Former Ted Knight Highlands Home Hits the Market

By SARAH SHMERLING | Editor-in-Chief

For those looking for a bit of Hollywood magic at home in Pacific Palisades, the last home of late actor Ted Knight, located in the Highlands, is now on the market for $5,495,000.

Knight, most famous for playing the role of newscaster Ted Baxter on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” arrived in the Palisades from Burbank in 1974, moving into the Camino De Yatasto home in the early 1980s.

He also served as honorary mayor of Pacific Palisades in 1981, a title that has been given most recently to Billy and Janice Crystal, but also to additional famous Palisadians like Adam West, Nanette Fabray and Mel Blanc.

The listing agent is Violetta Hargitay of Sotheby’s International Realty Pacific Palisades Brokerage. She shared that her clients purchased the home from Knight’s wife, Dorothy Smith, after he died.

The five-bedroom, six-bath house features 6,121 square feet of space, spread out over 1.366 acres.

“The owners created a gorgeous setting in which to raise their family, entertain friends and to display their art collection,” Hargitay shared with the Palisadian-Post. “The interior is spacious, warm and elegant. The property is ideal for indoor and outdoor entertaining.”

She shared that given its location on 1.3 acres with a long, private driveway, the home is a rare find in the Palisades.

“An incredible value and a one-of-a-kind offering in Pacific Palisades,” the listing boasts. “Sitting on 1.3 acres down a long, gated driveway is this extremely private tennis court estate situated inside the 24-hour guard-gated Country Estates.”

The property offers “complete privacy, security and a resort-like environment”—all situated in nature. Outdoor amenities include landscaped grounds, a Pebble Tec pool, spa and large outdoor entertaining area, with a built-in BBQ, attached outdoor heaters and lawn area, surrounded by mature trees and vegetation.

“For the art collector, this home has been thoughtfully updated to showcase any collection with abundant space and features a dramatic living room with soaring ceiling and windows,” the listing continues.

Inside the home there are spacious rooms, limestone floors, artist-designed custom front doors, three fireplaces, a gourmet kitchen, large dining room, family room, den, bar area, guest room, office area and a master suite with his and hers walk-in closets.

The second floor features four bedrooms, with an additional bedroom located on the first floor.

A motor court can accommodate at least eight vehicles, in addition to a four-car garage.

Hargitay added that some of her favorite features include the property’s “exceptionally beautiful setting,” the backyard and outdoor areas, and the “spacious and inviting interior.” She said that the tennis court offers possibilities for yard expansion or to build a studio, should the next homeowner not want or need the court.

“Escape every day to this very special setting while maintaining easy access to dining, beaches, the Palisades Village, state parks, and Santa Monica and Malibu,” the listing concludes.

Knight had been doing many years of TV acting parts prior to “The Mary Tyler Moore Show.” His referenced his acting career as beginning in the first grade, as he once told.

“I fell off the couch playing Santa Claus in the first grade because I had forgotten my lines,” he had said. “I got such a big laugh, so I fell off the couch three more times and got bigger laughs, and that’s when I realized my future—the disease hit me. I’ll probably wind up my career falling off couches as Santa Claus.”

During the last several seasons of the “Moore Show,” Knight was living in Pacific Palisades.

Knight was 62 years old when died in August of 1986 after battling cancer on and off for years. In 2002, actress Mary Tyler Moore spoke of Knight with TV talk show host Larry King.

“We lost him several years ago,” Moore said, “and I loved that man. I really, truly did. He wore his heart on his sleeve.”