Bel-Air Estate Doesn’t Fit Fonz
HENRY WINKLER, who co-stars opposite Adam Sandler in the upcoming comedy film “The Water Boy,” and Winkler’s wife, Stacey, have sold their Bel-Air home for $6.3 million, sources say.
The buyer is said to be a Los Angeles businessman who bought the house as a wedding gift for one of his daughters.
In “The Water Boy,” Winkler plays a college football coach. The comedy, co-starring Kathy Bates, is scheduled to start shooting Monday in Orlando, Fla. Winkler’s most recent movie role was as the doomed principal in Wes Craven’s horror hit “Scream” (1996).
Winkler, 52, gained fame as the lovable Fonzie, or “The Fonz,” on the sitcom “Happy Days” (ABC, 1974-84). He and singer-songwriter David Capri wrote “Happy Days: The Musical,” which is expected to open on London’s West End later this year.
Winkler has been a director for the TV series “Clueless” (1996-98) and is executive producer of the Showtime anthology series “Dead Man’s Gun,” in which he also has appeared. He was executive producer of the series “MacGyver” (1985-92) and two “MacGyver” TV movies in 1994.
The Winklers purchased their Bel-Air home in the fall of 1993 from producer Lee Rich. Built in 1934, the country English-style home with four bedrooms over 9,000 square feet was extensively remodeled by the Winklers shortly after they purchased it.
About the same time that they bought the Bel-Air home, the Winklers sold their Toluca Lake home of 15 years to actor Andy Garcia and his wife, Marivi.
The Winklers are looking for a smaller home, sources say.
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Rock star OZZY OSBOURNE, the lead vocalist with Black Sabbath in the 1970s who went into a solo career in the ‘80s, has purchased a Beverly Hills home for about $3.5 million, sources say.
Osbourne, 49, a native of Birmingham, England, had been living at a Beverly Hills hotel just before buying the house. Before he moved into the hotel, he had leased actor Don Johnson’s Beverly Hills-area home, sources say.
The rock singer bought a recently built 9,000-square-foot estate behind gates. There is a main house with four bedrooms and maid’s quarters plus a two-story guest house with two bedrooms. The home also has a pool and a big backyard.
The traditional Mediterranean-style residence is a family-type home in the flats of Beverly Hills, sources say.
Loren Judd of Stan Herman/Stephen Shapiro & Associates, Beverly Hills, had the listing.
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IAN SANDER and KIM MOSES, executive producers of NBC’s “Profiler” detective series, have purchased an Encino home for about $1.5 million, sources say. Sander also was a producer and a director for the popular series “I’ll Fly Away” (1991-93).
They bought a five-bedroom 5,500-square-foot house with a pool and a spa on nearly an acre. The Mission-style house was built in 1928 as a nun’s retreat, a source said.
The couple sold their former home in Studio City in the $800,000 range, sources say.
Gillian Rendle of Fred Sands Estates, Beverly Hills, represented the couple in buying and selling their homes. Financing was arranged with Metrociti Mortgage by Michael Pynes, of the firm’s entertainment division.
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Emmy-winning writer MEL TOLKIN and his wife, EDITH, a retired vice president of legal affairs with Paramount Studios, have sold their Beverly Hills house with a view and are moving to a condo in the flats of Beverly Hills, a source said.
Their house sold for a bit more than its $650,000 asking price, other sources said.
Tolkin, in his early 80s, was a writer on the classic NBC 1950s comedy series “Your Show of Shows,” starring Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca. Neil Simon, Mel Brooks, Woody Allen and Larry Gelbart were other writers on the show, which also featured Carl Reiner and Howard Morris.
Tolkin went on to write for Danny Kaye, Danny Thomas and Bob Hope, and he was story editor for “All in the Family.”
Barbara Tenenbaum had the Tolkins’ listing at Fred Sands Estates, Directors office, Beverly Hills.
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EDITH TOOR, widow of Los Angeles Home Furnishings Mart founder and director Herbert Toor, has listed her Palm Springs home on 5 1/2 hillside acres at $2.5 million, including a Rolls-Royce.
The Toors, known as longtime desert philanthropists, built the house in 1967. Herbert Toor died in 1988 at age 88. Edith Toor plans to remain in the desert but in a smaller residence.
Her 4,100-square-foot ranch-style house, behind gates, has a pool, spa, full bar and 180-degree views of the Coachella Valley.
The house is in an older section of Palm Springs next to former homes of Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley, a source said.
Linda Taglianetti of Coldwell Banker-Jon Douglas Co., Newport Beach, has the listing.
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Part of late industrialist HENRY J. KAISER’s 7.2-acre estate on Oahu in Hawaii has been sold in fee simple for the first time.
The buyer, a Southern California businessman, purchased the Picnic House (also known as the Boathouse) on two acres for $5 million, a source said.
The 10,000-square-foot Picnic House, which has an elevator and an electric drawbridge, was used during the 1960s as a getaway by Jacqueline Kennedy and then by Lyndon Johnson. There was an air-conditioned doghouse on the parcel then, but it was razed, and a tennis court was built on the site.
The buyer plans to refurbish the existing house and staff quarters and may build another house on the land, according to listing agent Chris O’Brien, vice president of Coldwell Banker Pacific Properties, Honolulu.
The Picnic House was one of three mini-estates created when the 7.2-acre estate was subdivided. The remaining mini-estates include a 20,000-square-foot house on slightly more than three acres with a pool and tennis court, listed at just under $12 million, and a guest cottage with a pool and tennis court on two acres, listed at just under $6 million.
“The houses need to be renovated. The cost is in the land,” O’Brien said.
Kaiser, who died in the late 1960s, built his compound in 1959 on land he leased from the Kamehameha Bernice Pauahi Bishop Estate. The land is known for its views of Diamond Head.
