Tuesdays and More in Beverly Hills
Hank Azaria, who won an Emmy earlier this month as supporting actor in the ABC movie “Oprah Winfrey Presents: Tuesdays With Morrie,” starring Jack Lemmon, has purchased a Beverly Hills-area home for just under $2 million.
The newly built house has four bedrooms in nearly 5,000 square feet. It was designed to resemble the late Frank Lloyd Wright’s style of architecture. The home also has a pool and a spa. A creek runs through the half-acre property.
Azaria, 36, and his wife, actress Helen Hunt, were separated in May. The two were married in July 1999; they had been together since 1994.
Since winning the Emmy, Azaria has been in talks with writer Seth Kurland (“Friends,” “Mad About You”) to star in a TV comedy series, probably for ABC.
Azaria played the recurring role of Nat, the dog walker, in “Mad About You.” He joined the cast, co-starring Hunt, in 1996, the same year he played a Guatemalan houseboy in the movie “The Birdcage.” Since then he has co-starred in a number of movies, including Tim Robbins’ “Cradle Will Rock” (1999) and the two-hour CBS film “Fail Safe,” which aired in April.
Azaria, who also did voices for the animated sci-fi movie “Titan A.E.,” which opened in June, won a 1998 Emmy for his longtime voice-over work on “The Simpsons.” Among his many characterizations are Moe the Bartender, Apu the Kwik-E-Mart owner and Police Chief Wiggum.
No Realtors were involved in the transaction, sources said.
Sela Ward, who won an Emmy this month as lead actress in the drama series “Once and Again,” and her husband, venture capitalist Howard Sherman, have purchased a Beverly Hills compound for $4.9 million.
The couple listed their former Beverly Hills home, designed by the late architect Paul Williams, in July for just under $2.5 million. Built in 1926, the Spanish-style house has three bedrooms plus a guest cottage.
Their new home is on slightly more than an acre and has five bedrooms and a great room (country kitchen-family room) plus a guest house, detached studio-pavilion or second guest house, a tennis court, a pool and grassy lawns. The gated home is reached by a long private driveway. The French Normandy-style main house was built five years ago.
Ward, 44, co-starred in the NBC series “Sisters” (1993-94), in which she won her first Emmy. She starred in “Almost Golden: The Jessica Savitch Story” (1995) on Lifetime.
In “Once and Again,” Ward plays Lily Manning, a divorced mother of two who falls in love with a divorced father. She also appears in TV commercials for Sprint.
Stephen G. Baker of Coldwell Banker Previews, Beverly Hills North, represented the seller of the home that Ward and Sherman purchased. The seller is a music industry executive.
Margie Oswald of Coldwell Banker Previews, Beverly Hills South, represented Ward and Sherman in buying and has the listing on their former home.
The former Encino home of Mario “Suge” Knight has been sold for close to its $4.5-million asking price in an all-cash deal signed within 48 hours of its coming on the market.
The sale, a record for the San Fernando Valley, follows the previous high paid by “Friends” actor Matt LeBlanc in 1999, when he bought a two-acre Encino home for about $3.5 million, including furnishings.
Knight built Death Row Records into a top rap label before he was sentenced in 1997, at age 31, to nine years in state prison. His case stemmed from a 1992 assault relating to the death of rapper Tupac Shakur.
Knight was building the house when he was jailed. A subsequent owner finished construction.
The Mediterranean-style house has seven bedrooms in slightly more than 17,700 square feet.
The gated home, on about 1.5 acres, also has a pool with a swim-up bar, a tennis court, a movie theater with concession stand, a full gym, an elevator, a master suite occupying the entire second floor, three guest houses and a hidden safe room that is bulletproof.
Bob Hurwitz of Hurwitz James Co., Beverly Hills, had the listing.
The buyer, a European businessman, was represented by Diana MacIntyre of Prudential John Aaroe, Encino, and Beverly Nunez of Coldwell Banker Previews, Brentwood.
A Century City condo owned by former L.A. Rams general manager Don Klosterman, who died at 70 in June, has been listed at $675,000.
The unit, on the 25th floor of a 28-story tower, has mountain and city views. Built in 1964, the recently remodeled condo has one bedroom with a sitting area and a steam shower in the master bath.
Klosterman was an All-American quarterback at Loyola who led the nation in passing in 1951 before he became a backup to Bob Waterfield and Norm Van Brocklin on the Rams.
After a skiing accident, Klosterman became a football executive with the Los Angeles Chargers, then the Houston Oilers, the Baltimore Colts, the Rams and the USFL’s Los Angeles Express. In his later years, he was active in Loyola Marymount alumni affairs and the California Special Olympics.
Cynthia Radom of Coldwell Banker, Beverly Hills South, has the listing.
Songwriter Rick Nowels, who wrote three tracks on Madonna’s album “Ray of Light,” has purchased a former Brentwood home of director Francis Ford Coppola for about its $985,000 asking price.
The 2,200-square-foot house, which Coppola owned soon after it was built in 1960, is an A-frame chalet with views of Mandeville Canyon.
The seller was architect Peter Maurer, owner of studio bau:ton, architecture & acoustics in Los Angeles. Bau:ton specializes in the design and construction of recording studios.
Mitchell Bravo of Re/Max Estates, Beverly Hills, had the listing.
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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.
Inside: Sela Ward, Don Klosterman and Rick Nowels.
