WALL STREET FILMING LOCATIONS

In the 1987 film Wall Street, directed by Oliver Stone, Charlie Sheen plays Bud Fox, a young stockbroker desperate for success.  Fox idolizes Gordon Gekko, played by Michael Douglas, a wealthy, ruthless corporate raider.  In an effort to win Gekko as a client, Fox provides him with some inside information he received from his own father (played by Charlie Sheen’s real-life father, Martin Sheen).  In turn, Gekko takes Fox under his wing, but forces him to get new information by “any means necessary,” and trouble ensues.

Wall Street fans will enjoy seeing two film locations on our Central Park TV & Movie Sites Tour.  Towards the end of the film, Charlie Sheen confronts Michael Douglas in Central Park’s Sheep’s Meadow.  After this violent confrontation, Charlie Sheen walks across the street to Tavern on the Green (a restaurant also located in Central Park) where he removes the wire he was wearing.  Both Sheep’s Meadow and Tavern on the Green are locations visited on the Central Park walking tour.

Other New York locations that were used in the filming of Wall Street include the 21 Club (21 West 52^nd Street), PJ Morgan’s Pub and Restaurant (3 East 48^th Street), and 222 Broadway, which is the office building where Bud Fox and Gordon Gekko work in the film.

Reportedly, the character of Gordon Gekko is a composite of many real-life figures, including Owen Morrisey (who in 1985 was involved in a $20M insider trading scandal), Dennis Levine, Ivan Boesky, corporate raider Carl Icahn, art collector Asher Edelman, agent Michael Ovitz, and Oliver Stone himself.

Oliver Stone met with Tom Cruise about playing Bud Fox, but Stone had actually already offered the role to Charlie Sheen.  The role of Gordon Gekko was originally offered to Warren Beatty and then Richard Gere, but both actors passed, so Stone offered the role of Michael Douglas.  Stone gave Charlie sheen the choice of Jack Lemmon or his dad Martin Sheen for the role of Bud’s father, and Charlie chose his dad because he felt he encompassed the same morality as the character.  Oliver Stone cast Daryl Hannah as Bud’s girlfriend but later regretted that decision.  In regards to this, he said, “Daryl Hannah was not happy doing the role and I should have let her go. All my crew wanted to get rid of her after one day of shooting. My pride was such that I kept saying I was going to make it work.”

For his work as Gordon Gekko in Wall Street, Michael Douglas won the Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role.

* In an effort to stay current, we are constantly updating our tours with new locations and cannot guarantee the presence of locations mentioned on our site. If you have a particular interest in locations from a specific TV show or movie, please let your tour guide know and we will do our best to accommodate your request.