‘Rockford’ Files a Ranch Listing
JAMES GARNER, who co-stars with Paul Newman and Susan Sarandon in the upcoming movie “The Magic Hour,” and his wife, Lois, have put their 400-acre Santa Ynez Valley ranch and newly built 8,000-square-foot house there on the market at $9.4 million.
The couple, married 41 years, decided to sell the property because of his heavy workload, sources said.
Garner, in his 60s, just finished “The Magic Hour,” co-starring Gene Hackman. The movie, directed by Robert Benton, is to be released Dec. 19.
Garner also just completed two two-hour “Rockford Files” for CBS. He earned an Emmy for outstanding lead actor in the ‘70s TV series. In 1994, he began reprising his role as private eye Jim Rockford in a series of movies for TV.
The Garners, who also have a home in the L.A. area, bought their ranch in 1991 from movie director Herb Ross (“The Sunshine Boys,” “Steel Magnolias,” “Funny Girl”) and his wife, Lee Radziwill, sister of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.
The ranch, in the Foxen Canyon Wine Trail area, is heavily wooded but has about 22 acres planted in chardonnay grapes, which have produced some award-winning wines made by Zaca Mesa and other wineries.
The Garners just completed building the six-bedroom main house. The entry leads through a glass hallway bordered by exterior gardens and pools to a great room with two fireplaces and a cathedral ceiling.
The house has electronically controlled window shades, an exercise-recreation room, a temperature-controlled wine cellar and a slate patio with an infinity-edge pool, remote-controlled spa and changing room. Two guest bedrooms have separate exterior stairways.
The ranch also has a three-bedroom manager’s house, a four-stall barn, a croquet court, koi ponds and a reservoir.
T. Hayer & Associates in Solvang has the listing.
Basketball legend KAREEM ABDUL-JABBAR, who wrote the book “Black Profiles in Courage” last year and is following it up this year with a book about Buffalo Bill Cody, has sold a Century City condo that he and his father owned for close to its asking price of $299,000.
Abdul-Jabbar’s father, Ferdinand Lewis Alcindor, is now living with the NBA Hall-of-Famer in his Beverly Hills-area home, sources say. Abdul-Jabbar’s mother, Cora, died last spring at age 79.
Abdul-Jabbar, 50, recently completed a house addition and construction of a sports court at his home, all designed by architect Gus Duffy, who is also working with the basketball great on building a retreat in Colorado.
Jana Jones of Coldwell Banker-Jon Douglas Co., Beverly Hills, had the listing on the two-bedroom 1,300-square-foot condo.
Singer LINDA RONSTADT has listed her San Francisco home of about 10 years to live full time in her native Arizona. “She has two brothers, a sister and a cousin in Arizona, and since she is a single mother raising two kids, her family will help,” a source said.
The 51-year-old singer has performed a variety of music during the last 30 years, ranging from folk-rock to country, pop, big band, jazz, new wave, opera, R&B;, Broadway classics and mariachi, which she learned as a child from her Mexican American father in Tucson.
Last year, she released an album of pop lullabies inspired by her two adopted children.
The San Francisco house is on the market at $5.85 million. Victorian in style, it was built in 1898 but was completely refurbished in 1988. The 8,000-square-foot house has seven bedrooms, a music room, playroom, office, dumbwaiter and seven fireplaces.
Elizabeth S. Pfau of Hill & Co., San Francisco, has the listing.
TV producer-director SHELLEY CURTIS (“General Hospital”) and her husband, cardiologist Frank Litvack, have purchased a newly built 10,000-square-foot house on about 1.5 acres in Bel-Air for $4.5 million, sources say.
The gated French chateau-style home has a tennis court, pool, spa, screening room, library and gym.
The sellers, developers Elliott and Michael Fitzgerald, are building six to eight 12,000- to 20,000-square-foot houses in the Beverly Hills/Bel-Air area, a source said.
Joe Babajian and Victoria Lockwood, both of Fred Sands Estates in Beverly Hills, had the listing, and Steve Frankel, also of Fred Sands Estates, and Linda May of Coldwell Banker-Jon Douglas Co. in Beverly Hills represented the buyers, other sources said.
JOHN ALES, star of the new TV sitcom “You Wish,” bought a Hollywood Hills home for close to its $675,000 asking price just before ABC canceled the series in late October. The series, about a magical genie in a single-family household, will continue airing for a few weeks.
The seller was Robb Dalton, a CBS development and production executive at Eyemark Entertainment. Dalton oversees such series as Dan Aykroyd’s “PSI Factor: Chronicles of the Paranormal,” “The Martha Stewart Show” and James Brolin’s new action drama “Pensacola.”
Ales’ new home was built in 1932 and was rented during the 1940s by actor Ronald Reagan and his then-wife, actress Jane Wyman, sources say.
The house has a pool, wine cellar and English garden.
Alan Long of DBL, Sunset Strip, had the listing.
GARY GERSH, president and CEO of Capitol Records, and his wife, Maria, have sold a 1.6-acre parcel in Mandeville Canyon for close to its $1.85 million asking price, sources say.
Formerly with Geffen Records, Gersh became the head of Capitol in 1993 at age 37; he oversees all company operations as well as Blue Note Records and the Capitol Recording Studios. Maria Gersh is the daughter of MGM Chairman Frank Mancuso.
The Gershes had planned to build on the site but changed their minds and, instead, bought a house some time ago in another part of Brentwood.
A Westside businessman and his wife bought the land, and they plan to build there, sources say.
Rick Chimienti of DBL Estates in Beverly Hills had the listing.
JEREMY ZIMMER, an agent and partner at United Talent Agency, has purchased a Brentwood home for $2 million from TV producer-writer Gail Parent (“Tracey Takes On . . . “), sources say. Parent produced “The Golden Girls” before taking on Tracey Ullman’s HBO show.
Zimmer leased the 5,000-square-foot country-style home for a couple of years before buying it, a source said. The house has four bedrooms plus guest quarters, a pool, spa, cabana and paddle tennis court.
Ania Patterson of Kerry Patterson Realty had the listing, and Paul Czako of Hilton & Hyland, Beverly Hills, represented Zimmer, other sources said.
