For Many Celebs It’s Act II: Selling Houses

New York blizzards and a Broadway part that he hated persuaded actor Dick Derr, a leading man in the 1950s, to house-sit in California for a friend.

The first night Derr was in Hollywood, he met another actor who talked him into going to real estate school. “When I got there, I knew half the people in the room,” Derr said, referring to show business acquaintances.

He finished school, got his real estate license and began a 25-year career selling homes on the Westside of Los Angeles.

Derr is one of dozens of actors, athletes and other celebrities and quasi-celebs who have carved out new careers selling Southland real estate.

They range from former UCLA quarterback Gary Beban to Dodger pitcher Joe Moeller, from actress Phyllis Avery, who was a regular on TV in the 1950s and ‘60s, to veteran character-actor Jack Ging, to a former Rockette and a Las Vegas showgirl.

They say they were drawn to real estate by its similarities to their lives in the limelight: flexible hours, a feeling of independence, working on a project basis, the opportunity to negotiate, an element of risk, people orientation and a need for self-discipline.

Beban, the 1967 Heisman Trophy winner from UCLA who is now president of L.A.-based Coldwell Banker Commercial Real Estate Services, said, “All the aspects of discipline and sacrifice that go into being a success in athletics can be used to be a success in business.”

Like Beban, some former celebrities break entirely with their former professions, while others try to balance careers.

Talking about such co-starring roles as the one he played in the movie “When Worlds Collide” (1951, with Barbara Rush), Derr, who works with Mimi Styne Associates in Beverly Hills, said, “I’m no longer a name, but I still do some small parts.”

Veteran character actor Jack Ging works in the movies and TV as much as he does in real estate. He was in the TV miniseries “War and Remembrance” and its predecessor, “Winds of War.” He appeared as a regular on TV’s “Riptide” and “The A-Team” series.

At 57, Ging has been an actor for 30 years. He has been selling homes for the Fred Sands’ office in Malibu for 10 years.

“Being a character actor, I had a lot of time on my hands, so I started selling real estate. A woman broker I knew said I would be a natural because I knew everybody. . . . I just did a show with Brian Keith and sold him a house.”

Most brokers in the area know Ging by now, “but some clients . . . have said, ‘God, I know that face,’ ” his wife Apache said.

The same is true of Eunice Christopher, who has been selling real estate for about two years, the past year out of the Jon Douglas Co.’s Studio City office.

In her 25 years in show business, Christopher has appeared in more than 125 TV commercials, in “Dallas,” a couple of other series and in several TV movies of the week. “But people are always saying, ‘Gosh, have I seen you before? You look so familiar.’ ”

That’s a plus in selling a house, said Perry Cross, who manages the Studio City Douglas office and who previously produced Johnny Carson’s “Tonight” show and its forerunner “The Jack Paar Show.”

Familiar names and important contacts don’t hurt, either. Most of the people interviewed for this story said they used acquaintances from their previous professions to advance their real estate careers. Some of those interviewed even profit, if only in terms of recognition, from their famous surnames or relatives.

Kraig Kristofferson, younger brother of actor-singer Kris, said, “In the old days, people didn’t know how to spell the name (Kristofferson), but now it’s pretty recognizable.” Kraig Kristofferson has been selling commercial real estate with Coldwell Banker in San Diego for 16 years.

Bill Waring, a partner and founder of the 10-year-old Palm Desert/Palm Springs/Indio realty firm of Lobland-Waring, came to California from Pennsylvania 13 years ago, but his famous father, the late band leader Fred Waring, came to the desert years earlier.

That helped the younger Waring in real estate, he said, “because my dad performed 18 years of concerts out here to help create the Bob Hope Cultural Center (opened in January, 1988, in Palm Desert), and they named the entrance to the theater there ‘the Fred Waring Pavilion.’ We also have a Fred Waring Drive out here.”

Barbara Robinson, wife of Baltimore Orioles Manager Frank Robinson, says she has had more entertainers than athletes as clients during her 15 years as a sales agent but credits her marriage for helping her represent such stars as Eddie Murphy, the singing Jacksons and Julio Iglesias in buying homes. She works at Alvarez, Hyland & Young in Beverly Hills.

Understands Entertainers

“Athletes and entertainers are very similar in temperament,” she said. “They aren’t business people. There are no facades. And, after being married to one of these types for 28 years, it’s easy for me to understand them.”

Bill Bakewell says he understands entertainers because he has been one himself for 50 years. Bakewell, an actor who appeared in about 110 movies after playing in “The Iron Mask” with Douglas Fairbanks Sr. in 1929, said, “Most actors have to have something besides acting.”

He has been selling real estate for 37 years with his old friend Jack Hupp, who has been a broker in Beverly Hills since 1948. Hupp worked a few years as a set designer at MGM before going into real estate.

“When I was in ‘Davy Crockett’ (three episodes on the Walt Disney TV program in the ‘60s), I had about six deals with Fess Parker,” Bakewell recalled.

Left Show Business

Phyllis Avery also got into real estate after acting. From age 16, she performed in seven Broadway shows, starting with “Charley’s Aunt,” starring Jose Ferrer. In the ‘50s, she was Ray Milland’s TV wife and George Gobel’s second “Alice.” In the ‘60s, she was a vice principal on the TV show “Mr. Novak,” starring James Franciscus. But for almost 20 years now, she has been selling houses, most recently through the Jon Douglas office in Brentwood.

“When I got into (real estate), I had hit the 40-year-old mark, and there wasn’t much going on for actresses past the young, leading-lady stage,” she said. She left show business to sell real estate on the Westside, where she has lived since she was a child.

Actor Mark Frank, who appears in the movie “Cousins” and works at Mike Glickman’s Woodland Hills office, said, “I pretty much do both careers equally.” But Sue Casey, a former contract player at MGM who played in five Esther Williams movies and about 50 TV programs before getting her real estate broker’s license in the 1960s, said, “I don’t often work in entertainment anymore, because it detracts from my main business.” She sells houses at the Jon Douglas Co. in Beverly Hills.

Performed Stunts

Marilyn Jones, who performed stunts in such movies as “The Poseidon Adventure” and “Towering Inferno,” just finished a small acting part in the TV series “Highway to Heaven.” “I was a gymnast and thought I might as well make money doing what I like to do,” she said, “but I decided to come into the real world, instead of getting up at 4 a.m. and working 18 hours a day. Now I spend most of my time on real estate.” She works at Merrill Lynch/Beverly Hills.

Roxie Harter, who turned from acting in TV commercials and movies (“Into the Night,” “Brewster’s Millions”) to selling real estate at Fred Sands’ Westwood office, said:

“Acting is very good money when you land the jobs, but there are very long hours.” She found going on location and spending from 5 a.m. to 8 p.m. on the set incompatible with child rearing.

So did Thelma Orloff, a showgirl in the Nelson Eddy-Jeanette MacDonald pictures who also worked for Busby Berkeley and other dance directors. She quit show business after appearing in “The Harvey Girls,” released in 1946.

Modeled for 9 Years

“I got married and brought up a child until she went to college,” Orloff said. “Then I went into real estate, because I was too old to go back into pictures.” She spent 28 years with Stan Herman & Associates and became vice president of Fred Sands Estates last October.

Valerie Fitzgerald, at Alvarez, Hyland & Young, was an Eileen Ford career model for nine years, made 200 commercials and appeared on “Love Boat” and “Fantasy Island” before going into real estate, on the advice of a friend, in 1984.

“All the top models in New York were my good buddies,” she said, “but few asked themselves, ‘What happens when you’re not the most beautiful and life is not your oyster?’ ”

Athletes face much the same problem.

Beban, who wound up his UCLA career in 1968 as an All-American and Heisman winner, called it quits in professional football after only two years.

Now Is President

“As my professional career was winding down, I had a teammate from UCLA who had joined Coldwell Banker (Commercial Real Estate Services),” Beban said. His friend suggested that Beban do the same. “So I was fortunate because of a teammate.”

He became an industrial property specialist in 1970 and is now president of the Los Angeles-based company.

How well a ballplayer makes the transition to another career depends, Beban said, “on the individual and what some do on their off-seasons. In my case, I was fortunate that my pro career wasn’t long, and I was introduced to something else I liked right off.”

Many ballplayers aren’t as lucky as Beban and don’t have the foresight to work during their off-seasons.

Got College Degree

Ken Forsch, who retired in 1986 after pitching 10 years for the Houston Astros and five years for the Angels, learned the mortgage brokerage business and got his real estate sales license during his off-seasons. When he retired in Orange County, he joined the Orange office of Grubb & Ellis Commercial Real Estate Services, where he works now.

Ex-pitcher Joe Moeller, who signed with the Dodgers in 1960 while still in high school and played with them for 11 years, said he knew that his baseball career would end sometime, so he got a college degree while playing ball.

Not long after he retired from sports, he started selling houses, because he was interested in them from childhood, when his father built the family home in Manhattan Beach.

“Selling real estate is like going into the ninth inning, with the runners on bases and the game on the line,” said Moeller, who works for RE/MAX Beach Cities. “So, baseball prepared me for real estate.”

Director of Leasing

Former wide receiver George Farmer, who was drafted from UCLA by the Chicago Bears in 1969 and played for them for six years before spending two years with the Detroit Lions, used his off-seasons learning about real estate investment. He is now director of leasing for RCI Development, handling office space in several downtown Los Angeles high-rises.

Most players don’t switch careers as easily. Said Farmer:

“I’d say it’s a difficult transition for 90% of the guys, because they (the ballclub owners) coddle the athletes and don’t prepare them for another career. Then the athlete shows up for practice, and his locker’s cleaned out, and he might not have any idea of what to do next.”

Mack Kuykendall retired at 26 from playing first base and outfield with the Chicago Cubs and the Angels. “My knees went bad on me,” he said. They were weak from his having had polio as a child. “But I was motivated by my dad, who lost both hands when he was 10 and later played pro basketball anyway.”

Took MBA Degree

Kuykendall was only 17 when he started playing professional ball with the likes of Willie Mays, Ernie Banks and Mickey Mantle. When he retired, he went back to school and earned his MBA at Pepperdine University.

“I learned about mortgage banking first, then went into sales,” he said. At 46, he works at the Diamond Bar office of Coldwell Banker.

Victoria Lockwood was a professional ballet dancer as a child and appeared in “Silk Stockings” on Broadway before becoming a Las Vegas showgirl and a regular on television in the ‘60s on “The Red Skelton Show.” She has been selling homes for 16 years, and is now at Alvarez, Hyland & Young.

“About the only thing I derived from being a well-trained ballet dancer is it created the discipline I need for putting in the hard work this field (real estate) requires,” she said.

‘Like to Be Busy’

Sandra Deel, a Rockette who went on to star in such musicals as “Peter Pan” and “Annie Get Your Gun,” spent 35 years in show business before she got into real estate 13 years ago “because it was hiatus time, and I like to be busy.” She is associate manager of Fred Sands’ Beverly Hills office.

Performing arts and real estate are “closely related,” she said, “because they are people businesses, and they are emotional businesses. In both, you have the challenge of negotiations, and every deal is different.”

Don Caverhill says creative outlets in real estate are similar to those in entertainment. Caverhill arranged and played “Louie Louie,” along with his group the Kingsmen. Through them, it became a top rock ‘n’ roll hit when he was only 15.

Now 42, he is a partner in Caverhill & May, a Beverly Hills real estate firm, and he just completed developing a 14-story apartment building along the Embarcadero on San Francisco Bay.

“In music, I would put together the right song, recording engineer, drummer, guitar player and arrangement, then hope for something greater than the sum of its parts,” he said. “In real estate development, I put together the right site, landscape planner and interior designer. . . . I don’t perceive the fields as being very different.”

Photo credits (none for sue casey)