D.W. Moffett of ‘Friday Night Lights’ and wife sell home in Beachwood Canyon
Actor D.W. Moffett, who plays an evil football dad on “Friday Night Lights,” and his wife, Kristal, have sold their longtime Beachwood Canyon home for $1.75 million.
The 1926 Mediterranean, designed by lead Hollywoodland architect John DeLario, has four bedrooms and 4 1/2 bathrooms in 2,506 square feet. It sits on a third-acre lot with a heated swimming pool and a walled garden.
The formal living and dining rooms have French doors that open to the pool, patio and garden areas. There are wood-burning fireplaces in the living room and den. The kitchen is vintage in style, and the original tile bathrooms have pedestal sinks, walk-in showers and tubs.
Among design details throughout the house are wrought-iron fixtures, coved archways and beamed ceilings. The Moffetts used the maid’s quarters as an office.
Moffett, 54, joined the NBC/DirecTV sports drama in 2008 as a wealthy manipulator and coach’s worst nightmare. His supporting role as freshman quarterback J.D. McCoy’s father, Joe, intensified near the end of Season 3, when Joe slugged his son. Season 4 kicks off Oct. 28 on DirecTV.
The television, film and stage actor has had recurring roles in the CW’s “Life Is Wild” (2007-08) and “Hidden Palms” (2007).
The Moffetts spent 14 years in the house but decided to move closer to their horse stables so the family of four can ride more often. They also will have more room in the new home for their rabbits, geese and chicken menagerie.
Their Beachwood Canyon home came on the market in April at $1,895,000. According to public records, they purchased the property in 1998 for $775,000.
Rose Ware and Terry Canfield, both of Prudential California Realty’s West Hollywood office, represented the sellers and the buyers.
Durante home since 1944 sold
The longtime Beverly Hills home of singer, pianist and comic actor Jimmy Durante has been purchased for $3.2 million.
Durante bought the property in 1944 and had the house remodeled into a contemporary in 1963. The main residence has three bedrooms and 2 1/2 bathrooms in 3,944 square feet. There is a two-story guesthouse with a one-bedroom apartment upstairs, where the songwriter rehearsed, and maid’s quarters and storage on the ground floor. The swimming pool area includes a pool house with a bathroom and a dry sauna for a total of about 5,200 square feet of living space on the site.
The widower married his second wife, Marjorie Little, on Christmas Day 1960, and they raised their daughter, Cecelia, in the house.
The cigar-smoking vaudevillian with the prominent proboscis had his own radio show in the ‘40s and television show in the ‘50s. He also appeared on the big screen in scores of movies such as “Palooka” (1934), “You’re in the Army Now” (1941) and “It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World” (1963).
Durante died in 1980 at age 86. His wife died in June. Memorabilia from the estate is going to the UCLA Durante archives and the Smithsonian.
The house came on the market in July at $3,395,000 and drew the interest of fans and bidders worldwide, according to listing agent David Yocum of the Coldwell Banker, Beverly Hills North office. Yocum was a William Morris talent agent for 14 years before going into real estate.
Robert Murphy of Coldwell Banker, Beverly Hills, represented the buyer.
Parting ways with their muse
A 1938 Spanish-style house in the Hollywood Hills owned by screenwriters Roger Simon and Sheryl Longin is listed at $2,295,000.
The restored house of 3,335 square feet has seven bedrooms, six bathrooms, two offices and a large loft. Vibrant tile work embellishes the kitchen and bathrooms. The living room opens to an outdoor living and entertainment space, a lawn and a black-bottom pool with spa. There are canyon and mountain views.
Among the home’s former occupants was Marilyn Monroe.
Simon, 65, a mystery writer, adapted his novel “The Big Fix” for the 1978 film of the same name, starring Richard Dreyfuss. He received an Oscar nomination for co-writing the screenplay of “Enemies: A Love Story” (1989).
Longin, 45, co-wrote the screenplay for the Watergate spoof “Dick” (1999). Simon directed “Prague Duet” (1998), which the pair wrote.
Simon and Longin, who have used the property as their home and a place to write, are selling because they are relocating to Bainbridge Island, Wash. They are working on a play set in Moscow, Hollywood and New York of the 1930s and inspired in part by the house.
The listing agent is Ginger Glass of Coldwell Banker, Beverly Hills.
A spot of tea is not included
You could say minimalism is his cup of tea.
Randy Lee Arnold, co-owner and co-founder of Le Palais Gourmet tea emporium in Beverly Hills, has sold his newly built home in the Sunset Strip area for $3.8 million.
He designed and built the modern house of three bedrooms and 3 1/2 bathrooms from the ground up over a four-year period. The 4,000-square-foot home has a two-story entry, cantilevered roof lines, an open floor plan and walls of glass revealing city-to-mountain views. A wrap-around pool was built into the home’s foundation.
Arnold, whose tea shop has been a popular haunt for Hollywood stars since opening in 2003, said he took on the house “as creative therapy; realizing a vision inspired by Pierre Koenig and the vintage modern homes forever captured by architectural master photographer Julius Shulman.”
His goal was to build a home that epitomized the relaxed indoor-outdoor California lifestyle.
Now that he’s accomplished that, he’s ready for his next project, although it won’t necessarily be a home.
Bennett Carr with Sotheby’s International Realty, Beverly Hills, had the listing. Susan Dishell-Abbott of Prudential California Realty’s Brentwood office represented the buyer.
