Jane Russell’s Former Creekside Idyll in Santa Barbara Just Listed for $8.25 Million

Golden Age siren Jane Russell received her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960, at the same time as her Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953) co-star Marilyn Monroe—their hand and footprints are in the forecourt of Graumann’s Chinese Theater—and in the 1970s and ’80s she was the ubiquitous spokesperson for Playtex bras and girdles.

In 1985, the year before her last on-screen appearance in an episode of Hunter, she and her third and last husband, real estate broker John Peoples, bought a Santa Barbara estate that she sold for close to its $1.9 million asking price in 2000, the year following Peoples’ death. The property last changed hands in 2005 for $2.12 million, and now, the creekside compound has returned to market as an idyllic retreat with a Tinseltown pedigree at $8.25 million. Kate Blackwood and Santa Van Der Laarse at Compass share the listing.

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The 1.25-acre spread is sequestered down a private lane and includes a 3,678-square-foot main residence and a separate one-bedroom guesthouse, plus a self-contained one-bed/one-bath apartment above the garage and a freestanding pool house with another kitchen and bath. Altogether, there are six bedrooms and four and a half bathrooms.

The two-story main house, built in 1964, has been extensively updated since Russell owned it, both honoring its midcentury roots and bringing in more modern elements such as smooth concrete walls and horizontal wood cladding. The sunny floor plan includes a window-lined combination living and dining room with a fireplace suspended from the vaulted and beamed ceiling, and a modern, all-white eat-in kitchen flooded with natural light thanks to its numerous windows and skylights. Elsewhere are a couple of cozy dens and four bedrooms, the homeowner’s suite being on the main floor with an outdoor shower and private patio.

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The back of the house opens to a large deck that hangs over a seasonal creek with a bridge that leads to meandering gardens and the swimming pool and pool house. Elsewhere are a sports court, a one-bedroom guesthouse, and, above a two-car garage converted to a gym, a one-bed/one-bath apartment.

Russell was known to have a keen interest in architecture and design. In the mid-1940s, while married to her first husband, professional football player and coach Bob Waterfield, she commissioned Case Study architect Kemper Nomland Jr. to design Skytop, a modern dream house on a hilltop in the mountains above Sherman Oaks. Though no longer standing, it featured a sunken conversation pit and panoramic views over the San Fernando Valley. 

Decades later, Russell and Peoples split their time between Santa Barbara and Sedona, Arizona, where they owned a nightclub called Dude’s and a home that’s now a vacation rental. She spent the last years of her life in a relatively unassuming house in Santa Maria, California, where she died in 2011.

Click here for more photos of the Hollywood-pedigreed Santa Barbara home.