NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. -- Nicolas Cage sold his Newport Beach, Calif., house last week for $35 million, according to The Wall Street Journal. The buyer was 70-year-old Jerry Herbst, owner, chairman and president of Las Vegas-based Terrible Herbst, which runs gas stations, casinos, hotels and more and is known for its ''bad guy'' cowboy logo.
The sale price was a record for Orange County, local brokers said. The movie star, who has bought and sold many houses, paid $25 million for the property on 0.6-acre in 2005, said the report. The previous Orange County record is believed to be a north [image-nocss] Laguna Beach property that sold in July for just over $30 million.
The contemporary house on Newport Bay has a view of the harbor's main turning basin. It has a stone loggia with retractable glass doors. The dock, if expanded, could accommodate boats of more than 150 feet. It is next door to the former home of John Wayne. Cage had asked $40 million for the house but never officially put it on the market.
This past fall, after encountering an intruder within the Newport Beach house, Cage moved to his walled and gated home in Bel-Air and took that house off the market, a person close to Cage told the newspaper. The Bel-Air house, whose owners have included Dean Martin and Tom Jones, had been listed for $35 million. Cage owns many other properties in the United States and abroad, the report said.
Terrible Herbst has more than 90 stations in Nevada. Arizona, California and Utah, mostly branded Chevron and ARCO, with car washes. Foodservice includes Pizza Hut, McDonalds, Krispy Kreme and Burger King.
Cage, nephew to director Francis Ford Coppola, has starred in National Treasure, Ghost Rider, World Trade Center, Adaptation (for which he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor), Con Air, Leaving Las Vegas (for which he won an Academy Award for Best Actor), Honeymoon in Vegas, Moonstruck, Raising Arizona and many other films.
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