Neighbor Quest in Montecito
John Cleese, a creator and star of the BBC-TV series “Monty Python’s Flying Circus,” has listed a beachfront Montecito home that he owns at just under $5.5 million.
The British comedian plays the owner of a TV network on the ABC sitcom “Wednesday 9:30 (8:30 Central),” which will debut Wednesday night.
“I’m not just selling a house. I’m buying a neighbor,” Cleese said by phone from his home next door, which he has owned since 1994.
When the house he’s selling came on the market about a year ago, he purchased it so he could choose who would live there.
“I said to my wife that we were too old to move again,” said Cleese, 62. “We’re looking for a film director or maybe a scriptwriter--someone who doesn’t have loud parties. The house has a big, wide front and no garden behind, so it’s not so good for kids.”
The house has four bedrooms and 4.5 bathrooms in about 6,000 square feet. The living room has wood floors, beam ceilings and walls of glass. The kitchen opens to an atrium dining bay overlooking the beach. The master bedroom suite has an office-exercise room. The ground floor has a wine closet and French doors that lead to the 90-foot wooden deck on the sand.
The three-level house, with an elevator, also has a large “fun room” at beach level with a sauna, wet bar and fireplace.
“Occasionally we see a dozen surfers,” Cleese said, “but the houses are in a little enclave.”
He was drawn to his home after the 1994 Northridge earthquake. He and his wife, Alyce Faye, were staying on the 13th floor of an L.A. hotel when the quake hit. “When they allowed us to escape, we drove up the coast and fell in love with Santa Barbara,” he said.
The couple maintain a home in London but now spend more than six months of the year in Southern California. “There are a lot of reasons to be here,” he said. “Ninety percent of my work is here.”
He has a recurring role on the upcoming series, which co-stars Ed Begley Jr. and Ivan Sergei. Six episodes have been filmed. “In May, we’ll await our fate,” Cleese said.
In July, he’ll film his part for the next Harry Potter movie. He played Nearly Headless Nick in “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.”
In January, he filmed his role as R, Q’s assistant in the 20th James Bond movie. He played R in “The World Is Not Enough” (1999).
Cleese, who also appeared in the movie “Rat Race” (2001), acted in and co-wrote all of the Monty Python feature films and also wrote the screenplay for and was executive producer of “A Fish Called Wanda” (1988), co-starring Jamie Lee Curtis, Kevin Kline and former Monty Python member Michael Palin.
Randy Solakian of Coldwell Banker Previews, Montecito, has the listing.
Chris Evans, a British radio DJ and TV host who became a multimillionaire media mogul in the U.K., and his pop-star wife, Billie Piper, have purchased a Sunset Strip-area home for about $7.2 million.
Evans, 36, and Piper, 19, were married last May in Las Vegas. They also have a flat in London and a manor house in Surrey. They bought in L.A. because he plans to negotiate TV work here, sources said. (He was reported to have sold his Ginger Media Group two years ago for roughly $320 million.) The couple purchased a one-story, 6,000-square-foot villa with five bedrooms, six bathrooms and city-to-ocean views. The master suite has a sitting room and his and hers bathrooms. Built in 1979, the home also has a guest house, tennis court and pool.
Piper is known for her so-called brat anthem “Because We Want To,” which made it big on British radio in 1998 when she was 16. Evans was a DJ then.
Jeff Hyland of Hilton & Hyland, Beverly Hills, had the listing, and Gordon MacGeachy of the same firm represented the buyers, other sources said.
Marvel Smith--the 6-foot-5-inch, 310-pound starting offensive tackle with the Pittsburgh Steelers--and his wife, Kellie, have purchased an off-season home in Canyon Country, just north of Valencia in the Santa Clarita Valley, for about $500,000.
The football player just finished his second year with the Steelers, and NFL insiders say that he is a future pro-bowl selection.
His California home, which was built in 1999, has six bedrooms in slightly more than 3,000 square feet. The Smiths’ primary residence is in Pittsburgh.
Jordan Cohen, estates director, Re/Max Olson, Westlake Village, represented the Smiths in their purchase.
Anne Francis, who was recently cast to star in a TV movie based on the life of controversial former Cincinnati Reds partner Marge Schott, has purchased a three-bedroom condo in Montecito for $800,000.
Francis, who won a Golden Globe for her performance in the ‘60s series “Honey West” and also appeared in such feature films as “Funny Girl” (1968) with Barbra Streisand and “Blackboard Jungle” (1955) with Glenn Ford, also sold her Palm Springs home for $525,000.
Gene Corman’s Chateau Productions recently cast Francis to star in the movie “Out of Her League,” based on the life of Schott, who was banned from baseball in 1993 for her racially insensitive remarks.
Schott was forced to sell her partnership for $67 million after baseball commissioner Bud Selig ordered her to give up her controlling interest. The movie will go into production early next year.
Dan Marriott, senior vice president of strategic planning for USA Networks Inc., and his wife, Cara, have listed their Spanish Colonial-style home near Caltech in Pasadena for about $1.6 million.
The Marriotts are moving to New York so he can work at the corporate offices of USA Networks.
The couple bought the home two years ago from Scott Weiland, lead singer of the rock group Stone Temple Pilots, and his former wife, Jannina.
Built in 1929 and designed by architect John Paul Jones, the house has four bedrooms in about 3,400 square feet. The home also has hand-hewn beams, arches, Spanish tiles, many built-ins and French doors.
Patti Sano of Coldwell Banker, Old Pasadena, and Carol Thomson of Coldwell Banker, San Marino, have the listing.
The Beverly Hills home of the late Freddy de Cordova, a longtime producer of the NBC “Tonight Show” with Johnny Carson, and his wife, Janet, has been sold. The asking price was about $2.5 million.
The producer, who also directed the Ronald Reagan movie “Bedtime for Bonzo” (1951), died in September at age 90. His widow moved to Century City.
Built for the producer and his wife in 1965, the 4,400-square-foot house has two master suites, a bedroom-den, maid’s room, library and pool.
Bernice and Janine Gershon of Coldwell Banker, Beverly Hills South, had the listing.
Want to see previous columns on celebrity realty transactions? Visit www.latimes.com/hotproperty for more Hot Properties.
