Historic beach home in east Malibu lists for $25M

A 92-year-old beach house in Malibu once owned by Hollywood silent film star Buster Keaton has for the first time hit the open market. The ask: $25 million.

The 5,250-square-foot house at the bottom of Tuna Canyon is at 18904 Pacific Coast Highway, Dirt.com reported. The seller is retired real estate developer Armand Olaf Riza.

The five-bedroom, seven-bathroom house has a history dating back to Hollywood’s Golden Age.

The white house with an orange tile roof was built in 1931 for Fanchon Simon, who with her brother Marco Wolff produced lavish stage shows for movie theaters across the nation to accompany silent film screenings.

The next year, it was bought by Keaton and his wife and co-star, Natalie Talmadge, who split up that same year. Talmadge and their two sons remained in the home for a decade.

In the 1940s, Malibu went through a motel boom, and the three-story home was converted to the Las Tunas Isle Motor Hotel, and then to an apartment complex. For the past several decades, it’s been home to Riza, a local surfer and boatsman.

Sited behind a long wall of canyon stones and fronted by an eight-car motor court, the aged house has three fireplaces, hardwood floors, French doors, picture windows and numerous courtyards, patios and balconies.

With 130 feet of beach frontage, the one-third acre property has views of the Queen’s Necklace and Catalina Island. 

If the east Malibu home fetches its $25 million asking price, it would set a price record for its section of Malibu, according to Dirt.

Broker Jason Ventress of Action Now Realty holds the listing.

— Dana Bartholomew