Michael York, Now Living in Minnesota, Lists L.A. Home for $7M

Actor Michael York — known for his roles in Cabaret, Logan’s Run and the Austin Powers films — and his wife, photographer and former magazine editor Pat York, are selling their long-time home in the Hollywood Hills, listing it for $6.995 million with Hilton & Hyland’s Linda May Properties.

The couple are selling the home after moving full-time to Rochester, Minnesota. They relocated there to live near the Mayo Clinic, where Michael York has long been treated for a rare disease, amyloidosis. They bought their L.A. residence — on Cordell Drive, perched on a double lot above Sunset Boulevard — in 1976 and lived there for almost five decades.

Michael York, 79, tells The Hollywood Reporter he first saw the house in 1975. “I was in the middle of filming Logan’s Run,” recalls the Emmy-nominated actor. “Pat said, ‘You gotta come up and see this house. It’s exactly what we’re looking for.’”

The house was in escrow at the time; the agent had shown the Yorks the house just to get a sense of what they were looking for. But the couple was undeterred. “I said, ‘I’m sorry. I know we’re going to own this house,’” recalls Pat York.

“About a week later, it fell [out of escrow],” continues Michael York, and the Yorks were able to buy it.

Michael recalls that he already had visited the narrow hillside street during his first visit to Hollywood, in 1969. “I had been up [there] when George Cukor, who had the house on the corner, had taken over the direction of [the 1969 film] Justine with Anouk Aimée. I remember going up and being enchanted by this street — and his house with its legendary connections — and I had no idea I would be back as a neighbor.”

Cordell Drive has had many famous residents. Ronald Reagan and his first wife Jane Wyman once lived there in a residence built for them in 1942. According to the Yorks, Jane Fonda once lived next door to them. And Richard Gere and Cindy Crawford were on Cordell for a time when they were married. “It’s a very storied street,” says Hilton & Hyland’s Linda May of Linda May Properties, one of the listing agents on the Yorks’ property, along with Hilton & Hyland’s Guy Levy. Adds May, “When Guy and I first walked into the house, we were absolutely blown away by the views and by this incredible house that Pat and Michael had created.”

The Yorks’ house, built in 1948, had previously been owned by actor Tom Tryon (The Cardinal, Texas John Slaughter). “He [Tom] gave up acting. He bought the house because it had an empty lot next door. When we bought it, Elizabeth Taylor was renting it from Tom,” remembers Pat York, who notes that she and her husband enlarged the house and installed Portuguese tiles in a hallway and a Louis XIV fireplace (“It’s beautiful and that stays,” says the actor) and resurfaced the swimming pool. “A team from Mexico came up and instead of just stucco they tiled the whole thing and it gave the pool a beautiful shimmer,” says Michael York. Adds Pat York — whose books of photography include Fame and Frame, Going Strong and Covered-Uncovered, “We did a great deal of work.”

The Yorks fondly remember the house as the site of many dinner parties over the years (attended by friends including Steve Martin, Sean Connery, Joan Collins and Barry Humphries) as well as what Pat York says they called “teas,” even if “there was a lot of alcohol to drink.” She adds, “We had a wonderful French chef whenever we entertained and he would do the most incredible table — full of food. It has wonderful fantastic memories.” At one point, the couple rented the house to Katharine Hepburn.

The mid-century, 4,200-square-foot house has three bedrooms, a library, a master suite with dual walk-in closets and sweeping L.A. views that include the Pacific Ocean. The two lots, which together total 28,100 square feet, include an azalea garden.

Last year, the Yorks auctioned off many of their belongings at Heritage Auctions and donated most of their enormous collection of books (7,000 of them, per Pat York) to Friends of the West Hollywood Library.

Michael York— whose most recent credit was a voice role on The Simpsons in 2020 — says he is feeling “very good” these days thanks to the care of the Mayo Clinic. He first developed amyloidosis — a disorder in which abnormal proteins build up in tissue — in 2009, but was initially misdiagnosed. The clinic properly diagnosed him in 2012, and he has had two stem-cell treatments there since then. “My life was saved twice,” the actor says of those treatments.

“But it’s finally becoming increasingly evident that I needed to be near the source of healing. This is the cutting-edge place for research,” adds Michael York, of the decision to move to Rochester, Minnesota, where the Mayo Clinic is located. His regimen includes strength training and balance exercises.

“It’s very strange — instead of movie people as our friends, our best friends are [doctors], Carmen and Andre Terzic, he’s the director of the [Mayo Clinic’s] regenerative medicine department,” says Pat York, adding, “[Minnesota] is a fascinating state. We’ve been on the Mississippi River on trips. Plus the air is the freshest you can imagine.” Later this month, says Michael York, the clinic plans to show two of his movies. “I’m presenting the The Three Musketeers and The Four Musketeers,” he says.

As for letting go of their long-time L.A. home, the Yorks say it’s simply time. Says Pat York, “Everyone says to us, ‘Oh it must be so terrible giving up everything, and you must feel so sentimental.’ And strangely enough, I don’t think either of us do.”

“I certainly don’t,” concurs Michael York. “I loved being in the house. It’s time to pass it on.”