OG ‘Cabaret’ Star Michael York Lists Longtime City-View Home Above L.A.’s Sunset Strip

Film goers and TV watchers born before 1970 are likely to know his reputation well, though a lot of TikTokers and YouTubers are probably like, “Who’s this Michael York person?” Well, the long of the short of it, kids, he is an icon, a legendary English actor whose many accolades span stage, television and film.

Early on in his illustrious pre-social-media career, the deft actor portrayed Tybalt in Franco Zeffirelli’s lauded 1968 adaptation of Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet.” More than 70 film and television roles followed, including that of Brian Roberts, the bisexual love interest of Liza Minnelli’s Sally Bowles in the 1972 film rendition of “Cabaret,” truly the only version that need ever be made.

York went on to star in the campy 1976 sci-fi romp “Logan’s Run” and, more recently, as Basil Exposition in the blockbuster “Austin Powers” film franchise. For years he would occasionally pop up on “The Simpsons,” most recently in 2020, but since he announced in 2013 that he suffers from a rare disease called amyloidosis, he’s kept a low professional profile.

Since 1976, York and his wife of 50+ years, noted photographer and photojournalist Pat York, have made their home in West Hollywood, just above the Sunset Strip. After decades in residence, however, they have decided to sell up, listing the place with Linda May and Guy Levy of Linda May Properties at Hilton & Hyland.

Built in the late 1940s at the end of winding cul-de-sac, sequestered behind iron gates amid clouds of mature foliage, the existing residence, with three bedrooms and three and a half baths in 4,235 square feet, resembles a less peacocky, pared down version of a sprawling Hollywood Regency pavilion.

Marketing materials do not include interior images, though listing descriptions do reveal a bevy of highlights: carved wood front doors with vintage hardware; a skylight topped foyer; a living room with Texas limestone fireplace, wet bar and walls of glass; a library with sky light and custom shelving; a dining room with antique stone fireplace imported from Paris.

“Pat and I spent our happy, maturing years in this enchanting property just as Los Angeles itself matured into a world-class city with significant architecture and facilities,” Mr. York told Dirt, while Mrs. York reminisced, “We entertained at both seated dinners for ten or large tea parties where a French chef would help us on our return to serve a varied and delicious choice of food and tea and alcohol.” Their guests, a who’s who of movers and shakers across politics, the entertainment industry and the art world, included Mary and Irving Lazar, Edie and Eli Broad, Sir John Gielgud, Steve Martin, former Prime Minister of England John Major, when he was in town, David Hockney and John Baldessari, Christopher Isherwood, Tennessee Williams and, when he was in town, Franco Zeffirelli.

Listings also call out a chef’s kitchen and two guest bedroom suites, each with outdoor access and one with a “library retreat,” along with a main bedroom that offers dual walk-in closets and a “spa bath with individually marbled showers.”

Outside, there’s a gated motor court and two-car garage, a mosaic-tiled swimming pool, and what listings accurately describe as “knock-out views.”

Developers and real estate investors take note: the offering includes two adjoining parcels, which provide some interesting options. The house is built on the larger, roughly 17,650-square-foot double lot, while a second parcel of about 10,500 square feet can be incorporated into the existing estate or developed separately. Spanning more than 28,100 square feet combined, the parcels are being sold together.