Johnny Depp is cashing in on his cachet. The influential actor, known for his considerable silver-screen and box-office presence, has just sold a 2,400 square foot penthouse—the second of five neighboring penthouses he owns in the art-deco Eastern Columbia building—for $3.09 million, or just under $1,300 a square foot. Even in Los Angeles, that’s a pretty penny for a pied-a-terre.
Deco the building may be, but certainly, after ownership by the creative genius, the property itself is not so historically modernistic or measured-romantic. With a foundation of contemporary Bauhaus and a veneer of marvelously eccentric foibles, the interior is awash with fascinating landscapes for the eye that flow into one another, sometimes effortlessly, and occasionally jarringly. The foyer is dark wood, the lighting is filled with drama. The kitchen is drenched in sunlight, and moves easily into the main living area. There are brick-set windows exposing the cityscape, as if framing it in its own historicity. There is hardwood worked into the perennial motion of chevron. If it weren’t for the standard equipment of pool, spa and fitness studio, the penthouse would reveal a complete departure from jejune generic-gold Hollywood.
The other three of Depp’s five adjacent penthouses are on the market as well; a 1,780 square-foot unit is priced at a shadow under two million dollars, a 2,266 square-foot unit is asking $2.75 million, and a 2,400 square foot $2.649 million.
Depp, 53, is considered by many to be the most substantial American male actor of his generation; he certainly is the most successful. After beginning his career in the short-lived 80’s T.V. crime-drama ’21 Jump Street,’ he quickly moved on to starring in Tim Burton’s wonderfully dark fairy-tale ‘Edward Scissorhands,’ a satire of suburban life and human fallibility. He has since played the lead roles of films arthouse and big-budget, working with Jim Jarmusch and Disney, and legends Marlon Brando and Al Pacino; his films have grossed a whopping $7.5 billion.
