The Chateau Marmont Has Been Home to These Famous Guests
Since it opened in 1929, the Chateau Marmont has been a beloved retreat of actors, writers, musicians, and directors craving a temporary (or sometimes not so temporary) home away from the prying eyes of the public and the press. As the Old Hollywood adage goes: “If you want to be seen, go to the Beverly Hills Hotel. If you don’t want to be seen, go to Chateau Marmont.”
The Chateau was the brainchild of Los Angeles attorney Fred Horowitz, who hired architects Arnold A. Weitzman and William Douglas Lee to build an apartment building inspired by European châteaux, particularly Château d’Amboise in the Loire Valley, France. Following the Great Depression, Chateau Marmont was sold and turned into a hotel, and over the years, the property has been a landing pad for young stars arriving in Hollywood and A-listers between marriages, and a spot to live as one pleased without fear of it ending up in the papers. In 1990 hotelier André Balazs bought and renovated the storied hotel. Balazs announced plans to convert it into a private members–only hotel in 2020, but that plan was abandoned in 2022, the same year the hotel staff were able to unionize. Read on for a glimpse at the guestbook and discover the famous guests that have called the Chateau Marmont home.
Photo: VALERIE MACON/Getty Images1/54Filmmaker Billy Wilder lived at the Chateau several times during the 1930s. In late 1934, he returned from a trip to Vienna to find his room unavailable and the Chateau fully booked. Rather than go to another hotel, he stayed in an antechamber beside the women’s restroom for several days until a room opened up. The buildings’ Gothic inspiration can be seen here in this entryway, which features vaulted ceilings, hand-painted murals, and stained glass.
Photo: VALERIE MACON/Getty Images2/54Silent film star Jean Acker, who is perhaps best known as the first wife of Rudolph Valentino, was a frequent guest at the Chateau following their divorce, always registering as Mrs. Rudolph Valentino.
Photo: John Kobal Foundation/Getty Images3/54Actor Mary Astor arrived at the Chateau by ambulance after getting pneumonia on a film set in Lake Tahoe. She stayed there briefly while she waited for her future ex-husband to leave their house.
Photo: Ernest Bachrach/Getty Images4/54When Katharine Hepburn came to Hollywood to make her first film, A Bill of Divorcement, she stayed at the Chateau for a short time before moving into a cottage in Coldwater Canyon.
Photo: Hulton Archive/Getty Images5/54Jean Harlow (right) and her third husband, Harold Rosson, moved into the Chateau in 1933, and she reportedly carried on an affair with Clark Gable (left) while in residence.
Photo: VALERIE MACON/Getty Images6/54Director Lloyd Bacon’s weekly penthouse parties attracted a who’s who of Hollywood in the mid 1930s. Pictured is the living room of the penthouse in 2020.
Photo: Columbia Pictures/Getty Images7/54Columbia Pictures head Harry Cohn rented suite 54 for newly discovered stars William Holden (left) and Glenn Ford (right, with Ellen Drew center), telling them, “If you must get into trouble, go to the Marmont.”
Photo: Bettmann/Getty Images8/54Laurence Olivier (right) stayed at the hotel several times, including during his separation from Vivien Leigh (left).
Clarence Sinclair Bull/Getty Images9/54When Hedy Lamarr came to Hollywood in 1937, her first stop was Chateau Marmont, where she spelled her new stage name wrong while registering.
Photo: VALERIE MACON/Getty Images10/54Howard Hughes rented the penthouse off and on for years and used binoculars to spy on women at the pool below.
Photo: Bettmann/Getty Images11/54John Wayne (right, with Vera Ralston in the film Dakota) spent time at the hotel on several occasions, including in 1945 while waiting for his divorce from his first wife to be finalized.
Photo: CBS Photo Archive/Getty Images12/54Desi Arnaz (right) frequented the hotel during separations from his wife and costar, Lucille Ball (left).
Photo: SSPL/Manchester Daily Express/Getty Images13/54Paul Newman (left) and Joanne Woodward (right) came to the Chateau in the 1950s, where they were among a community of alums from New York’s Actors Studio.
Photo: Martin Hibberd / Alamy Stock Photo14/54Montgomery Clift recuperated at the Chateau in 1956 after getting in a horrific car accident leaving Elizabeth Taylor’s home. He stayed in a two-bedroom suite on the sixth floor during his residency. Following the Great Depression, hotel manager Ann Little redecorated the Chateau with pieces from the estates of southern Californians trying to make up for their losses and helped establish the hotel’s eclectic style.
Photo: Earl Leaf/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images15/54Sidney Poitier (right) used the hotel as his base in Hollywood for many years, including while shooting Porgy and Bess. His costar Diahann Carroll (left) was also staying at the hotel, and they began an affair that would continue for several years.
Photo: Sunset Boulevard/Corbis via Getty Images16/54Greta Garbo stayed at the Chateau—registering under the name Miss Harriet Brown—in the late ’40s and mid-’50s as she tried to return to acting.
Photo: VALERIE MACON/Getty Images17/54Director Nicholas Ray rented a bungalow for eight years, beginning in 1952. While living there, he made Rebel Without a Cause and carried on an affair with one of the film’s stars, Natalie Wood. In 1937, the hotel’s second owner, Albert Smith, purchased a plot of land east of the Chateau with several existing two-story rental homes and transformed them into the now famous bungalows. The third owner, Erwin Brettauer, hired modernist architect Craig Ellwood, known for his Case Study Houses, to build two additional contemporary bungalows (one of which is shown here), which opened in 1952.
Photo: Donato Sardella/Getty Images for Max Mara18/54While actor Anthony Perkins lived at Chateau Marmont, he would use the payphone in the lobby (pictured) to avoid the listening ears of the switchboard operators. In 1955 he met Tab Hunter by the pool, and they quickly began a relationship.
Photo: NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images19/54Writer Gore Vidal was a frequent resident of the hotel over the years, and he wrote his version of Ben-Hur there.
Photo: Earl Leaf/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images20/54Warren Beatty (left) was eventually asked to leave after running up a large unpaid bill. He later returned while engaged to Joan Collins (right), whose accommodations were being paid for by a studio.
Photo: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images21/54In his book The Castle on Sunset: Life, Death, Love, Art, and Scandal at Hollywood’s Chateau Marmont, Shawn Levy writes that actor and future princess of Monaco Grace Kelly would try to get the room numbers of handsome guests from the desk clerks.
Photo: Archive Photos/Getty Images22/54Marlon Brando lived at the Chateau after his divorce from actor Anna Kashfi, eventually leaving to go to Tahiti to film Mutiny on the Bounty.
Photo: Sasha/Hulton Archive/Getty Images23/54Vivien Leigh brought a Renior and a Picasso when she moved into the Chateau following her divorce from Laurence Olivier.
Photo: 20th Century-Fox/Getty Images24/54Marilyn Monroe stayed at the Chateau several times, including while filming Bus Stop.
Photo: VALERIE MACON/Getty Images25/54Bette Davis frequently caused a stir at the Chateau. In 1958, her bungalow caught fire when she fell asleep with a lit cigarette. Here, the roofs of the bungalows are visible beyond the pool.
Photo: Universal History Archive/Getty Images26/54Boris Karloff, best known for his role in Frankenstein and other classic horror films, lived at the Chateau off and on for seven years.
Photo: Bettmann/Getty Images27/54Duke Ellington would compose as he walked the halls of the hotel late at night.
Photo: Bill Spilka/Getty Images28/54Miles Davis and his first wife, ballerina Frances Taylor, lived at the Chateau while Davis recorded in LA.
Photo: TV Times/TV Times via Getty Images29/54The Doors frontman Jim Morrison lived in a poolside bungalow in 1970 and was known for swinging between windows and balconies, once falling two stories.
Photo: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images30/54Pink Floyd’s skinny-dipping parties reportedly drew complaints from other guests during their stay. Pictured (left to right) are band members Nick Mason, Dave Gilmour, Rick Wright (center front), and Roger Waters.
Photo: Fiona Adams/Redferns/Getty Images31/54According to Levy, Bob Dylan (center) was given a notice after leaving his bungalow in “disrepair.”
Photo: Richard Creamer/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images32/54Led Zeppelin had a relatively sedate (by their standards) stay in 1968, although they were moved from the main hotel to bungalows due to their partying. Although it has long been rumored that drummer John Bonham drove a motorcycle through the halls of the Chateau, Levy reports that the stunt actually took place at the nearby Hyatt House—a.k.a. The Riot House. Here, lead singer Robert Plant (second from left) poses with two friends and a man with a snake on a Hyatt House balcony.
Photo: Jeff Vespa/WireImage33/54Dustin Hoffman lived at Chateau Marmont while filming The Graduate, opting for a small room over living with his parents nearby. He is pictured here years later, in 2012, chilling out on the couch in the penthouse with his son, actor Jake Hoffman, during an event for his wife’s fragrance and jewelry line.
Photo: Evening Standard/Getty Images34/54Roman Polanski (left) and Sharon Tate (right) lived at Chateau Marmont as newlyweds. They gave up their apartment when Tate got pregnant, leasing the house on Cielo Drive where she would be murdered by members of the Manson Family.
Photo: VALERIE MACON/Getty Images35/54In 1968, members of The Velvet Underground lived in a bungalow while recording their namesake third album. Seen here is a bedroom in one of the bungalows in 2020.
Photo: Michael Putland/Getty Images36/54In 1971, Graham Nash of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young lived in one of the hotel’s bungalows after he and Joni Mitchell broke up.
Photo: Gijsbert Hanekroot / Getty Images37/54Neil Young (right) lived at the Chateau several times, including while recording his album Homegrown. That album was shelved after a listening party at the Chateau, when other musicians encouraged him to release the less commercial Tonight’s the Night instead.
Photo: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images38/54Carly Simon (right) stayed at Chateau early in her career and was pursued by Warren Beatty while living there. In her memoir, Simon describes her future husband, James Taylor (left), having her watch him shoot up heroin in their bungalow in hopes that it would help him kick the habit.
Photo: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images39/54Van Morrison once played an impromptu holiday concert while staying at the Chateau.
Photo: Universal Pictures/Getty Images40/54Susan Sarandon (left) stayed at the Chateau while filming 1974’s The Front Page, and one night her room was robbed while she slept.
Photo: Jeff Vespa/Getty Images41/54While working on Bogart Slept Here, a movie about an actor living at Chateau Marmont, Robert De Niro took up residence on the fourth floor. (The movie was ultimately shut down, and the role was recast.) He would frequently stay in an upper-floor penthouse in the years to come. Here, he hangs with fellow Oscar-winner Diane Keaton during a 2012 party at the Chateau celebrating the film Silver Linings Playbook.
Photo: NBC/Getty Images42/54SNL creator Lorne Michaels lived at the Chateau for several years while working as a comedy writer in Hollywood in the early 1970s.
Photo: Bob Riha Jr/Getty Images43/54The hotel’s most famous resident may be John Belushi, who died of an overdose in bungalow three in 1982. Pictured here is the scene outside the hotel after his death. Several celebrities, including Jean-Michel Basquiat and Rick James, specifically requested to stay in bungalow three after Belushi died there.
Photo: Ricardo DeAratanha/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images44/54John Waters is a longtime devotee of Chateau Marmont, and according to Levy the filmmaker considered it his lucky hotel. He poses in the lobby in this 2005 photo.
Photo: Billy Farrell/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images45/54John Cusack lived at the Chateau while filming Sixteen Candles. (Here he is pictured with actor Oliver Platt at a 2005 Golden Globes party on the property.) Costar and fellow Brat Pack member Anthony Michael Hall also had a suite and recalled looking out onto Sunset Boulevard to see a billboard with his face on it.
Photo: Mark Sullivan/WireImage46/54Johnny Depp was a frequent visitor to the hotel and once claimed that he and his ex-girlfriend Kate Moss had sex in all 63 rooms. Here, Depp hangs with Spanish actor Jordi Mollà at an event in one of the rooms in 2011.
Photo: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images47/54Keanu Reeves lived in a suite at the Chateau for several years in the ’90s before buying a house in the area.
Photo: Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images48/54Photographer Helmut Newton (pictured here at the Chateau pool in 1990) was a regular guest. He and his wife, June, would arrive the week of Christmas and stay until March each year. In 2004, he died after having a heart attack and crashing his car outside the hotel.
Photo: Chris Weeks/FilmMagic/Getty Images49/54Scarlett Johansson lived in the hotel in 2004 and was famously rumored to have had a dalliance with Benicio Del Toro in the elevator after the Oscars. In 2022, she set the record straight on a podcast, saying, “That was a story that followed me for a long time. But I always thought that was outrageous.” Here she is getting her makeup done at an Allure event at the Chateau in 2003.
Photo: Donato Sardella/WireImage/Getty Images50/54Courtney Love has a long history with the hotel and was banned for a period of time. Here, she performs during a charity event there in 2010.
Photo: Rich Fury/Getty Images51/54Actor Sam Rockwell (center) met wife Leslie Bibb (right) in the lobby when he was living at the Chateau while filming Frost/Nixon. Here, Rockwell and Bibb hang with Allison Janney (left) at an Oscar party there in 2018.
Photo: Everett Collection, Inc. / Alamy Stock Photo52/54Sofia Coppola—whose father, Francis Ford Coppola, almost bought the Chateau Marmont—is a regular. The hotel had a starring role in her 2010 movie Somewhere.
Photo: Cinematic Collection / Alamy Stock Photo53/54Stephen Dorff lived in the hotel in his 20s and returned to live in suite 69 while filming Somewhere, in which he played an actor living at the Chateau Marmont. In this still from the film, he stands on a balcony at the Chateau.
Photo: Stefanie Keenan/WireImage/Getty Images54/54Lindsay Lohan, another of the hotel’s most notorious guests, is seen here on the penthouse balcony during a 2008 party. She lived at the Chateau while filming Liz & Dick, and after racking up over $46,000 in charges, she was asked to leave.
