A 4-bedroom, 4-bathroom house in Newport Beach's Big Canyon community is on the market for $2.6 million. No big whoop–until you mosey up to the fact the 4,448-square-foot house off the 4th tee of the private Big Canyon golf course was once owned by “The Duke,” John Wayne.
In fact, the address is 14 Rue Grand Ducal–“Ducal” meaning “pertaining to a duke.”
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The home is not to be confused with the one-story, 10-room, 7-bath white ranch house the actor owned at the tip of Bayshore Drive, the back of which faced Newport Harbor. That pad was torn down, but the home built in its place by a later owner is still identified as the former home of John Wayne on guided harbor cruises.
Wayne's name and that of his former wife, Pilar, are listed on the Big Canyon home's title history, but it is unclear how much time the actor actually spent there, reports the Orange County Register.
He was known to play poker, bridge,
backgammon and Klabberjass at the Big Canyon Country Club, so one could easily imagine the big lug stumbling back to the Big Canyon house for a snooze after too many old fashioneds.
The property, which is reported to have last sold for $895,000 in 1998, includes a pool, spa, gazebo surrounded by lush gardens and the two-story “Versailles” style home with a two-story living room, floor-to-ceiling windows, a marble fireplace and a newly remodeled
kitchen.
The best feature? A butler's pantry that contains a “secret” area. Must keep up with The Nicholases, after all.
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.