Clue: He’s Back in Beverly Hills

MICHAEL CAINE, who co-stars with Carol Burnett and Christopher Reeve in the upcoming film “Noises Off,” has moved back to Los Angeles from England, where he has been living for several years, and he has purchased a home in Beverly Hills, sources say.

Caine, who has made about 70 movies since 1956, won an Oscar as best supporting actor in the 1986 film “Hannah and Her Sisters” and co-starred in the 1988 movies “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels,” with Steve Martin, and “Without a Clue,” with Ben Kingsley.

“Noises Off,” an Amblin Entertainment and Touchstone Pictures film based on a British farce about the disintegration of a third-rate theater company, is due to be released sometime in 1992.

Caine and his wife, Shakira, bought a one-story, contemporary-style house with four bedrooms, 4 1/2 baths and maid’s quarters in about 5,600 square feet.

The home also has a large kitchen with a built-in barbecue; a sunny breakfast room with a city view, high ceilings and a circular drive. The house was built about 28 years ago but is said to be in good condition, although the Caines have plans to improve it.

The asking price was $2.75 million, but the home sold for slightly less than $2.5 million, said sources not involved in the deal.

The Caines’ former home in this country was in the Beverly Hills Post Office area. They sold it in 1987 for $2.5 million, according to public records, to move back to England, where he subsequently did a one-hour BBC special on movie acting, which he later turned into the book, “Acting in Film.”

The Caines had lived in their former California home since 1976, 20 years after it had been built by Woolworth heiress Barbara Hutton for her son and only child, race-car driver Lance Reventlow, who was killed in a 1972 light-plane crash at age 36.

The Caines’ new home had been listed by Stan Smith and Kay Ebrahimi of Douglas Properties, with Jana Jones and Evie Milstein of Alvarez, Hyland & Young representing the buyers. None of the realtors was available for comment.

With the sale of a four-bedroom, four-bath penthouse, ELIZABETH TAYLOR has liquidated the Puerto Vallarta properties that she began buying in the early 1960s with her then-husband, late actor Richard Burton.

The penthouse, which was sold a few weeks ago, had been reduced to $180,000 when it was purchased by a Mexican businessman. The Oscar-winning actress originally asked $250,000 for the condo, which is in a 156-unit building with amenities including tennis courts, spas, a restaurant and golf course.

She bought the penthouse three years ago, when she put a compound she had shared with Burton on the market. She sold the compound last year, shortly after she listed it and the penthouse with Elaine Dannenberg of Fred Sands’ Beverly Hills Estates office.

Taylor, who was married for the eighth time last weekend, and her husband, construction worker Larry Fortensky, plan to live in her Bel-Air home after their honeymoon, other sources said.

Actress CHARLENE TILTON and her husband, rock ‘n’ roller Domenick Allen, have put their Tarzana home on the market so they can move to the beach.

Tilton, who spent 12 years on the CBS series “Dallas” and just returned from appearing in a London production of “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” has been training 12 Bengal tigers for a Nov. 29 segment of the CBS show “Circus of the Stars.”

Allen just returned from touring in Europe with the British/American rock group Foreigner. He plays saxophone, guitar and keyboard.

“We’re looking in Malibu Colony, but we haven’t bought anything yet,” she said.

Their current home, which they’ve owned since they were married six years ago, is a five-bedroom Tudor with a pool on a cul de sac. It’s listed at $669,000 with Mike Glickman, executive director of Jon Douglas Co., Encino office.

Actress MISTY ROWE and her husband, actor James De Paiva, have moved into their new home in Topanga Canyon.

Rowe appeared regularly in the 1970s and ‘80s as an innocent blonde on the TV show “Hee Haw.” She also starred as Marilyn Monroe in the 1975 movie “Good-Bye, Norma Jean” and Maid Marion in Mel Brooks’ 1975 ABC series “When Things Were Rotten.”

De Paiva plays Max Holden on the long-running ABC daytime soap “One Life to Live.” He was off the air for a while but will reappear in the role on Oct. 25.

They bought a two-story, Spanish-style house for about $800,000, sources said. The house, which was built in 1990 on eight acres, has three bedrooms in about 3,500 square feet.

Jeannine Churchill of Prudential California Realty’s Sunset Strip office represented the couple in their purchase.

WILLIAM KRAFT--who was with the Los Angeles Philharmonic for about 30 years as composer-in-residence, assistant conductor and percussionist--is moving to teach at UC Santa Barbara and has put his Altadena home on the market.

Kraft, who has had more than 30 of his compositions recorded, has also written scores for such films as the 1981 CBS movie “Bill,” starring Mickey Rooney. Among his 100-plus compositions, his most often played work is “Concerto for Four Percussion Soloists and Orchestra.”

His contemporary, hillside home has three bedrooms in 4,000 square feet. It also has a pool and city and mountain views. It’s listed at $650,000 with Sarah Allison of Coldwell Banker’s San Marino office.