Bela Lugosi's former Beachwood Canyon home is on the market for $4.2 million. The Hungarian-American actor, famous for playing Count Dracula in 1931's Dracula, lived in the English Tudor style home, which was built in 1926, during the 1940s. The estate has been upgraded and remodeled, with new interior decorations by Kishani Perera.
Extensive renovations throughout — including an updated kitchen and bathrooms — have brought the home into move-in condition. Many of the original architectural details have been restored, while Italian slate floors, English walnut floors, hand-carved wood beams and other details have been painstakingly preserved.
In 2011, the house was listed for $2.36 million and purchased by billionaire David Copley, the San Diego-based publishing heir who was also on the board of Copley Press. Copley had begun extensive renovations on the property when he died of an apparent heart attack while driving in La Jolla.
ANR Development Company subsequently purchased the property and completed the renovations, finishing all lighting and plumbing, reconfiguring the master suite, adding a swimming pool and adding extensive landscaping throughout the property, which includes 12,000 square feet of flat and terraced grounds.
With five bedrooms, four bathrooms and just over 5,000 square feet of interior space, the house features a sprawling ballroom-size living room with lead-paned windows that look out onto Moby’s nearby Wolf’s Lair house.
A-list stager Meredith Baer — whose clients include Gwyneth Paltrow, Christina Aguilera, Michael C. Hall and Bryce Dallas Howard — fully furnished the entire home, which includes “several nods to Bela, as well as artwork and photographs that Meredith specifically acquired for the home,” says ANR Development Company CFO George Jordan.
“This has such Hollywood soul, and inside it’s like a brand-new house,” says listing agent Konstantine Valissarakos of Sotheby’s International Realty. “There are even original stone walkways that still have pawprints of Lugosi’s dog.”
