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Morey Amsterdam’s former family home is listed

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The longtime family home of “The Dick Van Dyke Show” actor Morey Amsterdam has come on the market at $6,495,000.

The Beverly Hills Midcentury classic, with many of the original features and décor from the time of the comedian’s purchase nearly a half-century ago, has a ‘60s vibe.

The single-story house was a place where guests could feel at home.

” Ronald Reagan would stop by to visit, and Dad would tell him jokes standing in the kitchen,” said son Gregory Amsterdam, who lived there through his college years and beyond. “There were people popping in and out all the time.”

The Amsterdams often entertained at home, throwing dinner parties in the formal dining room for 10 to 15 guests. Other times the area around the kidney-shaped swimming pool in the backyard was used for parties of 50 to 60, Amsterdam said.

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“My father loved the sun,” Amsterdam said, to the point where he would walk backward on a golf course to face it. The senior Amsterdam sometimes wrote jokes while lounging in the pool area. “If there was any hint of sun, he would be out there getting a suntan.”

The family made additions to the house during their ownership, changing the footprint from a T-shape to a J by adding what they called a play room with large picture windows, a television, a card table and a desk, where the comic also worked on material.

The 5,854-square-foot house has walls of glass that open to the backyard, a living room with a fireplace and a step-down bar, a breakfast room, a den with a fireplace, four bedrooms and 4 1/2 bathrooms. There is a three-car garage and large motorcourt.

Morey Amsterdam, who died in 1996 at age 87, played fellow office worker Buddy Sorrell on “The Dick Van Dyke Show” (1961-66). The gregarious actor was in show business for more than seven decades years.

“My father really loved people,” Gregory Amsterdam said. “He’d go out to get the mail, and Starline Tour would go by and he’d stop to talk.”

Jade Mills of Coldwell Banker Beverly Hills South and Gloria Benveniste of Coldwell Banker’s Marina del Rey office have the listing.

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lauren.beale@latimes.com

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