Dustin Hoffman | House Tour | $10 Million New York Townhouse & More

You might not know this, but Dustin Hoffman has had quite the real estate journey over the years. The actor has lived on properties that have been in the news for everything from the discovery of a dead body to an explosion that nearly destroyed his entire house. But aside from those, Dustin also owns stunning homes from the UK to Connecticut and his longtime mansion in Brentwood, Los Angeles. Also Michael and I have dropped our own house tour of our new home that we moved into this year, so go ahead and subscribe to our personal channel if you want to see where we're living In these videos we don't reveal any addresses and even though I've done a house tour of my own place, please do not show up at any private residences because it's not safe for anyone. There are few legends of this screen on the same level as Dustin Hoffman, one of the most well known and critically acclaimed actors of all time. After breaking into the film industry with The Graduate, Hoffman would continue to act for the next 5 decades in some of the most memorable film roles ever. Dustin's projects over the past decade have been a little sparse, but to this point he's already earned 2 Academy Awards, 6 Golden Globes and 2 Emmys. And when it comes to retirement, and more specifically where Dustin will retire, well that's where things get a bit more complicated. Because as unusual as Dustin's acting career has been with a ton of idiosyncratic roles that only he could play, his real estate journey over the years has been almost as singular. Thankfully, Dustin still has a handful of other properties to live out his golden years in, which includes his longtime mansion in LA. Hey guys, it's Kara the Vampire Slayer back with another exclusive house tour here on Famous Entertainment looking at the homes of Dustin Hoffman. Don't forget to like, subscribe and hit me up on Instagram to chat and now let's get into this video. Located in New York City at 18 West 11th Street is a residence with an explosive history. This 19th century Greenwich Village townhouse was one of four identical Greek Revival homes built in 1845 for one of the most prominent Dutch families in New York at the time. By the 1920s, the co-founder of Merrill Lynch, Charles Merrill, had purchased this residence and his son, the poet James Merrill, was born right inside of it. 40 years later, a young executive named James Wilkerson had purchased the home, moving in with his family that included his wife, Audrey, and his daughter from a previous marriage, Kathy. Living in the identical brownstone right next to his own at the time, none other than Dustin Hoffman. All of this sounds pretty normal so far, right? Well, this is where things get crazy. James' daughter, Kathy, and four of her college friends joined a radicalized group known as the Weather Underground. And on March 6th, 1970, these five individuals began assembling a bomb in the basement of her father's home. But since they were such amateurs, the bomb would accidentally explode while they were building it, killing three of them instantly, while reducing Kathy's home to rubble and punching a gigantic hole through Dustin Hoffman's living room. And guess what? Dustin just so happened to be home at the time of the events, and then this picture was snapped of him running out of the house clutching onto one of his priceless pieces of art. For those of you wondering, Kathy and her other friend would escape the scene of the crime and remain fugitives for years. In fact, Kathy wouldn't even be caught until 10 years later, when she eventually surrendered. As for Dustin, well, he wasn't finished with strange events happening in his homes. Up in Roxbury, Connecticut, among the serene lakes and rolling hills of this gorgeous state live some of Hollywood's biggest celebrities, including the likes of Arthur Miller, Meryl Streep, Conan O'Brien, and yes, even Dustin Hoffman. Celebrities tend to flock to this area largely because it boasts the type of upscale real estate that they covet, properties with long driveways and sweeping views of the countryside or water. The homes all have fireplaces and historic charm, but also the comforts of state-of-the-art kitchens and some epic bedroom suites. As for Hoffman's own property, it's said to include more than 80 acres of land and has been valued at 1.6 million dollars. But if he was ever going to sell this place, Dustin would have to alert the next tenant as to what happened here in August of 1986. That's the day that a 43-year-old boarding school teacher named Sheila C. Fionda was found dead in Dustin's hot tub. The media would describe Sheila as a friend of the caretaker of Dustin's estate, and explain that she was found floating in the water lying face down. Her death was later ruled to be accidental drowning, and Dustin was apparently not home at the time of the event. But needless to say, the tabloids still lived off of this story for a number of months afterward. And then there's Dustin's Malibu beach house. He's one of 114 homeowners on the city's exclusive Broad Beach, where the average house price is estimated to be somewhere in the ballpark of 8 million dollars. And he lives beside equally famous neighbours, like Steven Spielberg and Ray Romano, all of who have teamed up to stop the erosion of the beach's sand. Sounds innocent enough, right? Well, the only problem is that the 20 million dollar plan they decided to enact called for bringing in around 600,000 cubic yards of sand from the bottom of the ocean. This sent environmental scientists into a tizzy, and they pushed back against the idea, claiming that it would tamper with the area's natural ecosystem. As frustrating and frightening as some of those previous experiences must have been for Dustin, as recently as 2017, he was still having real estate issues. That's when this longtime liberal surprised everyone by entering into a real estate development deal, family of controversial Republican strategist, Paul Manafort. Dustin and his son Jacob teamed up with Paul's former son-in-law, Jeffrey Yohi, and together the trio planned to build a contemporary mansion on a Hollywood home site with the Hoffmans investing 3 million dollars of their own money into the idea. So what went wrong? Well, the house was never built, and Jeffrey technically owned the company building the home, filed for bankruptcy. The Hoffmans petitioned a US bankruptcy court judge to convert the chapter 11 to a chapter 7 liquidation as a means to get their money back. The investment property, with its original home, was then placed on the housing market for 7.45 million dollars. About 1.5 million dollars less than was originally planned. As it exists today, the property, which is located on Blue Jay Way in what's known as the Bird Streets neighborhood, includes a modest three bedrooms alongside just over 3,000 square feet of space. Any buyer that decides to scoop it up would also inherit the plans and permits for the luxury spec home that Dustin and the others plan to build there, which are supposed to have been a three-story mansion built into the hillside with amazing, unobstructed views. In 2018, the original home would finally sell for 5.2 million dollars. As for whether or not Dustin and his son ever got back what they invested, well, I kinda doubt it, because only a year later, Jeffrey would wind up in prison on fraud charges. But now that we've gone through all the unusual cases in Dustin's real estate portfolio, let's check out his actual longtime home. In October of 1996, Dustin Hoffman would spend 5 million dollars to build a home for himself in LA's Brentwood neighborhood from the ground up. Being the longtime tennis nut that he is, Dustin made sure to include the construction of a walled-off tennis court for his own private use. A close personal friend would tell the Los Angeles Times about the property. The moment the court was done, he'd show up there and play tennis. Then he would frequently walk the construction site in his tennis outfit. Two years later, Dustin and his family were moving into this 12,000-square-foot behemoth the moment it was completed. Boasting an epic 7 bedrooms, Hoffman's Brentwood home was built on the two-lot site of a 6,000-square-foot house that had been built in the 1940s, which was then gutted to make way for Dustin's new place. He also bought an adjacent house which was torn down to make room for his beloved tennis court. While Dustin has kept this property away from prying eyes since then, the home is said to be constructed in a contemporary but country style, with a whole host of soaring spaces. He and his family have made it their primary home ever since. Though it should be noted that he's also said to own a 19th century family villa located on Victoria Road in London, England. But sadly, there's almost no other information about that place to be found anywhere. Well that wraps up the wild real estate of actor Dustin Hoffman, and his house history was surprising to say the least. Despite all of those ups and downs, at least we know the retired actor can settle down in the beautiful mansions he owns, such as the one in Brentwood. Be sure to let me know your thoughts on this story down in the comments, as to who we should feature next on here. Thanks for watching, hit that subscribe button if you haven't, follow me on Instagram to chat and I'll see you all in another video, bye!