$3.4M Mansion for ‘The Fonz’

HENRY WINKLER, best known as “The Fonz” in the long-running sitcom “Happy Days,” has closed escrow on producer Lee Rich’s Bel-Air home, and actor Andy Garcia has purchased Winkler’s Toluca Lake residence.

Winkler and his wife, Stacey, bought the four-bedroom, 9,000-square-foot home for about $3.4 million, according to public records. The Country English-style house, on an acre, was built in 1934.

Garcia bought Winkler’s five-bedroom, 6,700-square-foot home of 15 years for about $2.26 million, public records show. The house was built in 1937. It was where actress Marlee Matlin was married in September in a ceremony attended by 250 guests.

Garcia, 37, his wife, Marivi, and their three young daughters had been living in a modest, San Fernando Valley house, sources say. The family also has a home in Miami, where Garcia grew up.

The Cuban-born actor starred with Dustin Hoffman and Geena Davis in “Hero” (1992). He was nominated for an Academy Award and a Golden Globe for his role as Vincent in “The Godfather, Part III” (1990), and he played a G-man with Kevin Costner in “The Untouchables” (1987).

Winkler, who turned 48 on Oct. 30, is also a family man with three children. He recently directed the movie “Cop and a Half,” starring Burt Reynolds, and stars in the Fox sitcom “Monty,” due to premiere in January. He produced the popular TV series “MacGyver.”

The home that the Winklers bought had been owned by Angela and Lee Rich, an executive producer of the new NBC series “Against the Grain,” who was also a producer of “Dallas,” “Eight is Enough” and “The Waltons.”

The house had been co-listed by Judy Hanauer of Jon Douglas Co., Beverly Hills, and Stephen Shapiro of Stan Herman/Stephen Shapiro & Associates; the Winklers were represented by Linda May of Fred Sands Estates.

RICHARD MOLL--the 6-foot-8, bald bailiff in the long-running “Night Court” TV series--and his wife, Susan (Milton Berle’s step-daughter, by his current wife, Lorna), have purchased a Pacific Palisades home for close to its asking price of $1.75 million, sources say.

Moll, who is in Greece making an as-yet-untitled film, plans to add a second-story master suite to the four-bedroom, 3,000-square-foot house, built in 1949. He also plans to build a pool on the property, which has views of the late Will Rogers’ polo field.

Former owners of the home retired to Grand Junction, Colo.

Tim and Jill Corliss of RE/MAX, Westside Properties, represented the sellers, and Brendan McCarthy of Jon Douglas Co.’s Brentwood office represented the Molls.

MADONNA’S Sunset Strip-area house, which she recently vacated to move into her new home in the Hollywood Hills, has been leased for six months at $10,000 a month, sources say.

The tenant was identified as Dan Melnick, a producer who appeared in the TV special “Sam Peckinpah: Man of Iron,” which aired in June. Melnick was also a producer of the films “L.A. Story” (1991), “Air America” (1990), “Roxanne” (1987) and “Footloose” (1984).

The gated, 4,500-square-foot home where Madonna lived for nearly five years has three bedrooms, including a lavish master suite with a gym and city views. Madonna put the house on the market in September at just under $3 million.

Barry Peele of Fred Sands’ Directors Office represented Melnick in the lease. The house is listed for sale with Madison Offenhauser of Jon Douglas Co., Beverly Hills.

The Hancock Park home of the late JOSEPH BOLKER, a wealthy developer who was married to Christina Onassis in 1971 for nine months, has been sold for $2 million to clothing designers/manufacturers Tina and Richard Hagen, sources say. Originally priced in the $4-million range, the home was last listed at $2.8 million.

Bolker, who died at age 62 seven years ago, championed low-cost housing through his Brighton-Bilt Homes, which later became Brighton International. He was a former chairman of the L.A. International Visitors Program and was a consul general for the Republic of Senegal.

The house, where his widow lived until she moved recently to Europe, has four bedrooms and maid’s quarters in 12,000 square feet. The property also has a guest house and tennis court.

The home was built in 1915 for the Van Nuys family. It had been listed by Kay Pick and Alex North of Mike Silverman Estates, a Jon Douglas Co. The buyers were represented by Terri White of Hurwitz-James Co.

“Paul R. Williams, Architect--A Legacy of Style,” the first book on the late black architect who designed dozens of movie stars’ mansions as well as such landmarks as the Polo Lounge at the Beverly Hills Hotel, is being introduced next Sunday at a talk and book-signing by the author, Williams’ granddaughter, Karen E. Hudson.

Presented by the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), the talk will be given at 1 p.m. in the Bunker Hills Ballroom of the Hotel Inter-Continental, adjacent to MOCA, at 251 S. Olive St., in downtown Los Angeles. The talk will be followed by a reception on the MOCA Sculpture Plaza from 2 to 4 p.m. Admission is free, but reservations are requested by phoning (213) 621-1720.