In this video, we revisit places where Hollywood legends lived and see what they look like now. Marilyn Monroe’s Brentwood home, 12,300, 55th Helena Drive, Los Angeles. The hosianda style house she purchased in January 1962 for $77,500. The only home she ever owned found dead in the bedroom on August 4th of that year.
designated a Los Angeles historic cultural monument in 2024 after a demolition permit was filed. The most famous death address in Hollywood saved from the wrecking ball at the last moment. Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Beall’s Holy Hills home 232 South Mapleton Drive, Los Angeles. The estate where Bogart spent his final years dying of esophageal cancer in 1957.
Ball placing a small gold whistle in his urn inscribed with her line from to have and have not. The home be hills estate still a private residence on one of the most expensive streets in Los Angeles. The house where Hollywood’s greatest love story ended. Charlie Chaplan Summit Drive Estate 185 Summit Drive Beverly Hills the 40 room mansion built in 1922 during Chaplan’s peak years.
The building a palace that would have made the little uncomfortable. Chaplain leaving America in 1952 after being denied re-entry during the Red Scare. The house passing through multiple owners eventually demolished and the lot subdivided. The home of the most famous man in the world erased by a developer. Frank Sinatra’s Twin Palms estate.
1,148 East Allejo Road, Palm Springs, California. The mid-century modern house designed by E. Steuart Williams in 1947. The pianos-shaped pool, the parties that defined the Rat Pack era. The front door Sinatra reportedly punched through during an argument with Ava Gardner. Restored and operating as a vacation rental.
The house where the chairman of the board held court now bookable by anyone with a credit card. Elizabeth Taylor’s Belair estate, 700 Nimes Road, Belair, California. The estate where Taylor lived during her marriages to Eddie Fischer and Richard Burton, the violet eyes and the diamonds and the parties that made the address the most glamorous in Bair, sold in 2012 for 11 million, requesting in her will that her funeral begin 15 minutes late so she could be late to her own funeral one last time.
James Dean’s apartment, 19 West 68th Street, Manhattan, New York. The fifth floor walk up near Central Park where Dean lived during his Broadway years. Practicing his craft at the actor’s studio under Lee Strasburg before East of Eden made him a star. The building still standing on the Upper West Side, the apartment where the most iconic rebel in cinema history lived looking like every other apartment in the building.
Audrey Hepburn’s La Perez toloas, Switzerland. the 18th century farmhouse on Lake Geneva where Heppern lived for the last 30 years of her life, retreating from Hollywood to raise her children, tend her garden, and work with UNICEF. The house still privately owned, the most elegant woman in cinema history, choosing a Swiss farmhouse over a Beverly Hills mansion because glamour was something she performed, not something she needed.
Clark Gables in Sino Ranch 4543 Terra Drive in Cino, California. the San Fernando Valley Ranch where the King of Hollywood lived because he preferred horses to premieres, the space and the quiet of the valley over the hills. Dying of a heart attack in 19610, days after completing The Misfits with Marilyn Monroe, the ranch remodeled by subsequent owners, the King choosing the valley because he was more cowboy than movie star. B.
Davis’s Cape Elizabeth home, Cape Elizabeth, Maine. The Cape Cod style house where Davis retreated after her Hollywood career wound down. The two-time Oscar winner living in Maine because New England matched her temperament better than California. The house still a private residence on the rocky Maine coast.
Advertisements
The most formidable woman in Hollywood, dying in Paris in 1989, but having lived her most peaceful years looking at the Atlantic. Carrie Grant’s Beverly Hills home 9966 Beverly Grove Drive, Beverly Hills. The house where the most elegant leading man in film history lived during his later years. Grant retiring from acting in 1966 at age 62 and spending his final two decades attending to his daughter Jennifer.
His earlier years having included over 100 sessions of therapistguided LSD psychotherapy to deal with past trauma. The house still a private residence. The man who defined sophistication on screen, living a private life that was far more complicated than any character he played. Grace Kelly’s Philadelphia home, 3901 Henry Avenue, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
The six-bedroom house in the East Falls neighborhood where the future princess of Monaco grew up. The Kelly’s one of Philadelphia’s most prominent Irish Catholic families. The house privately owned, the neighborhood unmarked. The girl from Henry Avenue who became Princess Grace buried at the Cathedral of Our Lady Immaculate in Monaco rather than the city that made her.
Alfred Hitchcock’s Bair home 10,957 Bellagio Road, Belair, California. The English colonial house where the master of suspense lived for over 40 years, hosting dinner parties where he terrified guests with stories. His wife Alma editing scripts in the same house where he planned How to Scare the World. The house still a private residence in Bair.
The most famous director in cinema history. Living on a street that sounds like it belongs in one of his films. Greta Garbo’s Manhattan apartment. 450 East 52nd Street, Manhattan, New York. the Campanili co-op where Garbo lived for the last 37 years of her life after retiring from acting at 36. Walking the Upper East Side in sunglasses.
The most mysterious star of the golden age achieving the solitude she demanded. The building still standing. The woman who wanted to be alone achieving it for nearly four decades in one of the most densely populated cities on Earth. Marlon Brando’s Mullholland Drive home. 12,900 Mullholland Drive, Beverly Hills. the hilltop property where the greatest actor of the 20th century lived for years.
Famously next door to Jack Nicholson, the Godfather and Stanley Kowalsski and Terry Mallaloy behind a gate on a road named for the road. The Mullhalland property eventually sold, subdivided, and demolished. Brando spending his final reclusive years at a more modest rental at 2418 North Beverly Drive, where he died in 2004. John Wayne’s Newport Beach home.
2,686 Beayshore Drive, Newport Beach, California. The waterfront estate where the Duke lived his final years overlooking the harbor. The most iconic cowboy in film history. Spending his evenings watching boats rather than Monument Valley sunsets. The property still a private residence in Newport Beach.
Wayne dying of stomach cancer in 1979 at 72. His grave at Pacific View Memorial Park unmarked for 20 years because the family wanted peace. Lucille Ball’s Beverly Hills home, 1,000 North Roxbury Drive, Beverly Hills. The house on the street where Jack Benny, Jimmy Stewart, Agnes Moorehead, and other Golden Age stars lived within walking distance of each other.
The most famous woman in television dying of an aortic aneurysm in 1989 at 77. The house still a private residence on a street that once contained more star power per block than any other address in America. Jimmy Stewart’s Beverly Hills home, 918 North Roxbury Drive, Beverly Hills. Three doors from Lucille Ball on the same street.
The everyman of It’s a Wonderful Life spending his final years in quiet sadness after his wife Gloria’s death in 1994. The man George Bailey feared becoming the man Jimmy Stewart became. The house still standing. Two of television and film’s most beloved faces living and dying on the same Beverly Hills block. Rock Hudson’s Beverly Hills home, 942, Beverly Crest Drive, Beverly Hills.
The house where the most popular leading man of the 1950s lived while hiding his homosexuality from the public and the studio. his AIDS diagnosis in 1985, the first major celebrity case, transforming public awareness overnight. The house still a private residence. The address where Hudson’s diagnosis forced America to confront a disease it had been ignoring.
Spencer Tracy and Katherine Heepburn’s cottage, 1,151 North Beverly Drive, Beverly Hills. The small guest house that Heepburn rented for Tracy during their 27-year relationship. the arrangement allowing them the privacy the studios required. Tracy dying of a heart attack in 1967 with Hepern hearing him fall in the kitchen.
Heburn leaving before the press arrived because she was not supposed to be there. The cottage that housed Hollywood’s greatest secret. Orson Wells’s Hollywood Homes, Los Angeles. The director of Citizen Cain, living at 1717 North Stanley Avenue during his productive 1940s period, then spending decades in Europe before returning to Hollywood, where he died in 1985 at a rental at 1700 Nichols Canyon Road in the Hollywood Hills.
The genius who made the greatest film ever made, spending his final years being denied financing by studios that feared his ambition. The most talented director of his era, dying in a rented house. May West’s Ravenswood Apartment, 570 North Rossmore Avenue, Los Angeles. The Ravenswood apartment building, where West lived from 1932 until her death in 1980, 48 years in the same penthouse.
The most sexually provocative star of precode Hollywood, spending half a century in one building. The Ravenswood, still a residential building, the most famous apartment in its history, belonging to the woman who never left. Errol Flynn’s Mullholland Farm, 7740, Mullholland Drive, Hollywood Hills. The estate where the most dashing adventure star in Hollywood hosted parties that became legendary for their excess.
The property including a two-way mirror, hidden microphones, and a reputation that matched its owners. The house still standing as a private residence in the Hollywood Hills. The swashbuckler’s party house outlasting the parties by nearly a century. Buster Katon’s Italian villa, 108 Pamela Drive, Beverly Hills.
The Mediterranean Revival Mansion Katon built in 1926 during his peak years, losing it in his divorce from Natalie Tolmage. The property passing through multiple owners, including James Mason. The core structure still standing as a Beverly Hills historic landmark. Katon himself spending his final peaceful years in a modest ranch house in Woodland Hills he called the Italian farmhouse.
The recovery more poignant than the loss. Rudolph Valentino’s Falcon Lair 1436 Bella Drive Beverly Hills. The estate where the silent film era’s greatest heartthrob lived before dying at 31. The property sitting in various states of disrepair over decades. Eventually demolished in 2006 after Doris Duke’s long neglect, Falcon Lair, existing only in photographs and the memories of an era when the most romantic figure in cinema lived behind a gate.
Gloria Swanson’s home on Sunset Boulevard. The actress who’s Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard blurred the line between character and performer. Swanson living in a series of increasingly modest homes as her career wound down. The grand dame of silent cinema scaling back with each decade.
The specific addresses changing throughout her life. The woman who declared she was big. It’s the pictures that got small. Living in spaces that got small, too. Judy Garland’s Bair home, 129 South Carolwood Drive, Los Angeles. The home behills estate where Garland lived during her marriage to Sid Luft. The house where the studio systems most damaged product tried to build a normal family life between breakdowns, comebacks, and financial crisis.
The house sold after Garland’s departure, still standing as a private residence. The woman who sang over the rainbow, living in a house that offered no pot of gold. Sydney Pier’s Beverly Hills home, Beverly Hills, California. the first black man to win the Academy Award for best actor living in Beverly Hills during an era when real estate agents routinely refused to show homes to black buyers.
His presence on the street, a quiet revolution as significant as any role he played. The house still privately owned. The man who broke the color barrier in Hollywood, breaking it on his own street. Katherine Heepburn’s Turtle Bay Townhouse, 244 East 49th Street, Manhattan, New York. The brownstone in Turtle Bay where Heepburn lived for over 60 years.
The most independent woman in Hollywood choosing a Manhattan townhouse over a Beverly Hills mansion. The privacy of the garden behind the house more valuable than any view of the Pacific. The townhouse sold after her death in 2003. The house that Heburn occupied longer than she occupied any sound stage.
Doris Day’s Carmel home. Carmel by the sea. California. the reclusive final home of the actress and animal rights activist who retreated to Carmel after leaving Hollywood. The property becoming a de facto animal sanctuary with dozens of rescued dogs. Day dying in 2019 at 97. The most private star of the studio era, choosing a town that does not allow chain restaurants or neon signs.
The girl next door spending her final decades next door to no one. William Holden’s apartment, 535 Ocean Avenue, Santa Monica, California. The apartment building where the leading man of Sunset Boulevard and Stalog 17 was found dead on November 16th, 1981 from a laceration after falling while intoxicated, bleeding to death alone, conscious for at least 30 minutes.
The building still overlooking the Pacific. The most unglamorous death in Hollywood history occurring in an apartment with the most glamorous view. Joan Crawford’s Brentwood home, 426 North Bristol Avenue, Brentwood, Los Angeles. The house where Crawford raised her adopted children under the tyrannical discipline Christina Crawford documented in Mommy Dearest.
The wire hangers and the midnight cleanings and the perfectionism that terrified everyone in the house. The house still standing in Brentwood, the most feared mother in Hollywood history’s home, now owned by someone who presumably allows wire hangers. Walt Disney’s Carolwood Drive home. 355 South Carolwood Drive, Los Angeles.
The Holy Hills estate, where Disney built a backyard railroad, the Carolwood Pacific Railroad that inspired Disneyland. The 1/8 scale train circling the property on 2,615 ft of track. The house well-maintained by subsequent owners. The backyard where Disney played with trains and dreamed of a theme park now one of the most historically significant residential properties in Los Angeles.
Dean Martin’s Beverly Hills home. 601 Mountain Drive. Beverly Hills. The house where the King of Cool spent his final years after withdrawing from public life following his son. Dino’s death in a 1987 plane crash. The drapes drawn, the rooms dark. The man who made drinking look glamorous dying alone on Christmas Day 1995.
The property sold and extensively renovated. The house where Martin stopped caring about everything, rebuilt by people who cared about real estate. Bob Hope’s Tuca Lake estate, 10,346 more Park Street, Tuca Lake, California. The compound where Hope lived for over 60 years.
The comedian who entertained troops in every war from World War II to the Persian Gulf, coming home to the same San Fernando Valley address. The estate still standing. The most famous address in Tuca Lake belonging to the man who spent 60 years making soldiers laugh and coming home to laugh by himself. Sammy Davis Jr.’s Beverly Hills home.
1,151 Summit Drive, Beverly Hills. The compound where the Rat Pack’s most versatile entertainer hosted legendary parties. The house where every famous person in America gathered because Sammy invited them. Owing the IRS $5.2 million at his death in 1990 eventually sold. The house that hosted Sinatra and Martin rebuilt for a generation that never saw the Rat Pack perform.
Peter Cers’s home, Suri, England. The English countryside house where the most versatile comic actor in film history lived between productions. Inspector Cluso and Doctor Strange Love and Chance. The gardener created by a man who claimed to have no personality of his own. Sellers dying of a heart attack in 1980 at 54.
The man who could play anyone unable to play himself. Natalie Wood’s Brentwood home. Various addresses. Los Angeles. The houses where the child star of Miracle on 34th Street grew up to become the leading lady of Westside Story and Rebel Without a Cause, marrying Robert Wagner twice, the fairy tale that ended at Catalina Island.
Her body found floating near the yacht Splendor in 1981. Yagner named a person of interest in 2018. The question of how she ended up in the water never answered. Rita Hworth’s final home, the San Remo, Central Park West, Manhattan, New York. The love goddess whose Gilda made her the most desired woman on Earth.
The pinup on every GI’s wall during World War II, spending her final years in a groundf flooror apartment at the San Remo on Central Park West. Diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 1981. Cared for by her daughter, Princess Yasmin Aakhan, dying in 1987 at 68. The most glamorous woman in Hollywood, unable to remember the films that made her famous.
Gregory Pec’s Brentwood home, 1700 San Ramo Drive, Pacific Palisades, California. The estate where Attakus Finch lived in real life. The most decent man in Hollywood, occupying a house that matched his reputation, hosting barbecues for neighbors rather than industry parties. The house still a private residence, the most admired man in cinema history, living on a street that has been admired ever since.
Kirk Douglas’s Beverly Hills home, 85 North Rexford Drive. Beverly Hills, the house where Spartacus lived for decades. Douglas surviving a helicopter crash, a stroke, and the deaths of two sons. The 103-year-old Chin still defiant, dying in 2020. The last of the golden age leading men, the house on Rexford Drive, belonging to the man who broke the Hollywood blacklist by crediting Daltton Trumbo on Spartacus.
