A Beverly Hills English-style manor is the home behind a beautiful Hollywood love story. The house listed on the market for $12.5 million by Jade Mills of Coldwell Banker Global Luxury, off an extraordinary pedigree of success and positive energy, solely from Bob and Gilda Marx, the active homeowners who radiated light and love on this dynamic estate for 36 years.

The Marx family are quite well rounded – being celebrities, business tycoons, committed philanthropists, and a happy husband-and-wife team who recently celebrated their 44th anniversary. The Benedict Canyon manor is their beloved home in which they encountered countless fond memories. However, as it’s time to retire, the couple is ready to downsize. 

“This is an extraordinary house,” says Bob. “There are walls that are 12 inches thick. You can’t hear a car going by 50 feet in front of the house. The ceilings are up to 30 feet high. It’s like walking into a small castle. To live in a house like this validates that you’ve had a successful life.”

The estate was built in 1982 on a half-acre of land. The six-bedroom manor rests elegantly behind a gated entrance and a large motor court. You can find magnificent lion sculptures, hedged paths, lush lawn, and front garden with fruit trees.

 

“I love my flowers and my fruit trees,” says Gilda, recalling what she’ll miss when the manor sells. “We had lemon and orange trees. We’d walk out every day to see what bloomed. One year, I ate an entire orange tree—120 oranges.”

When entering the manor, you are greeted by the grand foyer and a red-carpeted staircase framed by an imposing coffered ceiling and ornate chandelier. The interiors feature refined furnishings, intricate hardwood floors, exquisite carpentry and towering windows with beveled glass, while museum-styled paintings and bronze sculptures decorate the home. 

The main level of the manor is equipped with a living room, fireplace, formal dining room, a wooden library parlor, family room with a second fireplace and a bar. If you think that’s all – there’s more.  There is also an expansive kitchen with an island, a breakfast room, and a butler’s pantry with wine storage.

Travel downstairs and you will discover a one-bedroom suite, while the upstairs features five bedrooms, including a spacious master suite with a fireplace, sitting area, dual walk-in closets, and a large bathroom with a sauna and dual vanities. There is even an elevator, gym, laundry room, powder room, storage space, and a central vacuum system.

“Everything in this house is female friendly as well as male friendly,” says Gilda. “There’s everything that women want to have for themselves, including separate hers and his showers, and privacy in the dressing room of the master. You’re together but you each have privacy.”

Once you reach the backyard, you might mistake it for a resort. The backyard offers maximum entertainment with its open and covered patios, an outdoor living room, terrace overlooks, an oval pool, raised rock spa, and a spotlighted hillside landscape—amid a sea of green and red floral arrangements. Forbes notes that this space was used by the Marxes for entertaining family, friends and for their charity events. 

“I adore looking at the landscaping every morning at breakfast and seeing the greenery, trees and nature,” says Gilda, who frequently walked her Tibetan terrier Romeo around the grounds. “So much inspiration for my Flexatard line came from nature.”