Since low-key Tinseltown power couple Katey Sagal and Kurt Sutter coupled up in the early 2000s, they’ve owned several historic and architecturally significant homes and estates across Los Angeles, several that were bought from and/or sold to other showbiz heavy hitters. Married in 2004, the enduring couple — she starred in the acclaimed series “Sons of Anarchy,” which he created — continues the trend with the $5.9 million purchase of a comprehensively updated vintage home in the foothills just above Hollywood.
Set atop a plush lawn at the high end of the sloping half-acre parcel, where it’s fortified behind gates and enshrouded in mature trees and foliage with dazzling city views, the restored and modernized putty-colored French Norman-esque residence was originally designed by celebrated L.A. architect Arthur R. Kelly, whose other more renowned commissions include the Playboy Mansion. Completed in 1923, the property comprises a 4,700-square-foot main house, with four bedrooms and four bathrooms, plus as a fully equipped guesthouse.
Myriad preserved period details, such as the carved stone fireplace and grid of pale wood beams on the ceiling in the step-down formal living room, are in seamless harmony with a bevy of modern-day creature comforts and luxuries: restaurant-grade kitchen appliances; a state-of-the-art cool roof; a generator for power outages; recently upgraded electrical, plumbing and HVAC systems.
A classic center hall entry and comfortably stylish formal living and dining rooms are complemented by a marble-countered cook’s kitchen and sunny breakfast area, a library/games room, in which there’s a built-in in LP album player in the custom shelves, and a cozy den for lounging and TV watching. French doors open many rooms on the main floor to either a tree-shaded courtyard paved in flagstone or the broad red-brick terrace that spans the full width of the house and overlooks the serene gardens.
There’s a guest or staff suite on the main floor, and two more guest bedrooms and a bath on the second floor, along with a spacious primary suite that offers a fireplace, a private sun deck, two walk-in closets and a vintage-style bathroom jazzed up with radiant heated floor and steam shower.
The third-floor attic is finished and available for additional living space such as a yoga room or art studio, while the guesthouse, set atop the detached three-car garage, provides long-term guests or live-in staff plenty of space and privacy.
The property was listed with Brent Watson and Marco Salari, both with Coldwell Banker Realty, while the Sagal-Sutters were represented in the deal by Michael Fenton at Compass.
The couple’s previous homes are as or more noteworthy than the one they just bought. Around the time of their 2004 marriage, Sagal sold off a richly pedigreed Encino spread known as the Al Jolson Estate. Once owned by Don Ameche, Sagal bought the property in 1997, with her now ex-husband Jack White, from Kirstie Alley and sold it in 2004 to Charlie Sheen. (It’s now owned by Jessica Simpson’s mother Tina Drew.)
The historic architecture aficionados then briefly owned Los Pavoreales, a Wallace Neff-designed Spanish Colonial Revival home on almost two acres in Los Feliz. Owned in the late 1990s by Madonna, Sutter and Sagal bought the place from Jenna and Bodhi Elfman and sold it just over a year later to singer-turned-actress-turned-TV-producer Rachel Sweet and TV producer Tom Palmer.
In the late 2000s, they presided over a 1930s English Country-inspired home in the Hollywood Hills that they sold in 2010 for $3.77 million to late-night bandleader and “American Idol” musical director Rickey Minor. And for the last decade or so, their home has been a secluded Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired midcentury stunner hidden down a long, tree-shielded drive on a sunny knoll in an exclusive neighborhood of Brentwood they quietly purchased a bit more than eleven years ago for almost $3.7 million.
