Before buying her Los Angeles home in 2001, the actress Helen Hunt toured newly built houses with huge entryways and formal staircases. “Those were not for me,” she said in an email. “I wanted a house with history and architectural integrity.”
She ended up paying $4.62 million for a Spanish-style house built around 1931. “There were stone floors brought to the U.S. from…France,” said the “Mad About You” actress. “Thick beautiful stucco, plaster walls and glorious archways.”
Now Hunt is listing the roughly 6,000-square-foot house in Brentwood Park for $14.995 million—with a caveat. “For someone looking to live in a house that announces itself as ‘mansion’—this is not the house for you,” said Hunt, 61.
The roughly 0.38-acre property also has quite a bit of Hollywood history. The film star Greta Garbo lived there in the 1930s, according to the 2015 book, “The Movieland Directory.” Hunt purchased it from film editor and producer George Folsey Jr., whose credits include “Coming to America,” property records show.
After buying the five-bedroom house, Hunt added a glass staircase that brings in natural light, she said.
She turned what had been a studio into an office with views of the front garden. She also renovated the poolhouse, turning it into a “proper guesthouse,” she said.
Over the years, the property has played host to everything from kids’ birthday parties with bouncy houses to elegant Tuscan-style dinners, Hunt said. “We’ve had huge holidays and parties with over 100 people,” she said.
Hunt won an Oscar for her role in the film “As Good as It Gets” in 1998. She had a cameo in “Hacks” and recently starred in the play “Betrayal” in Chicago.
Represented by Drew Fenton & Stephen Sigoloff | Brentwood Park, CA | Asking $14,995,000
Story courtesy of Wall Street Journal
