Gia Scala’s Former House

I am embarrassingly ignorant when it comes to Old Hollywood.  So much so that when a fellow stalker named Alan tipped me off to a few celebrity death sites including that of Gia Scala via a comment on my Challenge Lindsay page in early 2017, I thought he was referring to the ‘70s supermodel who was the subject of an eponymous biographical film starring Angelina Jolie.  As soon as I inputted the name into Google, I realized my mistake – he was actually alluding to a raven-haired actress best known for her role in 1961’s The Guns of Navarone.  Upon researching further, I became quite a bit transfixed by the starlet’s mysterious death, as well as the pedigreed Hollywood Hills home where it occurred.  So I added the address to my To-Stalk List and headed on out there earlier this year.

Born Giovanna Scoglio in Liverpool, London on March 3rd, 1934, Scala migrated to Italy with her parents at three months old.  At 15, she headed to the U.S., Long Island specifically, where she lived with an aunt and attended high school.  The acting bug hit her early and upon graduation, Gia moved to New York City, began studying under Stella Adler and worked as a reservations clerk at Scandinavian Airlines to make ends meet.  She landed a studio contract in 1954, a role in All that Heaven Allows with Rock Hudson the following year, and fame came shortly thereafter.

Sadly, her years in show business were marred by scandalous headlines and severe despondency, both largely stemming from the passing of her mother in 1958, a death which she was said to have never gotten over.  Gia attempted to jump off the Waterloo Bridge just a few months later while filming The Angry Hills in London.

Scala found temporary happiness in 1959 when she married actor/stock broker Don Burnett.  The two settled into a picturesque 1940 Cape Cod home boasting two bedrooms, three baths, maid’s quarters, and a den at 7944 Woodrow Wilson Drive in Hollywood Hills West.

The couple eventually separated in 1969, divorced the following year and Gia was given the residence in the settlement.  Following the dissolution of her marriage, she found herself disconsolate and the subject of tabloid fodder once again.  In May 1971, the actress was arrested for drunk driving and, during the subsequent hearing, she passed out in the courtroom.  The judge sent her to a psychiatric hospital for evaluation, which caused her to miss a different hearing for a different charge  – this one for assaulting a parking lot attendant the month prior.  Photos from that arrest are a far cry from images of the actress taken early in her career.  In July, Gia suffered injuries, including the loss of a portion of her index finger, after her car overturned on an embankment.  It took rescue workers 45 minutes to retrieve her from the wreckage.  In November, she was in court yet again for harassing her ex-husband who had since remarried.  Gia, Burnett claimed, had not only set his car on fire, but had kicked a hole in his front door.  Scala was not in a good place.

Things came to a tragic end on April 30th, 1972.  As reported in the newspapers of the day, early that morning, Gia got into an argument with Larry Langston and three other “hippie-type” young men who were staying in her home.  The actress had apparently hired the men to do odd jobs around the property.  When Gia informed them the arrangement was no longer working out, an altercation occurred.  Langston and his friends, who claimed Gia had been drinking heavily and taking barbiturates, decided to leave.  They supposedly put her to bed at 6 a.m.  Langston then returned that evening at 8 p.m. to gather his belongings and say goodbye to Scala.  When he headed upstairs to her bedroom, he found her nude lifeless body sprawled on the bed surrounded by both liquor and prescription bottles – which all sounds rather suspicious to me.  Gia fires four men working in her home, an argument ensues and one of those men then finds her dead a short time later?  That’s a lot of red flags, especially considering some reports claim her body was bruised and her pillow stained with blood.  Coroner Thomas Noguchi (who also performed Marilyn Monroe’s autopsy) ruled the death accidental, though, caused by acute ethanol and barbiturate intoxication and advanced arteriosclerosis.  Gia’s good friend, male model William Ramage, thinks the latter explains her erratic behavior in the years leading up to her death.  As he said in a 2009 interview, “Her brain simply was not getting enough oxygen.”  It was a grim ending for someone with such potential.

Shortly after the actress’ passing, her home was purchased by Sally Kellerman, aka Major Margaret ‘Hot Lips’ Houlihan from M*A*S*H, who proceeded to live there for the next four decades, initially with first husband, Rick Edelstein, and then with second husband, Jonathan D. Krane, and their two children, Jack and Hannah.  At some point, she also purchased the cottage next door at 7932 Woodrow Wilson.  Jack, who grew up on the premises, became convinced the two pads were haunted.  As he told People magazine in 2016, “I always asked if someone died in one of these houses, and my parents said no.  I have always felt something strange. That house is haunted, for sure.  I’ve had a few ghost stories over there.  It’s creepy.”  He didn’t elaborate on who exactly the spectral visitors were, but I wouldn’t be surprised if one was Gia Scala.

Several years after moving in, Kellerman invited her friend Frank Gehry over for a meal.  The renowned architect took one look at the property and immediately suggested a renovation.  As Sally told the Chicago Tribune, “Frank Gehry came to dinner and he was like, ‘This is how you live, big movie star?  We can gut the upstairs, and change everything in every room, and add a three-story contemporary wing with a rooftop garden.’  So I have a combination Frank Gehry-Cape Cod house.”  (The three-story contemporary addition is pictured below.)

Gehry completed his work on the pad in 1983.  During the renovation, he left many of the dwelling’s original, traditional elements intact, partially covering them with modern touches.  The result of his efforts is a home that looks much like Gehry’s own residence in Santa Monica.

Sadly, Kellerman and Krane lost the property to foreclosure in 2014.  You can check out some photos of what it looked like around that time here.  It was then snatched up by flippers who gave the place yet another renovation before putting it on the market once again in 2015.  (Post-reno pics can be viewed here.)  The home, which today boasts 5 bedrooms, 6 baths, 4,412 square feet, a pool, a spa, beamed ceilings, a massive walk-in closet, gardens, and a 0.22-acre lot, was purchased later that year by One Direction’s Niall Horan for $4 million.  But its Hollywood pedigree doesn’t end there!  Per the 2015 real estate listing, at some point during his pre-acting days Harrison Ford did carpentry work on the residence.  Talk about some major Tinseltown connections!

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Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Alan for telling me about this location!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Gia Scala’s former home is located at 7944 Woodrow Wilson Drive in Hollywood Hills West.

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