L.A. Estate Where Richard Pryor Set Himself on Fire Hits the Market for $4.236M

An estate in L.A.’s Northridge neighborhood once owned by Richard Pryor — and the site where the late comedian famously set himself on fire in 1980 — has hit the market.

Known as Hacienda de los Suenos, the gated, walled property is currently owned by one-time pro football player Rashard Mendenhall, who became a TV writer on Ballers post-NFL.

According to Mansion Global, Mendenhall purchased the spread, located in the Sherwood Forest enclave of Northridge, for $2.5 million in 2017; he’s now set his sale price at $4.236 million, an homage to the total rushing yards he had in his career of 4,236.

“I’m a fan of Richard Pryor,” Mendenhall told Mansion Global. “He’s iconic, and I feel a special connection to him because we’re both from Illinois — I’m from Skokie, and he’s from Peoria. He’s a man of such magnitude that when I saw the property, I thought, ‘What was good enough for him is good enough for me.’”

Pryor bought the house in the mid-1970s and was freebasing cocaine when, as People magazine has written, he began “pouring 151-proof rum on his shirt and setting it ablaze with a lighter.” The comedian suffered burns covering more than 50 percent of his body.

Pryor would go on to later joke about the incident in his comedy routines.

Pryor sold the 2.2-acre estate in 1989 for $940,000. And the house in which Pryor lived was destroyed by 1994’s Northridge earthquake.

It was replaced with the current two-story, four-bedroom hacienda-style main residence, which harks back to the property’s 1910 roots as a ranch and citrus orchard.

(The former home of Richard Pryor in Northridge, California. CHAD KING/MELISSA DIMEGLIO)

Ref: L.A. Estate Where Richard Pryor Set Himself on Fire Hits the Market for $4.236M (hollywoodreporter)

Photo Credit: CHAD KING/MELISSA DIMEGLIO