Star Drops Hills From His List

LIAM NEESON, star of Steven Spielberg’s film “Schindler’s List,” has sold his Hollywood Hills home of about five years to return to his Manhattan loft, sources say.

Neeson, a 41-year-old bachelor, has said that he has no specific plans after “Schindler” beyond spending “more time in New York.” In “Schindler’s List,” Neeson plays Oskar Schindler, the hero of Thomas Keneally’s novel about the German responsible for saving 1,300 Jews during World War II.

A former amateur boxer from Northern Ireland, the 6-foot-4 actor made his stage debut in Belfast in 1976 and his Broadway debut last January, shortly after buying his loft in SoHo. His Broadway portrayal of coal stoker Mat Burke in Eugene O’Neill’s “Anna Christie” won him the Schindler role.

He moved to Los Angeles in the late 1980s to do films. Among the ones in which he has appeared are “Suspect” (1987), “Darkman” (1990) and “Husband and Wives” (1992).

Neeson was quoted last March in The Times as saying, “I still get a kick out of waking up in Los Angeles--the sunshine, you know--but I don’t think I’ll stay there too much longer.”

He sold his three-bedroom bungalow, built in the 1950s, for close to its asking price of $439,000 to novelists Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens, who are also executive story editors for the new animated sci-fi series “Phantom 2040,” sources said.

The 1,400-square-foot house, designed in an L shape around a swimming pool, was once owned by the late actor Scott Brady, the brother of tough-guy actor Lawrence Tierney.

The buyers, who moved to Los Angeles about three years ago from Canada, were represented by Cindy Berman Schaffel of the Beverly Hills office of Prudential Rodeo Realty. Neeson was represented by Bill Lustig of Jon Douglas Co.’s Sunset Strip office.

Actress/singer SHIRLEY JONES and her husband, comedian/business executive MARTY INGELS, have put their longtime home in Beverly Hills on the market. “She said she wouldn’t sell for less than $3 million,” said a spokesman for the couple, referring to Jones.

Jones bought the home 30 years ago with then-husband, late actor Jack Cassidy. She lived in it while raising her three children and marrying Ingels 16 years ago.

But Jones and Ingels plan to expand the Brentwood townhouse they bought last fall from singer Janet Jackson, turning it into their residence when they’re not at their Big Bear home.

They listed the three-bedroom, 5,200-square-foot Beverly Hills home, built in 1950 with a park-like back yard and a pool, with Mike Silverman Estates, a Jon Douglas Co.

Gold medal-winning ice dancing figure-skaters SERGEI PONOMARENKO and MARINA KLIMOVA have purchased a home at Lake Arrowhead for about $500,000, sources say.

The husband-wife skating team from Russia, who won the gold at the 1992 Winter Olympics, will maintain their residence just outside of Moscow but wanted a home in the United States because of their professional performances here. Since the Olympics, they’ve appeared in more than 250 shows and recently performed in Las Vegas.

They bought at Lake Arrowhead because of their acquaintances at the Ice Castle figure-skating training center there, sources say.

The couple purchased a 2,600-square-foot, 6-year-old home with views of the lake through Lake Arrowhead real estate broker Jim Price.

Lake Arrowhead, a popular get-away place for early Hollywood stars, is still said to be a weekend and vacation retreat for such celebrities as Patrick Swayze, Dick Clark, Mark Harmon and Pam Dawber.

Former Olympic volleyball star PAUL SUNDERLAND, who worked as a reporter for NBC at the Fiesta Bowl on New Year’s Day and is a basketball commentator for ESPN and Prime Ticket, has purchased a Malibu home for close to its asking price of $399,000, sources say.

A first-time home buyer, Sunderland was a member of the U.S. Olympic team that won a gold medal in 1984. He and his wife, Maud-Ann, and their two young children are moving from rented quarters in Malibu to their new home, a four-bedroom, 3,000-square-footer built in 1970.

The house, which is next to Broad Beach, had been owned by a bank. Jay Rubenstein of Jim Rapf & Associates represented the buyer.

TULLIE DEUTCH, who developed some office building and hotel properties in Los Angeles before his partnership--CD Investments--declared bankruptcy, built a 14-bedroom, 25,000-square-foot house in Beverly hills that has sold for $8 million, sources say.

The house was sold through a sealed-bid process to Beverly Hills residents.

CLARIFICATION: The Montecito estate formerly owned by actress Jane Seymour and business manager David Flynn, Seymour’s ex-husband, was sold to Sandra Lynne, the wife of singer/songwriter Jeff Lynne, according to her attorney. The home was not sold to Jeff Lynne or to “a divorced woman with two teen-agers,” as the Hot Property column of Jan. 9 reported.