Beverly Hills estate with ties to Hearst, ‘The Godfather’ back on the market for $119 million
The former Beverly Hills estate of newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst just got a big price cut.
Memorably seen in the movies “The Godfather” and “The Bodyguard,” The Beverly House is now on the real estate market for just $119 million.
The 18-bedroom, 25-bathroom estate is located on about 3.5 acres of prime property just a short limo jaunt away from Sunset Boulevard and the Beverly Hils Hotel.
It boasts a near Olympic-size swimming pool, lighted tennis court, two screening rooms and a commercial-grade kitchen, plus terraces that can accommodate 400 or more guests for a seated dinner, according to London-based listing agency Beauchamp Estates, putting it “among the most unique trophy properties in the United States.”
The Beverly House was previously listed for sale for as much as $195 million, back in 2016.
The estate was on the market for $125 million in March 2020.
“The Beverly House in Beverly Hills is one of the finest mansions and estates in America,” Jeremy Gee, Beauchamp Estates’ managing director, wrote in an email to The Tribune. “It has been on and off the market before, but always with a domestic U.S. broker with the focus on a domestic American buyer.
Beauchamp Estates “will now market the Beverly House to our clients and contacts in Asia, the Middle East and Africa,” he wrote.
Gee speculated that prospective buyers could come from Asia.
“This house is located on a rise, so it sits above the surrounding area,” he wrote, and is ”an important status symbol.” “As one of the largest and most famous mega-mansions in Beverly Hills, it is a real trophy property for an Asian billionaire.”
Beverly Hills mansion built for Hearst, featured in ‘The Godfather’
Designed by Gordon Kaufmann, the famed architect behind the Hoover Dam and several prominent estates in the Beverly Hills area, the Beverly House was built in 1927 and served as a home for Hearst and his longtime companion, actress Marion Davies.
The estate many details that evoke another of Hearst’s high-profile former homes, Hearst Castle in San Simeon. In fact, a billiards room features an intricately designed ceiling and carved fireplace from the Castle, now a state historical monument.
Jacqueline and John F. Kennedy stayed at the mansion in 1953 during their honeymoon, and JFK used it for his West Coast presidential election headquarters.
A substantial addition was made in the 1990s, “expanding the size of the building as seen in ‘The Godfather,’ ” according to Beauchamp Estates.
The Beverly House appears in a scene from the 1972 mafia movie where a rival of the Corleone family wakes up to find a horse’s head in his bed. The estate also shows up in 1992’s “The Bodyguard” and pop icon Beyonce’s 2020 visual album “Black Is King.”
Hailed as “an emblem of Hollywood’s Golden Era,” the Beverly House is “famed for its H-form architecture, characterized by long colonnades, wide balconies, arched floor-to-ceiling windows, and its spaciousness,” the Beauchamp Estates listing reads.
Special features include “a two-story library with hand-carved paneling and a wraparound walkway; a formal living room with its 22-foot-high, hand-painted, arched ceiling (and) a state-of-the-art spa,” the listing reads.
“The gardens, designed by landscape architect Paul Thiene, include cascading waterfalls to the pool as well as impressive, mature, trees,” according to Beauchamp Estates.
Those “magnificent water features” are among Beauchamp founding director Gary Hersham’s favorite things about Beverly House.
In an email, Hersham rhapsodized about “the beautiful reflection pools, linked by cascading waterwalls, leading to a near Olympic-sized swimming pool which is bordered by pillared Roman temple facades.” “It is the Beverly Hills version of the famous Neptune Pool at Hearst Castle,” he wrote.
For details about the Beverly House, go to beauchamp.com/mansion-sale-the-beverly-house-lob0516.
This story was originally published March 12, 2021 at 9:26 AM with the headline "Beverly Hills estate with ties to Hearst, ‘The Godfather’ back on the market for $119 million."
