When English filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock moved to Los Angeles to conquer Hollywood in 1939—he made “Rebecca” the following year, which earned him the first of his five Oscar nominations—he and his wife, Alma, and daughter, Pat, initially made their home in a spacious rented apartment on Wilshire Boulevard.
Several years later, after acquiring a 200-acre getaway near Scotts Valley in the Santa Cruz Mountains, the family set down permanent roots in Los Angeles with the purchase of an English-Country-inspired home just up from the West Gate entrance to the tony Bel Air neighborhood.
The Bel Air home, where the “Psycho” filmmaker lived until his death at age 80 in 1980, came up for sale earlier this year for $8.25 million, and though out of step with current decorative trends, the immaculately maintained home drew multiple offers that drove the recorded sale price up to just over $8.8 million.
Tax records show the home had long been owned by a local businessman who made his fortune in the lumber and building supply industries and list the buyer as a foreign corporate entity linked to Dutch media mogul Reinout Oerlemans, founder of the TV production company Eyeworks.
Originally created by Carlton Burgess, who also designed and built Jack Benny’s Beverly Hills home, Hitchcock’s former sanctuary was extensively renovated and expanded in 1983. Concealed behind a dense wall of trees and vegetation and situated on almost two-thirds of an acre, the primarily single-story home measures somewhat more than 7,500 square feet and has two (and potentially four) bedrooms and five bathrooms.
Beyond the fountained front entry, the living room features an oversized fireplace and vaulted wood-beamed ceilings; the dining room overlooks flowering gardens; and the eat-in kitchen showcases hand-painted tiles and blue Brazilian granite counters. There are two substantial bedroom suites, one for guests with a white marble bath and the other for the homeowner with dual dressing areas and baths.
There are two more rooms that can be converted to additional bedrooms, according to marketing material, as well as a “hidden upstairs office/guest room with plumbing in place” to add another bathroom.
The grounds offer a gated entry, mature trees and flowering gardens, a spacious courtyard, and a huge loggia with an outdoor fireplace alongside a turquoise swimming pool. There’s also garaging for three cars and parking for many more, as well as a couple of storage buildings.
Steeped in Hollywood lore and ready for its next close-up, the property was listed with Ginger Glass at Compass, while Oerlemans was represented in the transaction by Rayni Williams and Branden Williams at The Beverly Hills Estates.
If their former homes in Los Angeles are any indication, Oerlemans and his wife Danielle will likely embark on an extensive re-make of the property. The couple previously owned a spectacular, 33,000-square-foot Bel Air mansion—perhaps not coincidentally, it’s directly across the 15th fairway from their new property—that they sold in 2021 for $70 million to The Weeknd, who used the home as the set for his HBO series “The Idol.”
Click here for all the photos of Alfred Hitchcock’s former home at 10957 Bellagio Road.
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