In 1999, actors Renee Taylor and Joseph Bologna spent $1 million renovating their Beverly Hills home

Long before celebrity homes became a fixture of luxury real-estate listings, actors and writers Renée Taylor and Joseph Bologna were putting their own Hollywood history into a 1926 Beverly Hills house.

In 1999, the couple was nearing the end of a two-year, $1-million renovation of their longtime home, transforming its interiors and gardens with elaborate details inspired by some of the places and stars they admired.Taylor and Bologna had purchased the Beverly Hills property in 1975 and had lived there for roughly 25 years by the time the Los Angeles Times profiled the renovation in March 1999.

The Tudor-style house, which the newspaper then described as having once been owned by actress Shirley Temple, measured about 4,300 square feet and contained three bedrooms and an office.There is, however, a later clarification about the property’s connection to Temple.

When the house returned to the real-estate spotlight in 2018, the Los Angeles Times reported that the 1926 Tudor Revival had been occupied by Shirley Temple’s mother-in-law and was frequently visited by Temple and her first husband, John Agar.What is firmly documented is the scale and character of Taylor and Bologna’s renovation.

Taylor told the Los Angeles Times that she had recreated the bathroom of late actress Greer Garson, taking inspiration from Garson’s former Bel-Air home from the 1940s.

She also added a chandelier and mirrors modeled after those she had seen at the Palace of Versailles.

The home’s curtains were equally theatrical: red and gold fabric decorated with pearls and crystals, inspired by the London Savoy Hotel.The couple also dramatically reconfigured the interior.

According to Taylor, three rooms were combined to create a bedroom, while another three rooms were converted into a bathroom.

The renovation was overseen with the assistance of Kansas-based designer and family friend Terry Landeck, whom the Los Angeles Times later clarified was the project’s project manager and interior designer.And the transformation did not stop inside.

By March 1999, Taylor said the couple was having seven different gardens designed around the property.

The planned themes included Zen, fairy, French and Italian gardens, giving the grounds a distinctly theatrical character.The house would eventually become even more elaborate.

When Taylor and Bologna put it on the market in 2018, after more than four decades of ownership, the Los Angeles Times described the property as a roughly 4,600-square-foot, two-story Tudor Revival set on about one-third of an acre.

By then, it had four bedrooms, 5.5 bathrooms, a wood-paneled office and maid’s quarters.Its gardens had also become one of the property’s defining features.

The grounds included exotic plantings and collections of bamboo from around the world, while a children’s “fairy garden” occupied part of the property.

Taylor also had a custom pizza garden, where she hosted annual pizza parties around the Academy Awards.Other features reported in 2018 included leaded-glass windows, French doors, a wood-paneled family room, fireplaces, a swimming pool and a guesthouse.The home’s lavish makeover was closely tied to Taylor’s taste for borrowing details from glamorous places and people.

In addition to the Greer Garson-inspired bathroom, the 2018 Los Angeles Times account noted that the dining-room chairs were inspired by those favored by Barbra Streisand, while the Versailles and Savoy influences remained part of the house’s distinctive décor.The property was also a reflection of the couple’s long Hollywood partnership.

Taylor and Bologna married in 1965 and built careers together as actors and writers.

They co-wrote the Broadway comedy Lovers and Other Strangers, which later became a 1970 film.

Their screenplay earned them an Academy Award nomination for adapted screenplay alongside David Zelag Goodman; the film received three Oscar nominations and won Best Original Song for “For All We Know.”Taylor was particularly recognizable to television audiences in the 1990s as Sylvia Fine, the mother of Fran Drescher’s character on The Nanny.

The role earned her an Emmy nomination in 1996, while she had already won an Emmy for writing Acts of Love and Other Comedies in 1973.Bologna, meanwhile, became widely known for roles including the television-show host King Kaiser in the 1982 comedy My Favorite Year and appearances in films such as Blame It on Rio and Adam Sandler’s 1999 comedy Big Daddy.

The latter was released the same year the couple’s $1-million renovation was being completed.Taylor and Bologna ultimately spent more than four decades in the Beverly Hills property.

After Bologna’s death in 2017 at age 82, the house was listed for $8.6 million in 2018.

It subsequently sold for $7.425 million that year.By then, the house had evolved considerably from the 4,300-square-foot Tudor described in the 1999 newspaper report.

Yet its defining character remained tied to the choices Taylor and Bologna made during their years there: a historic Beverly Hills residence reshaped with theatrical interiors, elaborate gardens and references to the golden age of Hollywood.What began as a two-year, $1-million renovation in the late 1990s ultimately became one of the most distinctive chapters in the long history of the 1926 Beverly Hills home.

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