Stars Fall for Home in Hills
GENIE FRANCIS, best known as Laura on the daytime soap opera “General Hospital,” and her husband, JONATHAN FRAKES, who plays Commander William Riker on the hit syndicated science-fiction series “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” have purchased a Beverly Hills-area home built a couple of years ago by actress Jane Seymour and her then-husband David Flynn.
Francis, 32, joined ABC’s “General Hospital” when she was 14. She went on to become half of the soap’s Luke and Laura team, TV’s most talked-about romance of the early 1980s. The couple’s TV wedding in 1981 remains the highest-rated soap event ever.
Both Francis and Tony Geary, who plays Luke, left the soap about 10 years ago and rejoined it as the older Luke and Laura in October, 1993. During the interim, Francis appeared in the soap “All My Children,” the miniseries “North and South” (Books I and II) and the series “Bare Essence.”
She also married Frakes, who co-starred in “Bare Essence” and the first two books of “North and South” plus this year’s “John Jakes’ Heaven and Hell: North and South, Part III.” Frakes played Commander Riker, Captain Picard’s No. 1 man, on the sci-fi smash since 1987 and directed the second part of the two-part opening episode of this season’s “Deep Space 9.”
The home that Francis and Frakes bought is a 10,000-square-foot, Georgian Colonial on slightly more than an acre. The brick estate has five bedrooms plus two maids’ quarters, a gym, screening room, two-story entry, pool and cabana with changing rooms.
The house was one of a number that Seymour and Flynn developed during the 1980s and early 1990s. Overseen by Flynn, whom Seymour later divorced, the newly built or renovated homes were designed for the pair, but most were sold at a profit before they moved in, sources say.
The house that Francis and Frakes bought was in foreclosure. Flynn and Seymour paid $2.3 million for the property in 1990, but the home they built there was sold to Francis and Frakes for close to its last asking price of $1.6 million. The bank that held the first trust deed, valued at just under $3 million, was the seller.
The house still has some work to be done but is almost completed, sources say. Francis and Frakes had been living in a small house in the Hollywood Hills. “This was quite a move up for them,” a source said.
Rod Ostrom and Carl Romeo of Jon Douglas Co., Sunset Strip, represented Francis and Frakes in buying the home, and Larry Bobshow of White House Properties, Encino, represented the bank.
GLEN LARSON, writer and executive producer of last summer’s replacement series “One West Waikiki” (starring Cheryl Ladd as a medical examiner), has sold his Holmby Hills home for slightly more than $6 million, including some furnishings.
Larson, 56, was one of the Four Preps singing group during the 1950s who went on to become a gold record-winning songwriter (“26 Miles”), producer and director (“McCloud,” “The Six Million Dollar Man”) and co-writer of TV series (“It Takes a Thief,” “Simon and Simon,” “The Road Raiders”).
He sold his home of nine years because he moved to a rental while building a home for himself and his wife. “His kids grew up, and his house was too big for him,” a source said.
The house, originally on the market in 1989 at $18 million but was most recently listed at $7.9 million, has six bedrooms, a two-lane bowling alley, recording studio and projection room, all in about 23,000 square feet. Built in 1926, the house was completely remodeled in recent years. The 1.2-acre grounds also have a pool and tennis court.
A manufacturer of art graphics and his wife bought the home. They have two children.
Victoria Risko and Kurt Rappaport of Fred Sands Estates, Beverly Hills, represented the buyers.
A 600-acre Santa Barbara-area ranch that has been owned by the same family since 1882 has come on the market at $7.1 million.
Situated along the coast, on the borders of Santa Barbara and Ventura counties, the Rincon Del Mar Ranch, owned by descendants of Dr. C. W. Bates and originally part of a 7,000-acre Mexican land grant, will be sold as part of a court order to settle a dispute among Bates’ heirs.
“There are 20 different owners who want to go their separate ways,” said Eldon D. Shiffman of Santa Ynez, the consultant facilitating the sale.
A few acres of the ranch have been sold off over the years, including the site now known as Rincon Point, a community of beachfront homes where Kevin Costner owns a residence, sources say. However, most of the ranch has remained intact, with the Bates family farming it since the early 1880s.
