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Lakers Star Scores Slam-Dunk With Bigger Bachelor Pad

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By RUTH RYON, Los Angeles Times

Published: December 15, 2007

LOS ANGELES - There was a time when Manhattan Beach residents would have said there was no life on the east side of the city.

Those days are gone. Not only is there plenty of new development on the side of town farthest from the ocean, but it's also not unusual to see well-known sports figures throughout the Los Angeles area community.

Among them is basketball forward Luke Walton, who signed a six-year contract worth $30 million with the Los Angeles Lakers before he sold his home of about three years and bought a newly built one. Both homes are in east Manhattan Beach.

The 27-year-old bachelor, who moved up in home size and price last month, had been living in the a gated community.

Walton's town house sold for nearly $1.24 million after a two-week escrow. The remodeled town house has three bedrooms and three bathrooms in 1,820 square feet. It has stainless-steel appliances, granite counters, cathedral ceilings with recessed lighting, a bar, a great room, a flat-screen television, a steam shower, a walk-in closet and a community pool and spa.

The buyer was hockey player Jack Johnson, a Los Angeles Kings defenseman.

Walton purchased a single-family house with four bedrooms and two bathrooms for $2.75 million, property records show.

The two-story, 2,700-square-foot home is Mediterranean in style, with wrought-iron work and a balcony.

Walton is a son of basketball legend Bill Walton.

Screening Room Included

How fitting for a special-effects producer to have a house with "the latest and greatest technology ... programmed for ease of use," according to marketing materials.

Four-time Oscar winner Stan Winston has listed his recently remodeled home, on La Costa Beach in Malibu, at nearly $12 million, fully furnished.

The two-story-view house in about 3,500 square feet has a great room, a master bedroom suite with two walk-in closets, two fireplaces, electronic drapes, two guest bedroom suites and a den-media room with a projector and a drop-down screen. The lot's size is nearly 7,000 square feet.

If offers 35 feet of beach frontage, an inner courtyard with an in-ground, oversized spa complete with a waterfall and sound system, plus a beach deck for large-scale entertaining.

Winston, 61, is moving to a home on a larger piece of land so he'll have more outdoor play space for his grandchildren. He won Oscars for the visual effects in "Aliens" (1986), "Terminator 2: Judgment Day" (1991) and "Jurassic Park" (1993). He also won an Oscar for the makeup in "Terminator 2."

Eyes On Bette Davis

Snowbirds from Canada have purchased what is known as the Bette Davis estate in Palm Springs for $5 million, about the asking price when the property was listed in June.

The actress died in 1989 and, despite popular lore that she owned the compound, actually had just leased its guesthouse in the '50s and '60s. That's how the estate, built in the '30s, got its name.

The five-bedroom, 6,000-square-foot home is on slightly more than an acre with an orchard, pool, tennis court, gym, spa and sauna.

Home Of Late Actress

Alice Backes, a character actress from the 1950s to the late '90s, lived for years in a Hollywood Hills home now on the market at just less than $1.4 million.

The renovated, two-story house has three bedrooms in 2,000 square feet. It features a formal dining room, a gourmet kitchen, balconies off two bedrooms, hardwood floors and hillside views.

Backes' most recent role was in 1997 as Harriet Jenkins on "Columbo: A Trace of Murder." She also appeared in "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" and "Barnaby Jones."

After she retired from acting in the late 1990s, Backes was busy with charitable entertainment work. She died in March at age 83 at her sister's home in Virginia.

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