Malibu Beachfront Home for Sale Was Owned by Debbie Reynolds, Garry Marshall (EXCLUSIVE)
By Mark David
LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – A waterfront house along Malibu’s prestigious Carbon Beach, previously the treasured home to two late, great showbiz legends, is now listed at just under $16 million , more than $2 million below its rose-tinted initial asking price. The five-bedroom and four-bathroom home was custom designed and built in 1965 for “Singin’ in the Rain” star Debbie Reynolds, who sold it in 1981 for an undisclosed amount to “Happy Days” creator and “Pretty Woman” director Garry Marshall. Several years later, so the scuttlebutt goes, Reynolds had a change of heart and asked Marshall if he’d be willing to sell the not quite 3,200-square-foot, two-story home back to her. Clearly he was not; the property is being sold by Barbara Marshall, his wife of more than 50 years.
Quaintly traditional and scrupulously maintained if decoratively of another era, the brick-accented and vaguely Cape Cod-style residence opens to a double-height entry with an eight-pane oculus window and staircase carpeted in blue shag. Anchored by a vintage brick fireplace, the living room has wood floors and rustic wood beams across the ceiling and the center-island kitchen is reported to still feature colorful ceramic tiles depicting fruits and vegetables Reynolds collected from her travels around the world.
Gated parking for at least six cars in a deep driveway and three-car garage is a value-enhancing premium in an area where parking along Pacific Coast Highway can be an exhausting, time consuming exercise. The back of the house opens to a brick-paved beach-side patio and, according to listing agents T ony Mark and Russell Grether at Compass , a heated swimming pool for when the ocean is too rough or (frequently) uncomfortably cold.
Humble in comparison to many of the neighboring homes, the Reynolds/Marshall residence sits among an eye-popping row of far more conspicuously lavish homes owned by the deep pocketed likes of beleaguered former CBS honcho Leslie Moonves , powerhouse film producer Arnon Milchan and property-collecting billionaire Larry Ellison .
