Over the years, Tim Curry owned several properties, but his Los Feliz home in Los Angeles stood out as one of his most iconic. The beloved The Rocky Horror Picture Show actor bought the property in 1993 and spent years transforming the historic house into a Mediterranean-inspired dream home.
Built in 1922, the Spanish Colonial Revival/Mediterranean villa at 2666 Aberdeen Avenue was on the verge of demolition when Curry stepped in and bought it at the last minute.
How did Tim Curry land his LA home?
According to Architectural Digest, Curry purchased the Los Feliz house for $650,000 in 1993, just as plans were underway to demolish it for a new development. In a 1998 feature with the publication, the actor spoke about how he discovered the property and what drew him to its distinctive character.
After moving to Hollywood in search of better opportunities, Curry and his friend Annie Potts began exploring the local real estate market. They visited a house in Los Feliz that had recently been put up for sale. Potts particularly liked the property, although it had been painted bright tomato orange and was facing demolition.
Curry, however, was captivated the moment he stepped inside. He said the house made him feel as though he had been transported to Ecuador. He immediately made an offer and happened to arrive at the right time, as the previous buyer had backed out.
“I soon learned that the previous bidder had been told by her psychic that the house was haunted and had just withdrawn from escrow,” he said.
The mansion, known as the Seyler House, would eventually become one of Curry’s most distinctive homes.
History of Tim Curry’s Seyler House
The Seyler House dates back to 1922 and was designed by architect Stiles Clements, a prominent figure in Los Angeles architecture who was responsible for several notable public buildings across the city.
The property was designed in the Spanish Colonial Revival style, but Curry was drawn to it precisely because it avoided some of the more predictable features associated with the aesthetic.
“It has none of those elements one sees so often: festivals of wrought iron, little Juliet balconies, and guitars strumming in every corner,” Curry said.
Inside Tim Curry’s Mediterranean-style home
Curry’s Los Feliz residence combined Mediterranean influences with an eclectic, lived-in aesthetic. The roughly 4,000-square-foot property featured four bedrooms and 3.5 bathrooms, along with thick stucco walls, arched doorways, deep recesses and red-tile roofs.
Inside, the home featured rustic brown-toned walls, black-and-white checkered floors, cosy carpets, stained-glass windows, vintage tiles and exposed wood-beam ceilings.
Much of Curry’s approach to the house was influenced by his experiences with historic properties and their layered interiors. One of his inspirations was an Irish estate owned by the Guinness family, where he had once been invited to stay.
Reflecting on the property, Curry said, “It was the most beautiful and comfortable house I’d ever been to. The dining room’s red Chinese silk walls had been blasted by the sun and were covered with faded Hokusai and Hiroshige prints bound the way they used to be in the 19th century, in black passe-partout. We sat at the end of an enormous Regency table and ate potato pie.”
He was particularly attracted to the maximalist character of the estate and the way generations of history were reflected in its interiors.
“There was an extraordinary range of paintings and just the sort of patina—and obsessions—of several centuries of people who’d lived there, with everything having a layer of dog over it. A great jumble it was, all arranged by an eye.”
That philosophy appeared to influence Curry’s own approach to the Seyler House, giving the property a distinctive mix of history, colour, texture and personality.
Tim Curry sold the house in 2000 for $2.6 million; property later sold for $7.5 million
Curry eventually sold the Los Feliz mansion in 2000 for $2.6 million. The property subsequently passed through the hands of several high-profile owners, including Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Noah Wyle, Robert Pattinson, Jim Parsons and Aaron Paul.
The home was later put back on the market and was initially listed for $10.4 million in June. According to reports shared online by a realtor, the property had a pending buyer before the contract was cleared.
The reported $7.5 million sale came only hours after Curry's death, adding another chapter to the history of the distinctive Los Feliz mansion.
