Encino Is Now Out of Jedi’s Orbit

Samuel L. Jackson, who plays Jedi Knight Mace Windu in “Star Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones,” and his actress wife, LaTanya Richardson, have sold their Encino home for just under $2 million.

The buyers are Christopher Knight, who owns L.A. Recording Workshop, and his wife, Rosanne. L.A. Recording Workshop is a vocational school in North Hollywood that teaches audio engineering. The buyers moved from a smaller home in Sherman Oaks.

Jackson and Richardson sold their Encino home because they bought a larger home in the Beverly Hills area nearly two years ago. They purchased that home from actress and former talk-show host Roseanne for about $8.9 million.

The home that Jackson and Richardson sold was built in 1981 and has a four-bedroom, 5,000-square-foot main house and a 3,000-square-foot guest house with a full kitchen. The English Tudor-style home is on about an acre, behind gates, and has a tennis court, pool and five-car garage. The property had a small putting green, which the buyers removed.

The actors’ new home has nine bedrooms in 11,000 square feet, and it is on two acres with a pool, spa, tennis court and rose garden.

The property also has a 2,300-square-foot synthetic putting green, which has three chipping areas and a sand trap. Scott Griggs, founder of Encinitas-based Southwest Greens of Southern California, completed the project for Jackson in March 2001. Jackson, 53, is an ardent golfer and hosts the annual Samuel L. Jackson Celebrity Golf Classic.

The Oscar nominee (for “Pulp Fiction,” 1994) also co-starred with Ben Affleck in “Changing Lanes,” which opened in April. He starred in the 2000 remake of “Shaft” and played Mace Windu in “Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace” (1999).

Richardson co-starred in A&E;’s recently canceled series “100 Centre Street,” and she has guest starred in a number of TV series during the last few years, including “Judging Amy,” “Once and Again” and “Ally McBeal.” She appeared with her husband in the movie “Losing Isaiah” (1995) and was in such other films as “U.S. Marshals” (1998), “Sleepless in Seattle” (1993) and “Malcolm X” (1992).

Alfie and Myrna Shanfeld at Coldwell Banker Previews, Encino, had the listing.

Shelley Berman, whose stand-up style influenced comedians such as Bob Newhart and Woody Allen, and his wife, Sarah, have put their Bell Canyon estate on the market at $1.3 million.

They bought the home 19 years ago because they wanted a property where they could keep a horse. The couple now want a smaller place closer to the actor-comedian’s work. He is in his 17th year of teaching humor writing in the masters of professional writing program at USC, and he is appearing more often on TV.

The Bermans’ ranch-style home is on 1.2 acres in a gated community with a tennis court and an equestrian center. The one-story, 6,000-square-foot house has six bedrooms and 61/2 bathrooms, soaring ceilings, a family room with a fireplace and a wet bar, and a large bonus room.

The property also has a grassy yard in a park-like setting, a circular driveway and a three-car garage.

The Grammy-winning comic, who was a regular on “The Ed Sullivan Show,” has played various characters on TV series, including “Friends” and “Providence.” He is still doing stand-up comedy and was a headliner at the Improv Comedy Club in Las Vegas in January. He is due to play Larry David’s father this summer in the TV series “Curb Your Enthusiasm.”

Berman, 76, starred on Broadway during the 1960s in the musical “A Family Affair” and his one-man show “Insideoutsideandallaround Shelley Berman.” He also has written three books, two plays and a number of TV pilots.

Doris and Hal Lazner of DBL, Beverly Hills, have the listing.

A 4.2-acre home site in Bel-Air has been sold for its $13.9-million asking price to two estate developers: Michael J. Fitzgerald and his brother, C. Elliott. They plan to build a major estate on the land, which was once a botanical garden for an adjacent home.

In 1950, the garden was sold, and a 7,600-square-foot house was built there for the late Al Hart, one of a group of businessmen who founded City National Bank. The house was razed after the property was sold to an international businessman in 1997.

The Fitzgeralds, already working on two major estate sites in the area, plan to build a 30,000-plus-square-foot home on the former Hart property. The asking price for the completed home could be as much as $35 million.

The land is choice because it is large, flat and in an exclusive part of Bel-Air. More than 50 specimen trees, 60 to 80 feet tall, remain on the site from its botanical-garden days.

Loren Judd of Westside Estate Agency, Beverly Hills, represented both sides in the deal.

Alison Arngrim, best known for playing the part of Nellie for seven seasons in the ‘70s TV series “Little House on the Prairie,” and her musician husband, Bob Schoonover of the rock band Catahoula, have listed their Hollywood Hills home at $545,000.

Built in 1945, the house has three bedrooms and 11/2 bathrooms in 1,200 square feet. The home also has a fireplace and canyon and greenbelt views.

The house has been in Arngrim’s show-biz family for more than 50 years. Her aunt, a concert soprano, and uncle, a classical violinist who appeared in several films, bought the house in 1946. Then Arngrim’s parents owned it.

Her father was a personal manager whose clients included Liberace, and her mother was the voice of Gumby and Casper the Friendly Ghost.

Arngrim, who is taking her stand-up comedy act to New York at the end of the month, and her husband, whose band will play at CityWalk on June 29, have lived in the house for about seven years.

They’re selling it, they said, because they are both doing more work out of town.

Steve Frankel of Coldwell Banker, Beverly Hills, has the listing.

J. Michael Dolan, publisher of Music Connection Magazine, and his wife, Nancy, have sold their Encino home of 10 years to film composer James L. Venable and his wife, Sophia, for $760,000.

The Dolans bought an ocean-view house in Ventura for $795,000.

The Cape Cod-style Encino home has four bedrooms and three bathrooms in 3,000 square feet. The house also has a solarium and a pool.

The property was once part of the Clark Gable estate.

The modern Mediterranean-style home in the Mandalay Shores area of Ventura has four bedrooms and five bathrooms in 3,800 square feet.

Venable just completed scoring “The Powerpuff Girls Movie,” which opens July 3. He also wrote the scores for “Iron Monkey” (1993) and “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back” (2001).

Music Connection Magazine is celebrating its 25th anniversary.

Joe Goodman, formerly of Goodman Music and now with Re/Max on the Boulevard’s Estate Division, had the Encino listing. Ben DiBenidetto and Susan Blau of Re/Max on the Boulevard represented the Venables in buying. Deborah Tyhurst of Troop Real Estate, Channel Island Harbor, represented the Dolans in buying.