Los Feliz haunt of Hollywood elite maintains its celebrity spirit
A home and workplace of early filmmaker Cecil B. DeMille has sold in Los Feliz’s Laughlin Park neighborhood for $8.5 million. The seller was film producer and onetime studio exec Mary Parent.
The 1915 house was purchased by DeMille in the 1920s and combined with an adjoining home to create his estate. He used it as a production office, a screening room and a guest house until his death in 1959.
Actor and filmmaker Charlie Chaplin and his first wife, actress Mildred Harris, were among other residents.
Now restored to a separate residence, the two-story house has been updated while maintaining some of its early character with vaulted and beamed ceilings, diamond-shape windowpanes and walls of built-ins. A grand fireplace anchors the living room, whose ornate details have been obscured by a layer of white paint.
A chandelier-topped dining room, an eat-in kitchen, a screening room, four bedrooms and six bathrooms also are within the 6,974 square feet of living space.
Outside, loggias line a courtyard swimming pool. Lawn and mature landscaping complete the half-acre of grounds.
Parent, 50, has been involved in such films as “Meet the Fockers,” “The Bourne Supremacy” and “You, Me and Dupree.”
Jonah Wilson of Hilton & Hyland handled the transaction.
Twitter: @laurenebeale
