Johnny Depp's House

Johnny Depp became a star on a Fox police drama in 1987, then played Edward Scissorhands and Captain Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean. He had 3 Oscar nominations by 2008.

Hersee Carson built the castle and named it Mount Kalmia after a flowering laurel, per West Hollywood History. She hosted orphans for Christmas there each year until back taxes cost her the estate, and she left in 1940.

County rolls date the castle to 1922, while West Hollywood History places its construction closer to 1929. The same rolls put it inside Los Angeles city limits, though most accounts call it West Hollywood.

Record Plant studio co-owner Gary Kellgren leased the castle from 1972 to 1977. West Hollywood History says he spent about $150,000 on plans to ring it with a medieval village of thatched cottages for visiting musicians.

Palimony lawyer Marvin Mitchelson bought the castle in 1980. Depp took it over in October 1995, a year after playing Ed Wood, the director who befriended Bela Lugosi in the actor's last years.

News of Depp's purchase repeated the old claim that Lugosi, the screen's Dracula, owned the castle in the 1930s. West Hollywood History calls that a tour-guide legend and names Hersee Carson as the 1930s owner.

Hello magazine reported in 2022 that Depp owns 5 neighboring Hollywood Hills homes and has made them into a private compound. The magazine counted it as one piece of a property portfolio that stretches well beyond Los Angeles.