Cottage Fit for a Kingsley
BEN KINGSLEY, who co-stars with Sigourney Weaver in the upcoming psychological thriller “Death and the Maiden,” has leased a Beverly Hills-area home on nearly five acres for three months.
The Oscar-winning actor is in town to work with Forest Whitaker and Michael Madsen on the MGM sci-fi action-thriller “Species,” which begins shooting on Monday. “Death and the Maiden,” shot in France and Spain last spring, is expected to be released in December.
Kingsley, 50, lives primarily in his native England, where he was an accomplished stage performer with the Royal Shakespeare Company before he won a best actor Academy Award with his first major film performance, the title role in “Gandhi” (1982).
Since then, he has appeared in a number of films, including “Bugsy” (1992), playing gangster Meyer Lansky, and “Schindler’s List” (1993), as Schindler’s Jewish accountant. Kingsley also played Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal in an HBO movie (1988).
Kingsley leased a three-bedroom home for a bit more than $8,000 a month, sources say. The home, described as “a 2,000-square-foot cottage,” has detached guest quarters and a sunny pool area. It is situated on a promontory with canyon views.
Barbara Robinson of Rodeo Realty, Beverly Hills, represented Kingsley, and Elaine Young and Paul Czako of Coldwell Banker Residential Real Estate, Beverly Hills, represented the lessor.
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A Malibu home once owned by businessman-turned-art collector NORTON SIMON, who died last year, and his wife, actress Jennifer Jones, has come on the market at $8.75 million.
Originally built in the 1950s, the residence was also owned at one time by director John Frankenheimer (“Birdman of Alcatraz,” “52 Pick-Up”).
Beverly Hills real estate broker Stan Herman has owned the home, with its 100 feet of Carbon Beach frontage, for the past four years. During that time, Herman totally remodeled it.
The home has five bedrooms in about 5,500 square feet plus an 80-foot-long swimming pool, 19-foot-high living room ceiling and a beach-facing wall of glass, which opens hydraulically.
Herman decided to sell the home to move to Montecito, where he plans to open a satellite office. He also listed the house next door to his Malibu home at $2 million, including 50 feet of beach frontage. That house, which Herman also owns, could be used for staff, he said.
PATRICK LEONARD--a songwriter and keyboard player famous as a favorite writing/producing collaborator with Madonna and Bryan Ferry--and his wife, Susan, have sold their Flintridge home for nearly its $2.1-million asking price and moved to a ranch they bought in Colorado, sources say.
Leonard, who also has worked with Rod Stewart and others, won a BMI award for his movie score “No Way Out.”
The Flintridge home, which has four bedrooms in 5,000 square feet and a guest house, was sold to the first person who looked at it and represents the highest priced home sale to date in La Canada Flintridge, according to listing agent John Tartaglione, Douglas Properties director with Jon Douglas Co.’s Pasadena office.
The buyer was described as a businessman who is relocating from Northern California.
Former Lakers forward-center JACK HALEY, now with the San Antonio Spurs, and his wife, Stacey, a model and actress, have purchased a Westwood townhouse, where they will live off-season while he is training at UCLA, sources say.
Haley, a Southern California surfer who was on the Bruins’ team for three years but never played high school basketball, was in the NBA for the Chicago Bulls, the New York Nets and the Lakers before he joined Magic Johnson’s All-Star squad in a series of exhibition games. A veteran free agent, Haley signed with the Spurs last December.
The Haleys purchased a newly built, three-level townhouse for $385,000, after an escrow period of only five days, sources said.
The Haleys were represented in the purchase by Alex Olmedo Jr., whose father led the United States to victory over Australia in the Davis Cup matches of 1958 and who won the U.S. indoor and Wimbledon championships in 1959. Olmedo Jr. is with Jon Douglas Co., Brentwood.
L.A. architect CORKY KORKOWSKI, who has owned the Northern California town of Dinsmore since 1972, has put it on the market at $1.75 million. When he first listed the town in 1992, he was asking $3.75 million.
The recession prompted him to take the town off the market for awhile, but Korkowski, a grandfather in his 60s, is now living in Los Angeles to be closer to his children, who grew up in Dinsmore fishing for salmon and hiking through the hillsides.
The town, which is in Humboldt County about 290 miles north of San Francisco, has five miles of river frontage and is a gateway to a national forest. It also has a 10-bedroom lodge and conference center, horse-training facilities, three houses, 13 cabins and 21 mobile home/RV spaces. Bernice Gershon of Coldwell Banker, Beverly Hills, has the listing.
