the road.
★ It is also nicknamed "Bad Boy Drive" due to its illustrious residents
Jack Nicholson,
Warren Beatty,
Errol Flynn and
Marlon Brando.
★ In the last scene of ''
Four Rooms'',
Bruce Willis alludes to it.
★ In ''
Hurlyburly'' Phil, the character played by
Chazz Palminteri, dies in a car crash that takes place at Mulholland Drive.
★ In ''
Point Break'' a Mulholland Drive scenic turnout is the setting for a scene early in the movie where the bank robbers' drop car is discovered.
★ The movie ''
Lost Highway'' features a scene on Mulholland Drive.
★ Residents over the years have also included
Tom Hanks,
Bruce Willis,
Julian Lennon,
Red Foxx,
Molly Ringwald, and
Michael Eisner
★ The movie ''
Death Becomes Her'' features a brief sequence in which
Bruce Willis and
Goldie Hawn's characters plan
Meryl Streep's character's death by sending her car off of a cliff on Mulholland Drive.
★ The film ''
True Romance'' has 2 scenes that take place along Mulholland Drive. In the first scene, the Producer, Lee Donowitz, is driving his white Porsche along Mulholland Dr. In the second scene, Lee's assistant Elliot is driving his Porsche along the same stretch of road.
;Television
★ In the 1950's TV show, "The Bob Cummings Show" (syndicated as "Love That Bob") playboy-photographer Bob frequently makes references to Mulholland Drive as the ultimate destination for himself and his date for the evening, almost always one of his many beautiful models. (For most of its history, Mulholland Drive was a notorious "parking spot" for illicit sex, due to its seclusion AND scenic views of the San Fernando Valley, until the parking areas were blocked off in the early 1990's, allegedly because they constituted a fire hazard.)
;Music and Art
In music, it is mentioned in
Tom Petty's "
Free Fallin',"
R.E.M.'s "
Electrolite,"
Felix Da Housecat's "Everyone Is Someone in L.A.",
Razorlight's "Los Angeles Waltz",
Lamb of God's "Forgotten (Lost Angels)",
Frank Black's "
Ole Mulholland",
Poe's "
Hey Pretty" and
Between The Buried And Me's "Camilla Rhodes".
The artist
David Hockney painted Mulholland: The Road to the Studio in 1980.
Samples from the movie are used in the songs "Handsome Shoved His Gloves" and "Purple" by
HORSE the band and "Tetraedycal Fluctuating Faster Than The Speed Of Light" by
Raein
;Books
The French philosopher
Jean Baudrillard metaphorically describes Mulholland Drive as the "entry point for extraterrestrials" in his book ''America''.
Michael Connelly referred to it as the "spine" of Los Angeles in his short story
Mulholland Drive that was published in the anthology LA Noir edited by
Denise Hamilton.
;Other
There is also a ride at Disneyland's
California Adventure called "
Mulholland Madness" (previously, "
Mulholland Highway").
In the
hot-rod-themed
videogame Street Rod II, the player can challenge computer opponents to a mountain-side road race called Mulholland Drive, but the design of the track doesn't represent the actual road: it is
randomized for each new game.
In
Grand Theft Auto San Andreas (video-game) there is a town named Mulholland, and a road representing Mulholland drive which is near the Vinewood sign representing the Hollywood lettering.