Having the last laugh in Malibu
Comedian Don Rickles has put his Malibu beachfront home on the market at $13.5 million. He’s owned the property for about 25 years and wants a change of location, perhaps to Laguna or Newport Beach.
The estate includes a 5,000-plus-square-foot main house, a detached guesthouse, a north-south tennis court and an ocean-side swimming pool and terrace. There are six bedrooms and 7 1/2 bathrooms in the home, built in the early ‘70s. The master bedroom suite has a sitting room, a high ceiling, a fireplace and coastline views. Each of the other two family bedroom suites has a full bath and a loft area.
The estate also has a living room with a bar and a large stone fireplace; a formal dining room with ocean views; a breakfast room; a den/media room; electric blinds on the oceanfront windows; and air conditioning.
Rickles, 77, is a native New Yorker who gained fame as an “insult comedian” in 1965 on “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.” Rickles had his own TV series in 1972 but has since been more successful appearing on other TV shows and in films. In 1995, he was the voice of Mr. Potato Head in “Toy Story,” and he played the casino manager in Martin Scorsese’s “Casino.” In 1999, he reprised the voice of Mr. Potato Head in “Toy Story 2.”
He is best known, however, as a headliner in the nightclubs and casinos of Las Vegas, Atlantic City and elsewhere, where he has been dubbed “The Merchant of Venom” and jokingly referred to as “Mr. Warmth.” The stand-up comic was paired this month on a double bill in Clearwater, Fla., with Tony Danza.
Steve Moore of Prudential John Aaroe, Beverly Hills, has the listing, sources said.
Actor on the ‘Rise’ buys first home
Nick Stahl, who plays healer Ben Hawkins on the HBO series “Carnivale” and appeared as John Connor, savior of the human race, in “Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines,” has become a first-time home buyer with his purchase of a Hollywood Hills home for close to its $1.2-million asking price.
Stahl, 24, bought a contemporary Mediterranean with three bedrooms and 2 1/2 bathrooms in about 2,400 square feet. The house, built in the 1920s, has been well maintained. It has an open floor plan, wood floors, a step-down living room with a fireplace and French doors leading to a veranda.
Stahl first appeared as actor Robert Urich’s son in the CBS thriller “Stranger at My Door” (1991). He then played an adolescent mentored by a former teacher disfigured in an accident in the movie “The Man Without a Face” (1993), starring Mel Gibson. More recently, Stahl played the son of a New England couple in the acclaimed film “In the Bedroom” (2001).
Mary Brill of Coldwell Banker, Beverly Hills East, represented Stahl in his purchase, and Joe Babajian and Francis Gibbons had the listing at Prudential John Aaroe.
Lawyer settles in Ladera Heights
Carl Douglas, one of the members of O.J. Simpson’s “Dream Team” of defense attorneys, has purchased a Ladera Heights home for nearly $1 million. The one-story house has five bedrooms, 3 1/2 bathrooms and a pool.
Maurice Frazier of Private Banking represented Douglas in buying. Samuel Hughes of Capital Real Estate Group had the listing.
A hint of Sonoma in Holmby Hills
W. Howard Lester, owner and chairman of the board of Williams-Sonoma Inc., and his wife, Mary, have purchased a Holmby Hills home for an estimated $18 million.
The Tuscany-style villa had been owned by attorney Joseph Davis and his wife, Hilary. The sellers built the house in 2001. They put about $800,000 into the landscaping, which includes a fountain, real estate sources said. The house has five bedrooms and nine bathrooms in nearly 13,000 square feet. It is on slightly more than an acre.
Lester purchased Williams-Sonoma Inc. in 1978. Chuck Williams opened the first Williams-Sonoma store in Sonoma in 1954. The store was unusual in that it made professional cooking and baking equipment from around the world available to American home cooks.
After Lester bought the company and became chairman, Williams remained with the firm as its vice chairman.
He’s taking the fast track to Florida
Brian France, chairman and chief executive of NASCAR (National Assn. for Stock Car Auto Racing), has sold his Brentwood home for close to its $12.9 million asking price. France, 41, who last year succeeded his father, Bill France Jr., in heading NASCAR, is moving to Florida.
The Daytona 500, in Florida, opened the NASCAR season last Sunday. Brian France’s grandfather, Bill France Sr., organized a stock-car race on the sands of Daytona Beach in 1938, although he wasn’t instrumental in launching NASCAR until 1947. The Brentwood house has seven bedrooms and 8 1/2 bathrooms in 10,800 square feet. Designed by architect Richard Landry, the home, built in 2001 on slightly more than 6 acres, is Tuscan in style and has a gated motor court, high ceilings, a library, living and family rooms, a gym and a four-car garage.
The property also has a pool with a fountain and an outside living room with a fireplace. The house, with mountain and city views, is in gated Brentwood Country Estates.
Mauricio Umansky of Hilton & Hyland, Beverly Hills, and Valerie Fitzgerald of Coldwell Banker, Beverly Hills, had the listing, and David Findley of DBL, Beverly Hills, represented the buyer.
Farm for sale: lock, stock and barrel
The Jones Family Mini Farm, a petting farm in the Los Rios Historic District of San Juan Capistrano, has come on the market at $3 million.
The farm has a board-and-batten house built in 1898. Known as Olivares House for its original owner Delfina Olivares, the three-bedroom house is now used as retail space for Millie Jones’ porcelain business.
The farm also has an office for Jones’ husband, Gil, who was mayor of San Juan Capistrano for seven years. The office is on the historic register as an 1890s bathhouse that was part of a San Juan Capistrano hot-springs resort. The building was moved from the resort to its current site in 1936. The Jones farm also has an 820-square-foot cottage, built in 1980, that serves as the couple’s residence.
The front third of the 1.4-acre property is zoned residential-historic, and the back two-thirds is commercial. Over the years, the buildings, resembling a western movie set, have been used for a variety of film shoots. Duke and Dan, horses on “Little House on the Prairie,” lived there for nearly 20 years. The farm still has a 1,600-square-foot barn as well as pens and corrals to house goats, emus and horses, included in the asking price.
Robin Schiff of Del Mar Realty & Investments, San Clemente, has the listing.
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