Something Worth Crooning About
Singer Eddie Fisher and his wife, Betty Lin, have sold a Hollywood Hills home, which they owned with her family, for $5.35 million.
Her son and daughter-in-law lived in the house, which was purchased for $3.2 million in 1996, three years after the singer and his wife, a Hong Kong heiress, were married. They live in San Francisco.
This year’s sale is a high point for the Sunset Plaza area, real estate sources said. The asking price was $6.25 million.
Eddie Fisher, 71, co-wrote the book “Been There, Done That,” published by St. Martin’s Press in 1999. The singer, who bridged the gap between Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley as a teen singing idol of the ‘50s, still ranks high in terms of record sales.
He also had many celebrity wives, including actresses Debbie Reynolds, Elizabeth Taylor and Connie Stevens. Reynolds and Taylor will co-star this fall with Shirley MacLaine and Lauren Bacall in the ABC movie “These Old Broads,” co-written by Carrie Fisher, Eddie Fisher’s daughter with Reynolds.
Eddie Fisher also hosted his own TV show in the ‘50s, before he won tabloid notoriety with his divorce from Reynolds and marriage in 1959 to Taylor. During the ‘60s and ‘70s, he headlined in Las Vegas.
The Hollywood Hills house was built in 1994 by a German manufacturer who never lived there. A striking contemporary, the seven-bedroom three-story house has an art gallery foyer with a glass ceiling and glass stairs.
The 11,000-square-foot home, on a promontory with panoramic city-to-ocean views, also has a master suite, three family suites, a media room and a two-bedroom guest house.
It was sold to a computer executive in his late 20s who is moving from the East Coast.
Ernie Carswell and Theresa Jacobs of Coldwell Banker Previews, Beverly Hills North, had the listing, and James Hancock, of the same office, represented the buyer.
The longtime Malibu retreat of the late Walter Matthau and his wife, Carol, has come on the market at $5.5 million.
The Oscar-winning actor, best known for his many roles opposite Jack Lemmon in such movies as “The Odd Couple” (1968) and “Grumpy Old Men” (1993), died July 1 at 79. His most recent film was this year’s comedy, “Hanging Up,” with Diane Keaton, Meg Ryan and Lisa Kudrow.
The Matthaus had owned their Malibu home since 1987.
The traditional-style 4,200-square-foot house on the beach has four bedrooms plus maid’s quarters, a living room with a fireplace, a family room and a master suite with a fireplace and deck.
Built in 1963, the house, described as “light and bright with wood floors,” has been refurbished.
Valerie Fitzgerald of Coldwell Banker Previews, Beverly Hills South, has the listing.
Paul Michael Glaser, actor-turned-director (he played Starsky in the ‘70s TV series “Starsky and Hutch”) and pediatric AIDS activist, has sold his Santa Monica home for about its $3.6-million asking price.
Glaser, 57, was married to Elizabeth Glaser, who died of AIDS at 47 in 1994. She had contracted the HIV virus through a blood transfusion in 1981 and unknowingly passed it on to the couple’s infant daughter while nursing. The Glasers’ son, born in 1984, also contracted the virus from his mother.
After the couple’s daughter died in 1988, Elizabeth Glaser co-founded the Pediatric AIDS Foundation, which became the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation in 1997.
Glaser has been directing TV shows and movies since his days on “Starsky and Hutch.” He made his debut as a feature-film producer for the Shaquille O’Neal movie “Kazaam,” which he also directed, in 1996. That same year he married Tracy Barone, a production company executive.
The director-producer had lived in his home for about 18 years.
Described as “a classic 1924 hacienda,” the 7,000-square-foot home, on a double lot, includes a guest house. The buyer is a Pasadena sculptor.
Stephen Shapiro of Westside Estate Agency, Beverly Hills, had the listing.
Robert L. Boyett of Miller/Boyett Productions has listed his townhouse in the gated Century City community of Century Woods at $4.9 million. Boyett is moving to New York along with his production offices.
He was executive producer for such recent TV series as “Two of a Kind,” “Step by Step,” “Family Matters,” “Full House” and “Perfect Strangers.”
His townhouse was built for him in 1994. It has five bedrooms and five baths in about 7,000 square feet. It also has a courtyard with a fountain and spa. The master suite has a fireplace, and there are three other suites.
The community has a tennis court, two swimming pools, a gym and a 24-hour-a-day security guard.
Ron Carlton of Hilton & Hyland, Beverly Hills, has the listing.
Harvey and Ellen Knell, who own the Greene & Greene Blacker House in Pasadena, have purchased a three-bedroom 2,500-square-foot neighboring home for close to its $1.47-million asking price.
Before it was subdivided, the property on which the Blacker House sits included the neighboring site.
Built in 1907 for retired Michigan lumberman Robert R. Blacker, the heavy timbered mansion was, at 12,000 square feet, the largest and most elaborate commission of Charles and Henry Greene in their wooden-bungalow style.
The house, one of about 50 homes in the L.A. area that will be open in September for dinners to benefit the L.A. County Museum of Art, was purchased by the Knells after a Texas cattleman, who bought it in 1985, stripped the house of its Greene & Greene light fixtures, stained-glass doors and window transoms. The Knells spent years restoring the house.
“Greene & Greene: The Blacker House,” a coffee-table book about its restoration, is expected to be published in August. It was written by Randell L. Makinson, Thomas A. Heinz and actor Brad Pitt.
The actor, who owns a Craftsman-style house in the L.A. area, did a photo essay for the book (Gibbs Smith Publisher, Salt Lake City, $49.95).
Boyd Smith and Maggie Navarro of Coldwell Banker Previews, Pasadena, were selling agents for the neighboring property.
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 for more Hot Properties. Ruth Ryon can be e-mailed at ruth.ryon@latimes.com.
