Former Pacific Palisades Home of Michelle Pfeiffer Asks Nearly $20 Million
A 1930s mansion in Pacific Palisades with some serious celebrity cachet has hit the market for the first time in 20 years.
The traditional-style red-brick pile is one of a number of homes actress Michelle Pfeiffer and her husband, TV writer-producer David E. Kelley, have bought and sold around the posh Los Angeles neighborhood. The current owner, who picked up the property from Ms. Pfeiffer in 2001, put the house up for sale this week asking $19.999 million, according to information provided by the Compass listing agents.
The “Scarface” actress lived in the pre-war house in the 1990s, purchasing it with Mr. Kelley through a trust in 1994 for $3.1 million, according to property records. They immediately set to work updating the four-acre property, adding a new pool and spa to the backyard and building out the home’s porches and trellises for more luxurious outdoor living, Los Angeles building records show.
They weren’t the first stars to preside over the address. Many decades prior, early Hollywood icon Will Rogers owned the property, according to the listing agents—one part of an enormous spread the actor and humorist once held in Pacific Palisades. As a result, the house is mere steps from the 186-acre Will Rogers State Historic Park, the actor’s former home and ranch that now serves as a hiking destination at the edge of the Santa Monica Mountains.
Ms. Pfeiffer, 62, and Mr. Kelley, 64, the creator of the recent HBO hit “Big Little Lies,” eventually sold off the Rivas Canyon house for $7.5 million—more than double what they paid—in 2001 to its present owner, who continued improving the property, public records show.
The owner, who did not wish to be identified or interviewed, expanded the East Coast country-style home with the help of lauded interior designer Michael S. Smith—who famously decorated the White House under President Barack Obama.
It’s now a true compound with a four-bedroom main house and two one-bedroom guest units privately located at the edge of the property. There’s also a one-bedroom staff house, and a gym and a studio converted from former stables, according to the listing with Aaron Kirman, Liz Gottainer and Jeeb O’Reilly, of the Aaron Kirman Group at Compass.
Meanwhile, a cabana overlooks the pool added during Ms. Pfeiffer’s ownership.
The interiors still convey that traditional East Coast refinement, with detailed molding and original wide-plank hardwood floors. There’s also a spacious country-style kitchen with exposed timber beams, and a dramatic two-story library—whose design dates back to Rogers’s time, according to information from the listing agents.