Get the latest scoop directly in your inbox.
The prettiest house in Bel Air is in new hands, and it’s truly the end of an era. Listed for sale in March at nearly $50 million, the longtime home of the late and long-retired Hollywood actress Hollywood actress Yvette Mimieux has sold in a $35 million deal. Records confirm the buyer is Sean Rad, a Los Angeles native and co-founder of the Tinder dating app.
Prettiest? That’s not really such a stretch. In contrast to the oppressively sterile, white-box monster mansions that have flooded Bel Air and other upscale L.A. neighborhoods in recent years, the former Mimieux residence — it’s actually two separate but side-by-side homes on two parcels with two different addresses — is an elegantly and colorfully maximalist tribute to a bygone time. Set on what the listing describes as “the only island in Bel Air,” on a particularly prestigious cul-de-sac watched over by its own private security guard, the place is overflowing with style, class and playful whimsy. It’s the sort of place folks who aren’t from L.A. might expect to find in Bel Air.
Mimieux, who died earlier this year at age 80, appeared in dozens of films and television series during the 1960s and 1970s, perhaps most notably “The Time Machine,” “Light in the Piazza,” “Where the Boys Are” and “Dr. Kildare,” for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe award. Following her 1986 marriage to real estate mogul Howard Ruby, the founder of Oakwood Worldwide, Mimieux soon retired from acting to become an artist and globetrotting collector of art and antiques, a portion of which were displayed during a landmark Bel Air estate sale in June.
Known as “Il Sogno,” the larger house was built circa 1928 by architect Mark Daniels, who designed it as a Tuscan villa-style mansion with 10,600 square feet of interior space. Ruby, who now lives mainly on his yacht moored in the Marina Del Rey area, acquired the property in 1979 and had the place decorated by famed interior designer Kalef Alaton. The smaller house immediately next door was acquired by Ruby and Mimieux in 2010 and includes a Balinese-style residence spanning about 5,000 square feet, plus a guest cottage.
The compound’s new owner, 36, has had a long and heavily publicized relationship with high-end real estate. The current Rad main residence is a $24 million Hollywood Hills mansion set just above L.A.’s bustling Sunset Strip, though the tech mogul is perhaps best known for once owning Montecito’s Rancho San Leandro, a historic horse ranch he bought from Ellen DeGeneres in 2018 and the site of his wedding to longtime partner Lizzie Grover. (Last year, Rad sold that ranch back to DeGeneres, who was apparently feeling a bit nostalgic.)
No word yet on Rad’s exact plans for the stunningly whimsical Bel Air estate, but he is reportedly planning an extensive remodel. Linda May of Hilton & Hyland, Jade Mills of Coldwell Banker and Kurt Rappaport of Westside Estate Agency jointly held the listing; Mary Fitzgerald and Jason Oppenheim of The Oppenheim Group repped the buyer.
Get the latest scoop directly in your inbox.
Get our latest stories in the feed of your favorite networks
We want to hear from you! Send us a tip using our anonymous form.
Sign up for our daily newsletter
Dirt is a part of Penske Media Corporation. © 2022 Dirt.com, LLC. All Rights Reserved.