Actor Bestows a Gift of Nature

Oscar-winning actor Walter Matthau, who co-stars with Meg Ryan, Lisa Kudrow and Diane Keaton in the upcoming Keaton-directed movie “Hanging Up,” and his wife, Carol, have donated 32 acres of forest and meadow to a land preservation trust in Roxbury, Conn.

The Matthaus, who live in Southern California, sold a 6.7-acre Roxbury property with two cottages, which they have owned for about 20 years, for $625,000. Then they donated the adjacent 32-acre parcel, valued at $236,000, to the trust.

The 28-year-old trust now owns about 1,700 acres, some of it donated by such celebrities as actor Richard Widmark. Widmark, who still owns a home in Roxbury, recently gave a piece of his property, which has a schoolhouse on it, to the trust in his wife’s memory.

Widmark, who was instrumental in persuading the Matthaus to donate land to the trust, had sold the Matthaus their Roxbury property “sight unseen over dinner in California,” said Dave Beglan, the trust’s president.

Other personalities who still own property in the small community (with a population of 1,900) are Dustin Hoffman and Arthur Miller. Artist Alexander Calder maintained his home and studio there from 1933 to 1976, when he died. Earlier this year, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Frank McCourt, who wrote “Angela’s Ashes,” bought an eight-room house on 25 acres there for $1.25 million.

The Matthaus came to Roxbury to unwind, Beglan said, but they sometimes skipped going there for two or three years at a time, mostly because of the actor’s busy schedule.

Matthau, 78, won best supporting actor Oscar for his role as an unethical lawyer in “The Fortune Cookie” (1966). He won a Tony as best actor in “The Odd Couple” (1965) and co-starred in the 1968 and 1998 film versions with Jack Lemmon, with whom he teamed in such other movies as “Grumpier Old Men” (1995).

Matthau was in an L.A.-area hospital from May until earlier this month with pneumonia, but he is home in California now, his agent said. “Hanging Up” is due to be released Dec. 25.

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Philadelphia 76ers Coach Larry Brown, who once took an underdog team at UCLA to the NCAA championship game and who has brought six NBA teams to the playoffs, and his wife, Shelly, have listed their Malibu retreat on Carbon Beach at $2.75 million, furnished.

Brown, 58, coached Team USA for the Olympic-qualifying tournament this summer. He took over the Philadelphia 76ers in May 1997.

The Browns’ Malibu home has three bedrooms in about 2,000 square feet, and it is on 50 feet of beach. The Cape Cod-style home was recently remodeled and has marble baths, a granite kitchen and wood floors. It was owned at one time by composer Marvin Hamlisch.

Jay Rubenstein of Coldwell Banker Previews, Malibu West office, and Dave Osman of the company’s Marina office share the listing.

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A Laughlin Park home owned for nearly 40 years by director Cecil B. DeMille has been sold for $3.8 million.

DeMille bought the house, where Charlie Chaplin previously lived, in about 1920, and he owned it until he died in 1959. DeMille’s family continued to own the home until 1988.

During DeMille’s ownership, the house was connected to one that he also owned next door by a 60-foot glass-enclosed loggia designed by Hearst Castle architect Julia Morgan.

A couple who bought the compound in 1996 restored the former Chaplin home, which DeMille had used as a large screening room and offices, and separated the houses by removing part of the loggia. The couple, who live in the original DeMille house, also added a pool to the Chaplin property before selling it.

The Chaplin house has five bedrooms plus maid’s quarters and two fireplaces in about 7,000 square feet. The Mediterranean-style gated home also has city views and a concrete film vault, which DeMille may have built.

The house was not listed, but Brett Lawyer at Nourmand & Associates, Beverly Hills, represented both sides of the transaction, sources said.

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A Beverly Hills home designed by architect Charles Young with I.M. Pei has come on the market at $4.9 million.

Built four years ago, the Modernist house, with soaring ceilings and skylights, has five bedrooms in 9,000 square feet. The master suite has a fireplace, terrace with city views, sauna, steam shower, spa and heated marble floors.

Other features are an elevator, temperature-controlled wine-storage room and walk-in cigar humidor.

Joyce Rey and Cecelia Waeschle share the listing at Coldwell Banker Previews, Beverly Hills.

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Cindy Costner, actor-director Kevin Costner’s ex-wife, has listed her home in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains at $3 million and has bought a 1940s home designed by architect Paul Williams for about $2 million.

She plans to build after tearing down the Williams house, which is on slightly more than an acre with a pool. The property also has two guest houses, one of which Costner plans to maintain.

Costner’s current home, built in 1989, has five bedrooms. The Mediterranean-style house, on just under an acre behind gates, also has limestone floors, custom-painted murals, dome ceilings, a sports court, pool and spa.

Janice T. McGlashan of Podley, Caughey and Doan has the listing

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Clarification: Actor Joel Grey does not plan to move completely out of the L.A. area as a headline may have suggested (Hot Property, Sept. 12), a spokesman for him said.

“He is actively looking for a replacement pied-a-terre and will always have a place out here, because he works here so much,” said Barry Sloane of Fred Sands Estates, Beverly Hills. Sloane has the listing on Grey’s Hollywood Hills house.

Did you miss Thursday’s Hot Property column in Southern California Living? Want to see previous columns on celebrity real estate transactions? Visit https://www.latimes.com/hotproperty on the Internet.