‘Little Joe’ Returns to Life on a Ranch
MICHAEL LANDON, whose big break came 30 years ago as Little Joe Cartwright on the weekly TV western “Bonanza,” is back on the ranch now in a home he just built in a Malibu canyon.
And as for missing the oceanfront Malibu Colony house he sold before the holidays, Landon said by phone last week:
“Oh, no, miss all those people poking their noses in my windows? No. And this place is great for the kids too.”
The actor/writer/director/producer has nine children. Two are from his current marriage to his third wife, Cindy, but all come to the Landons’ new home on the weekends, said architect Robert Earl. Earl designed the walled-in compound, which he calls “a ranch estate,” with the children in mind.
The 10-acre property has a field where the children can play, stables for six horses, park-like grounds, a tennis pavilion, swimming pool with fountains, aviary, dog run and the latest in security features. It has a two-story, 17,000-square-foot main house with restaurant-style cooking facilities, numerous fireplaces and entertainment areas, eight bedrooms and an office. It also has some guest cabanas and a servants’ quarters in a separate house.
“All the rooms (in the main residence) open onto the pool,” Earl said, describing the architectural style as Santa Barbara Mission with a central courtyard. “And we used Italian tiles, marble, granite, wood and stained-glass skylights throughout.” The home also has some limestone floors.
The Landons owned the property for about 10 years. “They bought the ranch as a place to relax and spend time with the horses and the children,” Earl said. “They didn’t anticipate that it would become their home, but as we designed the plans, it developed from a ranch to an estate that has the Old Bel-Air or Pasadena look.”
Earl wouldn’t say what the completed estate cost, but other industry sources estimated it at about $7 million. The Landons sold their Malibu Colony home for a little more than $5 million to producer/department-store heir Ted Field.
MICHAEL LEESON, co-producer and screenwriter for the hot new film “The War of the Roses,” novelist SIDNEY SHELDON and entertainment execs ALAN LADD JR. and ROBERT A. DALY have all been involved in sizable sales or purchases that already closed escrow this year.
Leeson bought a two-story, 11-room house with a pool in Beverly Hills for $4,525,000, according to public records.
Ladd sold his Beverly Hills home for close to his $4.25-million asking price to an international investor, represented by Lila Bina of Nourmand & Associates. Ladd, chairman of Pathe Entertainment, bought another house nearby last May.
Sheldon sold the Holmby site where he once planned to build a house to a stockbroker. The new owner has submitted plans to the city to build a large estate, said Myra Nourmand, who represented both parties in what other sources said was a $5.5-million deal.
And Robert A. Daly, CEO and chairman of Warner Bros., and his wife, Nancy, bought the Holmby Hills house built in 1938 for actress CONSTANCE BENNETT and her then-husband, actor GILBERT ROLAND, for $9.25 million, public records show.
The 17,432-square-foot mansion, also owned at one time by actress LORETTA YOUNG, was sold by the estate of auto heiress Lydia Morrison, who had updated the house with the help of L.A. architect Jeff Sulkin. Kay Pick at Mike Silverman & Associates and Chrys Stamatis of Douglas Properties had the $12.4-million listing.
CHRISTINA CRAWFORD, who wrote the 1984 bestseller “Mommie Dearest” about her relationship with movie-legend JOAN CRAWFORD, has put the Tarzana home where she wrote the book on the market at $999,950.
She also wrote the ’81 book “Black Widow” and ’88 book “Survivor” at the 30-year-old, gated estate, where she has lived for 10 years.
Crawford has decided to move to Seattle because many of her Southern California friends already relocated there, said a spokeswoman for Fred Sands Realtors. Martha McGee and Mariette Kaprielian with Sands’ Tarzana office have the listing on the one-acre property, which has four bedrooms, three baths, a guest house, swimming pool and fruit trees.
DON SIMPSON, a producer of “Top Gun,” is razing an old house in Bel-Air to build a 12,000-square-foot home he describes as a “contemporary Craftsman.”
He bought the 2-acre site near RONALD and NANCY REAGANS’ home at the beginning of last year for about $7 million in cash. The land is worth more than $8 million now, says Heidi Lake of Fred Sands Estates, who represented Simpson in the purchase.
