Film star Walter Matthau’s first and last primary residence he owned in California after moving from New York in the 1960s was a two-story house located at 278 Toyopa Drive in the Huntington. The front of the property is filled with colorful plant life and greenery, taking up two lots.
Photo courtesy of Michael Oldham
Despite the 5-bedroom home being a physical synonym for beautiful, its aesthetics were not what initially drew Walter Matthau’s interest in it. He wanted the house for something he couldn’t see – ocean air.
Actor William Schallert met Matthau on the set of the 1962 film “Lonely are the Brave.” Matthau became his best friend.
It would be Schallert, who convinced the star of the 1968 film, “The Odd Couple” to move to Pacific Palisades where he could enjoy the ocean air and even an occasional ocean dip.
Toyopa Drive was a far cry from Matthau’s birthplace in New York’s Lower East Side, where he was raised in extreme poverty. In a 1968 interview, the gruff actor listed things that had shaped his personhood, one being “the humiliation of poverty.”
Matthau would remain humble while living in the Palisades in a home few people could afford. Should one have spotted the 6-foot, 3-inch actor around town, it was likely that he was wearing short pants, a cap of some sort and a far-from-new sweatshirt.
Indeed, off screen, Matthau thought he resembled a “dirty old bum.”
On screen, Matthau often played confident and slick personalities, both comic and serious. But, when the camera lens was not on him, the actor was painfully shy.
He avoided the Hollywood party circuit like the plague, attending them or most social gatherings only upon the insistence of his wife, actress and author Carol Grace. In his own words, he was “Olympic shy” and “not a social person.”
Walter Matthau was, in the end, a homebody on Toyopa Drive who would “rather hang out at home with my wife” than socialize with friends.
The chiseled-looking star liked nothing more than having dinner with Carol and their son, Charlie. Other activities included listening to Mozart or simple family activities, such as playing board games and watching TV quiz shows like “Jeopardy!”
The Matthaus moved to the Palisades from Beverly Hills in the late 1960s after having rented a house there from Paul Newman.
“One month’s rent in that place was more than my family paid in 20 years’ rent down on the lower East side in New York,” Matthau claimed of the Newman rental.
The Beverly Hills house was the first home Matthau rented after moving from New York in 1968. He had left New York though with some trepidation.
“In New York, there is more of a reality than the cardboard reality of Los Angeles,” the actor said, a few years before his move to the West Coast.
Coming to California proved a good move for both his movie career and his personal life.
Once settled in the Toyopa Drive home, Carol would take charge, making it a special place to live for Walter and company.
When not working, the decorative-minded Carol put her love of flowers to work inside the 1934 brick house.
Flower designs could be found on everything from towels to wallpaper.
The interior was surprisingly feministic in its touches, opposite to the masculinity that Walter projected on the silver screen.
It was said that the actor who often played ruffled and cantankerous characters on film very much liked Carol’s soft and flowery interior designs.
The Matthaus were friendly and fit well into their Huntington neighborhood.
Schallet would eventually live nearby. In “Matthau: A Life,” authors Rob Edelman and Audrey Kupferberg quote Schallet as saying, “Matthau actually was the friendliest neighbor. He knew everyone by name. In this regard, he was a regular guy.”
Matthau was so popular and community-minded that he was named Honorary Mayor of Pacific Palisades in 1977.
Matthau took the title from Adam West, renowned for his role as “Batman,” and eventually passed the mayoral torch to famed TV game show host Bert Convy in 1979.
The Huntington home would be the last home for Walter Matthau, who passed away in 2000. His wife, Carol passed away in New York in 2003.
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