Steve Martin Seeks Buyer in Beverly Hills
By Mark David
LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – Steve Martin has hung a not-quite $2.15 million price tag on the smaller of his two residences that are discreetly tucked into a little-known Beverly Hills, Calif., cul-de-sac in the ruggedly ritzy mountains between Coldwater and Laurel Canyons. Listed with Myra Nourmand of Nourmand & Associates , the semi-retired septuagenarian actor, writer and producer, also accomplished banjo player , pianist, playwright and author , acquired the property for an unrecorded amount in the fall of 1997. The purchase came a couple of years after he paid house-flipping actors Corbin Bernsen and Amanda Pays $3.175 million for a neighboring property that is not currently for sale, at least on the open market.
Hidden behind a verdant wall of trees on a mostly wooded parcel of just over an acre, the two-plus story home, a pastiche of architectural styles built in the mid-1950s, seems substantially larger than the just-over 1,400 square foot tax records show, while online marketing materials, which do not cite square footage, indicate there are four bedrooms and 4.5 bathrooms.
It’s a full flight of exterior stairs up from the driveway to a voluminous double-height foyer with pale beige stone floor tiles and another full flight of stairs to the upper level living room that features a Spanish-style tile-accented fireplace and polished hardwood floors under a slightly pitched exposed beam ceiling. A long row of sliding glass doors open the notably lengthy space to a long, slender terrace shaded by an unpretentious white canvas awning and bordered by an unabashedly aristocratic stone balustrade. With glossy black granite countertops on custom, narrow slatted cabinetry, the unconventionally curvaceous contemporary kitchen is open to breakfast room wrapped in floor-to-ceiling picture windows and there are three en suite guest bedrooms along with a master retreat complete with an updated bathroom flooded with natural light though a large skylight plus a spacious private terrace with rustic, canyon views.
The comedic Einstein, a five-time Golden Globe nominee, a 1969 Emmy winner subsequently nominated another ten times and a deserved recipient of an honorary Oscar in 2014 for his extraordinary contribution to the showbiz industry over a career that has spanned an astonishing six decades, has long maintained an extensive, far-flung portfolio of private homes. Several years ago he sold an ocean-view Colonial compound perched high on a hillside on the swanky Caribbean island of St. Barts for an undisclosed amount — it was last listed for almost $7.8 million — but his holdings still include: A nearly 7,400 square foot, bunker-like concrete contemporary in Montecito, Calif., he’s owned since at least the mid-1990s and briefly had for sale in 2015 for almost $11 million ; a roughly 5,700 square foot, stone manor house secluded in the forested mountains between Greenville, S.C., and Asheville, N.C., and custom built on land purchased in 2005 for $185,000; and a one-bedroom, one-bathroom condo in a distinguished, full-service pre-war building across from Central Park on Manhattan’s Upper West Side he picked up in 2008 for $885,000.
Correction: A previous version of this article stated that Martin is a member of Mensa. He is not.
