Joan Crawford loved a reno project.
The Golden Age of Hollywood is a time that evokes glamour, drama, and memories of stars living in beautiful houses across Los Angeles and the surrounding communities. While some of the era’s biggest celebrities owned lavish mansions, others lived in more modest homes (one apartment in this roundup had a pre-fame Marilyn Monroe as its tenant). While their square footage and decor choices varied, they all had one commonality: They shared a love of the limelight. Here’s a peek inside the homes of Old Hollywood's biggest stars.
Joan Crawford purchased her Brentwood home at 426 N. Bristol Avenue in 1928 for $57,500. She lived in the house for nearly three decades, renovating it many times over the years.
When this photo was taken in 1957, Taylor lived in a palatial retreat in Beverly Hills with Michael Wilding, her second of eight husbands. She sold the home when they divorced later that year.
Marilyn Monroe was just hitting the film scene in the early 1950s. As her career progressed, she frequently moved between homes and hotels. Pictured here is one apartment Monroe lived in during 1950.
By 1956, Monroe had moved to New York City. She kept a rental in Los Angeles, though, which is where she hosted this press party for her film Bus Stop.
Jane Russell's first Hollywood role, in Howard Hughes' The Outlaw, catapulted her to fame in 1943. In 1950, she lived in a spectacular mid-century modern home, complete with a sunken living room.
Some 20 years later, Russell's interior decor style was still firmly mid-century. That said, her fashion style certainly evolved over two decades!
In the library of Merle Oberon's Bel-Air home, a fascinating trompe l'oeil frieze becomes the focal point of the room. The British actress lived here with her first husband, Alexander Korda.
Lana Turner signed with Warner Bros. when she was 16 years old, starting a nearly 50-year career in Hollywood. In 1960, she married her fifth husband, Fred May, and moved to a ranch with him where they raised horses.
Singer Eddie Fisher and actress Debbie Reynolds wed in 1955. They had two children during their four-year marriage: actress Carrie Fisher and director Todd Fisher.
Reynolds was discovered at a 1948 Miss Burbank contest, signing first with Warner Bros. and then with MGM. She's pictured here at home with her poodles, Tammy and Bachelor.
Unmarried until his 40s and thus dubbed the "Great American Bachelor," actor Jimmy Stewart married Gloria Hatrick McLean in 1949. The duo bought a home in Beverly Hills and lived there for the rest of their lives.
After a successful early career in silent films, John Gilbert built a two-story Spanish-style home at 1400 Tower Grove Road in Beverly Hills. Elton John would purchase the home decades later.
Jayne Mansfield's 40-room mansion in Holmby Hills was dubbed "the Pink Palace," as she completely redecorated the home in her signature color. The bathroom, shown here, was covered floor-to-ceiling in pink shag material.
Mansfield lived in the Spanish Colonial home with her first child, Jayne, and her second husband, Mickey Hargitay. Subsequent owners included Ringo Starr and Engelbert Humperdinck, but the mansion was demolished in 2002.
Silent film star Clara Bow moved to Hollywood in 1923 after the success of her first film, Down to the Sea in Ships. This photo was taken in the Hollywood home she lived in before she retired from acting in 1933, moving to a ranch in Nevada with her husband, actor Rex Bell.
Born in Mexico and popular in both Hollywood and Mexican films, Dolores del Rio had a Spanish-style mansion built in 1927 in the Hollywood Hills. The home most recently sold for $4.45 million in 2015.
Janet Leigh and Tony Curtis were both movie stars when they wed in 1951, and the two starred in films together during their marriage.
Leigh and Curtis stand by their L.A. pool with their daughters, actors Jamie Lee Curtis and Kelly Curtis.
Doris Day's career began in music, transitioning to film in the 1950s. She lived in Toluca Lake for about a decade; this photograph was taken at Day's second home in the area, which she purchased in 1950.
Gregory Peck married his first wife, born Greta Kukkonen, in 1942. They lived in a Pacific Palisades home designed by architect Cliff May, which has since been owned by Brian Glazer, Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner, and Adam Levine.
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