Griffith Park’s long Hollywood career

Griffith Park isn’t just the home of Griffith Observatory, the Greek Theatre, the Los Angeles Zoo and train rides. It’s also long been a favorite backdrop in films, including “The Terminator,” “Back to the Future,” “Transformers” and even “The Birth of a Nation.” D.W. Griffith shot battle sequences in the park for his controversial 1915 Civil War epic.

But perhaps the most famous film to use Griffith Park is Nicholas Ray’s 1955 teen drama “Rebel Without a Cause” starring James Dean. Ray used both the interior and exterior of the Observatory for two crucial scenes in the film — when Dean and his high school classmates attend a program, only to have it erupt into a knife fight, and at the conclusion, when the troubled Plato (Sal Mineo) is cornered by the cops.

To commemorate “Rebel,” there’s a bust of Dean at the Observatory.