William Randolph Hearst (from Wikipedia) California property Beginning in 1919, Hearst began to build the never- completed Hearst Castle, on a 240,000 acre (97,000 ha) ranch at San Simeon, California, which he furnished with art, antiques and entire rooms brought from the great houses of Europe. Hearst later paid $120,000 for an H-shaped Beverly Hills mansion in 1947. This home is now perhaps the "most expensive" private home in the U.S., valued at $165 million (£81.4 million). It has 29 bedrooms, three swimming pools, tennis courts, its own cinema and a nightclub. Lawyer and investor Leonard Ross has owned it since 1976. The estate was on sale for $95 million as of the end of 2010. The Beverly House, as it has come to be known, has some cinematic connections. It was the setting for the gruesome scene in the film The Godfather depicting a horse's severed head in the bed of film-producer, Jack Woltz. The character was head of a film company called International, the name of Hearst's early film company. San Simeon was also used in the 1960 film Spartacus as the estate of Marcus Licinius Crassus (played by Laurence Olivier). According to Hearst Over Hollywood, Jack and Jacqueline Kennedy stayed at the house for part of their honeymoon. They watched their first film together as a married couple in the mansion's cinema. It was Hearst-produced film from the 1920s. Hearst's mother also owned the Hacienda del Pozo de Verona at Pleasanton, California, now demolished. He also had a property on the McCloud River in Siskiyou County, in far northern California, called Wyntoon. Wyntoon was designed by famed architect Julia Morgan, who also designed Hearst Castle. SNAPSHOT | BIO | EARLY LIFE | PUBLISHING BUSINESS | EXPANSION INVOLVEMENT IN POLITICS | PERSONAL LIFE | MARION DAVIES CALIFORNIA PROPERTY | ST. DONAT’S CASTLE | THE FAMILY CLUB CRITICISM | IN FICTION | OTHER WORKS William Randolph Hearst in 1906