Move over Brangelina, because Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford may well have been Hollywood's richest, most famous and beloved film couple of all time. These silent film stars were at the height of their popularity and wealth when they married 1920, and Fairbanks renovated Pickfair, originally built as a hunting lodge, as a wedding gift for his bride. The couple entertained the most famous Hollywood celebrities of the day at Pickfair, named from a combination of the stars' last names. As is often the case with Hollywood fairy tale weddings, Pickford and Fairbanks were divorced in 1936. Pickford, however, remained in residence at Pickfair with her new husband until her death in 1979.
Married in 1921 to Natalie Talmadge, film clown Buster Keaton built and furnished the Italian Villa home in 1926 as a gift for his wife, after she complained that a previous home was too small. In this spacious home, built in the Italian style, both Keaton and his wife had separate bedroom suites in opposite wings of the house. Keaton lost all of his wealth in the crash of 1929 and Talmadge was awarded the Italian Villa in the couple's messy 1932 divorce settlement. She sold the house almost immediately. After changing hands a few times and falling into disrepair, the house was bought in 1999 to be restored to its original glory.
Rudolph Valentino was one of the cinema's first bona fide celebrities. Women went nuts for the Latin lover and exotic sheik characters he portrayed in silent films. By 1925, Valentino was ready to escape the limelight of fame and retreat into a private home. He purchased a mansion in Bel Air and called it Falcon Lair. This name was taken from one of his famous on-screen characters. He was hoping Falcon Lair would be a place where he could retreat from the movie industry and enjoy family life with his wife, Natacha Rambova, and any children they might have. Natacha, however, divorced him shortly after he purchased the home, and he died not long after, in 1926. The house and its furnishings were auctioned off to pay Valentino's debts.
One of Hollywood's most famous couples during the 1920s was William Randolph Hearst and Marion Davies. He was the publishing mogul upon whom Orson Welles modeled the title character of his film "Citizen Kane," and she was a popular film star. Actually owned by Davies, Beverly House might be a modest abode in comparison to Hearst's most famous residence San Simeon, but it is a sprawling mansion by normal standards. Built in the 1920s for a banking executive, the house wasn't actually the residence of this Hollywood power couple until the 1940s, when they used it as their hideaway from prying public eyes. The Beverly House is also famously noted as a location for the film "The Godfather" and the honeymoon destination of John and Jackie Kennedy.