Hollywood stars sure love their cars

Over the years, the streets of Hollywood have been a showcase of celebrity rides. Here are a few of the more famous and downright infamous.

FRANK SINATRA 1961 DUAL GHIA L 6.4

Ol’ Blue Eyes was an unabashed lover of exotic cars. In the 1950s he owned a Cadillac Brougham that he modified to his tastes and in 1969 bought an exotic Lamborghini Miura after marrying actress Mia Farrow. In between, he even had a heavily customized Ford Mustang that looked like it was from another planet.

The coolest car in the coolest singer’s collection was a 1961 Dual Ghia, which was basically a Chrysler chassis and running gear with an exotic custom body by the Italian coachmaker Ghia. Just 26 of the beautiful coupes were built between 1960 and ’62, and having Sinatra has an owner of one of them certainly added cachet to the model. Later, Sinatra pals Dean Martin and Lucille Ball would buy Dual Ghias of their own.

CHARLIE SHEEN 2009 S-CLASS MERCEDES

The trouble-prone star of “Two and a Half Men,” awoke at 4a.m. on Feb.5,2010 to a phone call from his car’s alarm service, saying his black S-Class Mercedes had been crashed. In point of fact, it had been stolen and driven over the side of a ravine on Mulholland Drive in Los Angeles, plummeting an estimated 300400 feet before coming to rest.

Sheen’s car was located after a lengthy search involving a reported 32 Los Angeles firefighters and two search-and-rescue helicopters. The worst part? In a shocking case of deja vu all over again, in June 2010 Sheen had had another Mercedes stolen and driven off Mulholland Drive and into a different ravine.

1957 A MERCEDES-BENZ 300SL

Natalie Wood starred in such Hollywood blockbusters as "Miracle on 39th Street," "Rebel Without A Cause" and "West Side Story" Her ride of choice in her early 20s was the flagship roadster of the Mercedes lineup. And not sur-prisingly, Wood did it up her own way. "She had it painted pink," said Bill Warner, founder and Chairman of the Amelia Island (Fla.) Concours d'El-egance. "Pink with a lipstick red leather interior, as if driving a 300SL around Hollywood didn't attract enough attention." Wood's former car was meticulously restored to its original silver-blue paint scheme. She drowned more than 30 years ago in a controversial incident.

BOBBY FULLER 1966 CHEVROLET CORVETTE

One of the most bizarre Hollywood deaths of all time occurred July 18, 1966, near Hollywood Boulevard, where rising rock ’n’ roll star Bobby Fuller was found dead in his Corvette. The cause of death was officially ruled a suicide by gasoline asphyxiation, but there might have been much more to it than that.

Fuller, leader of the Bobby Fuller Four, had just scored a huge national hit record with “I Fought The Law” and his music career was taking off. He had reportedly been dating a woman with ties to the mafia and to this day many believe Fuller was murdered over his involvement with the mystery woman.

DENNIS WILSON 1955 FORD THUNDERBIRD

“Fun, Fun, Fun,” a saga of a teenage girl, her two-seat Ford Thunderbird and a whole lot of time on her hands, was one of the biggest hits of all time for the Beach Boys. And, indeed, Beach Boys drummer Dennis Wilson had his own T-Bird, a lipstick red 1955 roadster that was his pride and joy.

Like Natalie Wood, Wilson drowned, losing his life on Dec. 28, 1983, in the waters of Marina del Ray, Calif. But his trademark Thunderbird was restored in 1991 and is now on display in a museum in Gatlinburg, Tenn.