JOHNNY CARSON’S FORMER BEL-AIR MANSION HITS THE MARKET FOR NEARLY $40 MILLION

The Los Angeles mansion where the late television icon Johnny Carson lived with the third of his four wives, Joanna Carson, is coming on the market for $39.995 million.

The Carsons bought the Bel-Air property around the time of their marriage in the early 1970s, said Joanna’s nephew, Robert Ulrich. The purchase broadly coincided with the 1972 relocation of “The Tonight Show” from New York City to Burbank, Calif. Joanna, a former model, kept the property after the couple’s 1985 divorce and split her time between there and New York until her death last year at age 88, said Ulrich, a trustee of her estate.

The Midcentury Modern estate spans roughly 9,000 square feet with six bedrooms. It sits on about 1.5 acres in East Gate Bel-Air, an area where some of L.A.’s most storied estates are located. The grounds include a tiered fountain leading to an oval-shaped swimming pool. The property has its own security booth as well as a two-story structure that was once home to Johnny’s office.

The low-slung, one-story house was designed around 1949 year for film producer and director Mervyn LeRoy, known for classics including “The Wizard of Oz.”

The late-night host met Joanna at the famed 21 Club in Manhattan; she is often confused with his second wife, Joanne Carson. Johnny had to convince Joanna, a highly-paid model who had grown up in New York, to move out West.

“She was truly a New Yorker to her core, so it was hard for her to move out to California,” Ulrich said. Still, the property offered a lifestyle that New York couldn’t replicate: Johnny, an avid tennis player, had a tennis court and pavilion constructed on the estate, for example.

Ulrich said his aunt lived the life of a “socialite” at the home when she and Johnny were married. “They were close with the Sinatras,” he said. “Nancy Reagan was their neighbor.”

After she and Johnny divorced, Joanna was more private, he said. In more recent years, she regularly hosted his family at the property, looking on as his children “flailed” around in the pool and played on the tennis court.

Later, in the early 2000s, Joanna oversaw a multiyear renovation of the house and grounds, her nephew said.

The Carsons had no children and Joanna’s son from a previous marriage, the actor Joe Holland, died in 1994. Ulrich said the proceeds of the home sale will be largely split between three charities: Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, the David Geffen Foundation and SHARE, a charity for abused and disabled children.

Joanna also had a home at the iconic Pierre Hotel in New York City. It is unclear when it might be sold, Ulrich said.

The median sale price of a home in Bel-Air was $3.9 million in December, up 2.2% since December 2024, according to Redfin. Listing agents David Kramer and Andrew Buss of Compass said they expect the property to be sought-after for its location and the scale of the site. Some buyers might see the house itself as a teardown, however.

“Johnny Carson was an iconic figure and there are many people who would want to keep his spirit in the home, “ said Kramer. “It would be great to see it restored or brought up to current standards, but it could go either way.”

Write to Katherine Clarke at [email protected]

2026-01-16T19:35:45Z