Historic Hollywood mansion burns down
A mansion in Hollywood used in films and TV shows for more than a century has tragically burnt down in the recent Los Angeles wildfires.
The wildfires, which are still raging in the hills to the north of the American West Coast city, have already claimed several properties belonging to celebrities.
Paris Hilton, John Goodman, and Beyoncé’s mother Tina Knowles are among thousands of people in the area whose homes have been destroyed.
The worst-affected areas so far have been the Pacific Palisades and Eaton areas, where houses have been completely burnt down in the inferno.
According to reports from the US, a mansion in the Los Angeles County area of Altadena, which has been used in dozens of films and TV shows, has also been lost.
Deadline reported that the 19th century property had been destroyed, and several official images of the house engulfed in flames have confirmed those reports.
The Andrew McNally House – seen here burning in the LA wildfires – has been a Hollywood feature for 100 years (Picture: Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty)
The Andrew McNally House, which was most recently used as a location in the American comedy-drama series Hacks, was featured in several major productions.
The 2001 film Kingdom Come filmed scenes there, while the TV show Entourage featured the house heavily in one of its earliest episodes.
Over 100 years ago, the Max Linder film Seven Years Bad Luck – which was written and directed by Linder and also starred him as a fictionalised version of himself – also filmed scenes in the mansion.
The house stood for almost 150 years (Picture: C. C. Pierce)
Andrew McNally built the house in the late 19th century (Picture: Getty/Bettmann Archive)
All that remains of the McNally House (Picture: Sarah Reingewirtz/MediaNews Group/LA Daily News/Getty)
Photographs taken from the scene appear to confirm that the house has indeed been ravaged by the wildfires, with more of Los Angeles’ cultural personal history now gone.
On X, movie fan @LucaGuada said: ‘I’ve actually been in this house and the ornate Turkish sitting room that is like a century old – it’s one of the most beautiful living spaces I’ve ever seen.’
@KatBee said they were ‘heartbroken’ to see the wreckage, while @GhostGirls called it ‘a loss for culture and history’.
The house was built by Andrew McNally, who famously co-founded the mapping and software company Rand-McNally with William Rand.
After McNally died from pneumonia in 1904, the house was eventually bought in 1955 by the Dupuy family before they sold it on in 2021 for a reported $3million (£2.4million).
It began being featured in Hacks from the second season onwards and has appeared in a couple of episodes of each season since. Hacks is now in production for a fourth season.
The LA wildfires have taken several high profile locations (Picture: Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty)
Thousands of homes have been destroyed in Los Angeles (Picture: Josh Edelson/AFP/Getty)
However, production of season four has been paused as a result of the fires, with the total scale of damage still not fully understood.
Scott Kradolfer, the locations manager for the series, said of the house: ‘It has been a reoccurring location. We had shot already earlier in the season. It was one of the first locations up for season four.’
He continued: ‘Thankfully, we were able to go at the start of the season, but it was left up in the air whether or not we would see the character of Deborah Vance under that roof again.’
Deborah Vance, played by Jean Smart, is the main character of the series – she begins the show as an ageing stand-up comedian who needs to update her act in order to keep a residency at a prestigious comedy club.
