Elon Musk has taken back ownership of Gene Wilder’s former home in Los Angeles after the Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory star’s nephew, Jordan Walker-Pearlman, received a loan from the billionaire tech mogul to buy the iconic Bel-Air home in 2020.
According to the Realtor.com website, property records indicate the Tesla and SpaceX founder has reclaimed the single family home at 10930 Chalon Road in Bel-Air through an LLC company after a foreclosure sales process begun last year.
Walker-Pearlman, who is also a Hollywood screenwriter, on Wednesday exclusively told The Hollywood Reporter that he and his wife lived in the property for six years from 2020, and moved out just after what would have been Gene Wilder’s 92nd birthday.
He added the terms of the foreclosure sale and property ownership change remain subject to a confidentiality agreement reached between Walker-Pearlman and representatives for Musk. “Everything was orderly and convivial,” Wilder’s nephew added in a statement.
Wilder, best known for his work in films such as Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, Young Frankenstein and Blazing Saddles, died in 2016 at age 83, years after living in the Bel-Air house with wife Gilda Radner first built in 1951.
Wilder sold the Bel-Air home, with four bedrooms and four bathrooms over 2,756 square feet of living space, for $2.7 million in 2007. Musk later bought the house in 2013 for $6.75 million, but seven years later was looking to unload properties from his vast real estate collection.
In 2020, Musk sold the Los Angeles home on Chalon Road that backs out onto the Bel-Air Country Club golf course for $7 million, but only after he gave Walker-Pearlman a $6.7 million loan. With that, Walker-Pearlman completed the property purchase so he and his wife could return to a home he’d known in his childhood from 1995 to 2007.
“I was able to restore the house to much of how Gene had it (with modern editions and no shag carpeting) during his golden period there. I was able to have salons there Gilda dreamed of but didn’t live long enough to accomplish. I was able to bring back his living friends and family there who thought it left our family too soon in 2007 (and under strange circumstances). Most importantly I was able to film ‘The Requiem Boogie’ there, my tribute to Gene, Gilda, our time there, and the bold illusions and emotions of mourning,” Walker-Pearlman added of his time in the Bel-Air home.
At the same time, the financial impact of the 2023 Hollywood strikes apparently left Walker-Pearlman behind on his loan payments, which led to a default and representatives for Musk launching a formal and orderly foreclosure proceeding on the Bel-Air home last year.
In an Aug. 2024 statement from Walker-Pearlman to THR, he expressed no ill will towards Musk after he was allowed to live in his uncle’s former home.
“It was an opportunity that allowed me to film my autobiographical movie, The Requiem Boogie, in the house where so many childhood memories in it actually took place. It has been a very special and magical four years. Collectively and in coordination with Mr. Musk and his team, we took the steps we are taking now,” he added in his statement about the legal proceedings following the loan default begun on the Bel-Air property.
On Wednesday, Walker-Pearlman added: “Elon gave me the gift of time travel, or at least as close to it as someone in the worldly world can experience.” He and his wife put the 2,750-square-foot property overlooking the Bel-Air Country Club back on the market for $12.95 million in Aug. 2024.
But after apparently failing to find a buyer, the price tag for the Bel-Air property was dropped to $9.5 million in Nov. 2024. Any sale included the condition that the iconic home must be preserved as part of a restrictive covenant agreed by Walker-Pearlman and Musk.
The Bel-Air home was sold on Jan. 23, 2025 for $7.58 million as part of a foreclosure auction, to an LLC company controlled by Musk, and was officially taken off the market a month later.
Photo of Gene Wilder and Gilda Radner in pool of former Los Angeles home.
Jordan Walker-Pearlman
