Who lives here? Most famous celebrities with homes in Sarasota and Bradenton area
The sugary sand, warm winters and perpetual sunshine make Sarasota-Manatee quite the destination. Our robust arts, entertainment and dining scenes also make this an alluring locale along the Gulf of Mexico. Plus, for famous folks, paparazzi rarely stalk our beaches like they do in, say, Los Angeles or Miami.
In recent years, we have been visited by the likes of pop star Pink, rock god Robert Plant and many more stars staying here while playing Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall. But what about the celebrities who have bought homes here?
Starting with circus king John Ringling and wife Mable in 1911, Sarasota and Manatee counties have attracted the rich and famous from all walks of life. Those 941 area residents no longer with us include Rock and Roll Hall of Famers Donna Summer (the disco queen had a home on Manasota Key Road), Donald "Duck" Dunn (Booker T. & the M.G.'s and The Blues Brothers’ bassist lived on Snead Island in Palmetto), and Jerry Wexler (producer of classic albums by Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin and Bob Dylan lived on Siesta Key).
Farewell: Mick Jagger and girlfriend Melanie Hamrick sell their Lakewood Ranch house
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RIP: Jerry Springer, Sarasota resident and famed daytime talk show host, dies at 79
RIP: Celebrated author John Jakes dies at age 90
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Pro wrestler “Macho Man” Randy Savage, cartoonist Dik Browne (“Hägar the Horrible” and “Hi and Lois”), abstract artist Syd Solomon and A&E “Biography” host Jack Perkins also called the area home before passing – along with a first-class roster of authors.
The local scribes we’ve lost include John Jakes, the longtime Bird Key resident who authored numerous New York Times best-selling books including the “Kent Family Chronicles” and “North and South” trilogy. He died on March 11, 2023, in Sarasota at age 90.
In 2017, the John Jakes Endowed Writing Scholarship at New College of Florida was established. Jakes cited one of the school’s founders, John D. MacDonald, as a major influence in his own work and as an inspiration for moving to Sarasota. “The area has always been a magnet for writers,” Jakes told the Herald-Tribune while at his Bird Key home. “I can’t exactly tell you why, but it has been.”
In 1951, MacDonald moved to Sarasota, where he lived until his death in 1986. During this time, he published such novels as 1957’s “The Executioners” (filmed as “Cape Fear” in 1962 and again in 1991), 1962’s “A Flash Of Green” (film of the same name shot in Sarasota premiered in 1984) and 1977’s “Condominium” (an HBO, two-part, four-hour debuted in 1980). Also while living in Sarasota, MacDonald wrote the entirety of his beloved Travis McGee series (1964-84).
Other authors that called Sarasota home over the years include MacKinlay Kantor (the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel “Andersonville”), Walter Farley (“The Black Stallion”), Joseph Hayes (“The Desperate Hours”), and Stuart Kaminsky (Edgar Award-winning mystery writer, co-wrote the screenplay for “Once Upon a Time in America”). Yes, MacDonald inspired a small army of famous Florida novelists and influenced one of today's most famous to relocate to Sarasota (continue reading).
Celebrities such as Paul Reubens and Carla Gugino grew up in Sarasota. And a host of other stars used to have homes here. These include Mick Jagger and girlfriend Melanie Hamrick, who sold their Lakewood Ranch home in August 2023, Rosie O’Donnell, Jane Lynch, Martina Navratilova, Terry Bradshaw, who sold his Bradenton home in 2020, and Dick Smothers. Even more impressive, though, is the list of celebrities living here now, or who have recently purchased property in the area.
Presented in alphabetical order, here are the stars we could confirm with homes in Sarasota and Manatee counties. We’re not providing addresses for this story and request that readers respect their privacy. That means stay away from their property. Don’t bother them while they’re out dining, shopping or browsing at the local bookstore. And if you spot them at the downtown Sarasota Whole Foods, where I have seen at least two of the people listed below, please don’t be that rube asking for a selfie.
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Scott Baio
The star of “Happy Days” and “Charles in Charge” not only appears first on our list alphabetically but is also the most recent celebrity to relocate to Sarasota-Manatee.
Renee Baio, the wife of Scott Baio, bought a home in Bradenton according to Manatee County property records. In a phone interview May 11, she said they are living in the condo until their house nearby is completed.
"I chose Manatee County for various reasons," she said by phone from their home in Los Angeles. "It's close to Anna Maria Island, Siesta Key, and I love the small town feel and values of Manatee County and I support mom-and-pop businesses and would like to keep them thriving."
Renee Baio is a former stuntwoman and businesswoman. She's also founder and president of the Bailey Baio Angel Foundation, a non-profit organization that she founded to help children with glutaric aciduria type 1 (GA-1) and other organic acidurias, which sadly took their daughter Bailey's twin late in Renee's pregnancy.
Scott Baio is best known for co-starring as Chachi Arcola in "Happy Days" alongside Henry Winkler as The Fonz and Ron Howard as Richie Cunningham from 1977-84. Chachi's catchphrase was: "Wah wah wah." His character's storyline with love interest Joanie, played by actress Erin Moran, inspired the spin-off "Joanie Loves Chachi," which aired from 1982 to '83.
In April, the 62-year-old retired actor posted a photo of himself and wife, Renee, at the beach on Twitter with the caption "Living our best life in Florida."
Continue reading about Baio: Renee Baio, wife of Scott, buys home in Bradenton, says: 'Living our best life in Florida'
And: Scott Baio left California for Florida and 'Happy Days,' 'Charles in Charge' actor went viral
Dickey Betts
While lots of celebrities have relocated to Sarasota-Manatee over the years, Dickey Betts grew up here before co-founding the Allman Brothers Band, which were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995. The writer and singer of hit songs like “Ramblin’ Man” and “Blue Sky,” as well as composer of the classic instrumentals “Jessica” and “In Memory of Elizabeth Reed,” Betts has called the area home his entire life. “Well, my family has been in Manatee County since like 1870, right after the Civil War,” Betts told me during a 2014 interview at his home on Little Sarasota Bay. “We homesteaded land in Myakka. All you had to do was put stakes down and prove the land and pay taxes on it and it was yours. In fact, they named the road Betts after us out there.”
Before retiring, Betts played numerous shows in the area, often for charity, with a sold-out 2018 performance at White Buffalo Saloon in Sarasota taking place ahead of a final national tour. In 2020, while staying at home in Osprey, Betts still made headlines. Bob Dylan mentioned Betts in his hit song “Murder Most Foul.” There were numerous stories to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the film “Almost Famous” that Betts helped inspire (including the story we did that was picked up by our sister publication USA Today). In addition, the 50th anniversary of the Allman Brothers' multi-platinum album "Brothers and Sisters" was met with bestselling author Alan Paul's book "Brothers and Sisters: The Allman Brothers Band and the Inside Story of the Album That Defined the '70s," which I reviewed.
Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood
Country music power couple Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood were in Bradenton in 2019 so Brooks could represent his Teammates for Kids charity while working out with the Pittsburgh Pirates during spring training. Then, in October of the same year, the Herald-Tribune reported that a Nashville firm representing Brooks acquired ownership of a beachfront resort on Anna Maria Island.
The private retreat in Holmes Beach known as Lay-By sold for nearly $9 million. While it has yet to be determined if it will serve as a resort for paying guests or as a private getaway for the celebrity couple, there have been Brooks and Yearwood sightings reported on Anna Maria Island since the purchase.
Dick Hyman
Keyboardist, composer and arranger Dick Hyman played piano in the groups of jazz greats such as Benny Goodman, has witnessed his pioneering solo work on the Moog synthesizer sampled by hip-hop royalty, and has provided the music for hit films including "Moonstruck" and numerous Woody Allen movies from the 1980s to 2000s. In 2017, Hyman received the National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters award, the highest honor in jazz.
Hyman and his wife Julia, a sculptor, are residents of Venice. They moved to the area in the 1980s because of his work with the Jazz Club of Sarasota, which produces the Sarasota Jazz Festival.
Hyman's 1969 album “Moog: The Electric Eclectics of Dick Hyman,” which includes the Top 40 single “The Minotaur,” and its follow-up LP "The Age of Electronicus," feature the early techno and electronic sounds that would be sampled by the likes of Kendrick Lamar, Kanye West, Beck, De La Soul and The Beastie Boys, whose track "Root Down" includes the line "‘cause I'm electric like Dick Hyman."
"Dick Hyman is a piano virtuoso who – Zelig-like – has been known for playing in any style he wants," reads his NEA Jazz Masters bio. "A masterful improviser, he is also a composer of concerti and chamber music, and the soundtrack composer/arranger for more than a dozen Woody Allen films (including, appropriately, 'Zelig')."
Janis Ian
Janis Ian became a teenage pop star in the mid-1960s when she wrote and recorded the song “Society’s Child.” Featuring a dramatic melody and an emotive vocal, Ian’s lyrics are about an interracial relationship that crumbles because of bigotry, based on what the songwriter witnessed as a 13-year-old while growing up in East Orange, New Jersey. The single reached No. 14 on the Billboard Hot 100.
A decade later, Ian managed to write and sing an even bigger hit with “At Seventeen,” which remains among the most timeless anthems of the 1970s. Reportedly based on an article Ian read in the New York Times, the song delicately details the struggles of adolescence with lines like the memorable opening couplet: “I learned the truth at seventeen, that love was meant for beauty queens.”
“At Seventeen” reached No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100, No. 1 on the magazine’s Adult Contemporary chart and earned Ian a Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. In subsequent years, the song has been heard in numerous TV shows and films including “The Simpsons” and Mean Girls.” Both “Society’s Child” and “At Seventeen” were inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in the 2000s.
Ian recently issued the new full-length “The Light at the End of the Line", which she says will be her final solo studio album, embarking on a last North American tour as well. When not on the road, she might be found on Anna Maria Island, where she shares a home with wife Patricia Snyder, who is a retired criminal defense lawyer, according to a recent New York Times profile. The couple purchased the house in 2017.
Ian told the Herald-Tribune in a phone interview in 2022 that she started visiting the Sarasota-Manatee area about 10 years ago, loving the peace and quiet off-season, and she and her wife then bought the house on Anna Maria Island. A lot has changed even in those four or five years, she said, as development and tourism grow. But she loves the nature Florida has to offer, especially places such as the Robinson Preserve and Palma Sola Botanical Park, which are both in nearby northwest Bradenton.
"There are things about Florida that are astonishing still to me, outside of the weather, which is just a big plus if you’re from the Northeast," Ian said. "The parks are amazing, the bike lanes are amazing."
Brian Johnson
Of all our local celebrities, no one had a bigger 2020 than Bird Key resident Brian Johnson. The iron-lunged singer reunited with AC/DC for their raw and rocking comeback album "Power Up." The band's first new full-length in six years, it reached No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard 200 while topping a staggering list of additional pop charts worldwide. A huge triumph for the group, it was particularly sweet for Johnson. He joined AC/DC in time for the writing and recording of their massive 1980 hit "Back in Black" and had been lead singer for each subsequent album before departing because of hearing problems in 2016. Then, bordering on miraculously, Johnson regained his aural faculty and returned to his frontman role with that high and mighty voice as fierce as ever.
While a post-pandemic AC/DC world tour seems likely, for now we hope Brian and wife Brenda Johnson can enjoy some time around Sarasota, perhaps with food from one of their favorite local restaurants like Darwin Peruvian Eatery on South Tamiami Trail. Yes, the Johnsons have been spotted around town quite a bit over the years, at venues like the Van Wezel, backstage numerous times at the old Sarasota Blues Festival and, my personal favorite, Brian Johnson performing with Dickey Betts back in the early 2000s during a jam-packed fundraiser at the old Five O’Clock Club.
In 2019, the Johnsons donated property they owned to Sarasota nonprofit organization All Star Children’s Foundation. The property sold for net proceeds of $335,000.
Stephen King
After being struck by a van in 1999 while walking near his Maine home and suffering various injuries including a collapsed lung, broken ribs and numerous pelvic, hip and leg fractures, Stephen King rented a condo overlooking the Gulf of Mexico on Longboat Key. King and his wife, Tabitha, who have three children, then bought a waterfront home on Casey Key in 2001. The sale price, $8.9 million, was reportedly a record for a house in Sarasota County. The couple bought a second Casey Key home, for $2.2 million, in 2007.
About eight months later, King published “Duma Key,” his first novel set in Florida. The Herald-Tribune noted the book included numerous local references including Palm Avenue art galleries and “an art critic bearing a striking resemblance to former Herald-Tribune critic Joan Altabe.” It wouldn’t be the last time King used a Sarasota public figure as a character in one of his novels.
“We liked Sarasota because it was funky,” King told the Herald-Tribune in 2009. “We liked Pineapple Street and all the art on Palm Avenue. The town was terrific and we loved it .... I just go around and hang out and people generally don’t bother me, and if they do they’re pleasant. I’m sort of dedicated to the idea of living a life. I’m not a museum exhibit or a department store dummy or any of those things. I’m just a guy.”
In January 2016, King contributed a brilliant and charming essay to our “John D and me” series and then about a week later shared a stage in Bradenton with fellow bestselling author John Grisham to raise funds for The Manatee County Library Foundation. King gave an exclusive interview to the Herald-Tribune in 2017 before a Bookstore1Sarasota signing. “I love to come to this place because they have everything, they hand-sell, it’s well-lighted, you can browse,” King said. “I can’t browse as freely as I used to because people come up and say, ‘Are you him?’”
King’s 2019 novel “The Institute” features a cameo by Sarasota Police Chief Bernadette DiPino. “It was almost like winning an award,” DiPino, who is also Sarasota’s first female police chief, told the Herald-Tribune. “The only thing that tops this is maybe being a main character that’s killed off by a monster or something.”
Audrey, Judy and Ruth Landers
In the late '90s, sisters Audrey and Judy Landers, along with their mom Ruth Landers, relocated from Hollywood to Sarasota after their hit PBS children’s show, “The Huggabug Club,” hit the road for a tour that included a Van Wezel performance.
“Audrey and Judy set foot on Siesta Key, at the beach, and were sold,” Ruth Landers told the Herald-Tribune in 2006. “They said, ‘Oh my God, we have to live here.’”
Audrey Landers most famously played Afton Cooper on “Dallas” and Val Clarke in the film version of "A Chorus Line." Judy Landers' long list of television credits includes “L.A. Law,” “The Love Boat,” "B.J. and the Bear" and "Vega$." Ruth Landers is a manager and television/film producer whose credits include "The Huggabug Club," "Club Fed" and "Ghost Writer." Together, they own Landers Productions.
“We fell in love with everything at that time that Sarasota had to offer,” Audrey Landers told the Herald-Tribune in 2018. “So much of it has changed since then. I thought it would be a wonderful place to raise my kids, who were very young at the time, and it did turn out that way.”
Bello and Annaliese Nock
Celebrity comic, daredevil and Sarasota native Bello Nock has been making national headlines for the past 20 years with stunts such as a Guinness World Record-earning high-wire walk over a cruise ship and rappelling off of Madison Square Garden.
During a 2017 appearance on “America’s Got Talent,” Nock was shot out of a cannon and flew over the speeding blades of a helicopter. Judge Heidi Klum called Nock a “daredevil on steroids,” and Simon Cowell praised Nock for “walking the walk” and following through on his promise to perform the dangerous stunt after his initial audition failed to impress Cowell. Guest judge Laverne Cox called it “death defying. You literally risked your life. I can’t say I enjoyed it because I was so scared.”
In 2020, Bello Nock and his daredevil daughter Annaliese appeared as a duo on “America’s Got Talent,” with Annaliese performing a Wheel of Death stunt solo after Bello suffered “an acrobatic injury” during rehearsal. Annaliese is the Guinness World Record Holder for most somersaults on a Wheel of Death in one minute.
Joe Perry
The lead guitarist and co-songwriter behind Aerosmith classics such as “Walk this Way,” “Dude (Looks Like a Lady)” and “Crazy,” Joe Perry’s website mentions that when he and his wife, Billie, are not globetrotting, they spend their time between “Vermont, Massachusetts, Florida and Los Angeles.” That Sunshine State home happens to be a waterfront condominium on Longboat Key, which they purchased in 2001.
While the Herald-Tribune previously reported that Perry has been spotted participating in Sarasota beach cleanups and walking around St. Armands Circle, his most famous Sarasota appearance took place alongside his Rock and Roll Hall of Fame bandmates on Feb. 1, 2003. Several hundred attendees at the Sarasota Film Festival’s “Late Night UnWrap Bash” (myself included) witnessed a rather historic performance.
The event honored Aerosmith’s longtime record producer Jack Douglas, and before it ended we were treated to a surprise performance by the band inside the ballroom of the Hyatt Regency Sarasota. They played “Walk This Way,” “Sweet Emotion,” “Walking the Dog” and “The Train Kept A-Rollin’” to a crowd that can only really be described as hysteric. Yeah, it was a helluva night.
Jeffrey Vinik
New Jersey native and billionaire investor Jeffrey Vinik, owner of the reigning Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay Lightning, purchased the hockey team in 2010 and about five years later began work on a St. Armands Circle mansion to serve as a weekend retreat.
Neighbors dubbed it the “S.S. Magellan,” the Herald-Tribune reported in 2015, because of Vinik’s tenure as manager of the Fidelity Magellan mutual fund in the 1990s and “the fact that it is as big as a small ship.” The structure occupies most of two large lots (with teardown houses), for which Vinik paid a combined $7.75 million.
Bobby Vinton
A former teen idol, Bobby Vinton has been called "the all-time most successful love singer of the 'rock-era'," topping the Billboard Hot 100 with his 1960s singles "Roses Are Red (My Love)," "Blue Velvet," "There! I've Said it Again," and "Mr. Lonely," which he co-wrote. Vinton acted in several major Hollywood movies, including the 1970s John Wayne films "Big Jake" and "The Train Robbers," before having a huge comeback hit in '74 with "My Melody of Love," which he co-wrote.
Vinton's recording of "Blue Velvet" would go on to inspire David Lynch's 1986 film of the same name and be featured on the soundtrack. The recording returned to Great Britain's pop chart in 1990, reaching No. 3, after being used in a Nivea skin cream commercial. “This is something I really can’t comprehend. It is really something. It’s just one of those songs,” Vinton told the Associated Press. “It was released over there in 1964, and it went into the Top 10.”
Vinton lived on Lido Key, at the famed "Hiss-Baughman House" that came to be known as the “Bobby Vinton House,” before relocating to the Sarasota County side of Manasota Key, where there's a home listed under a limited liability company in the names of two of his children.
Dick Vitale
A head college and NBA coach in the 1970s, Lakewood Ranch resident Dick Vitale remains best known for his current job as a college basketball broadcaster for ESPN, a gig he’s had since ’79. Locally, though, “Dickie V” is probably most famous for his charity work.
The latest annual Dick Vitale Gala raised a record $7.4 million despite being held virtually because of the pandemic. In its 15-year history, the annual event typically held at the Ritz-Carlton Sarasota has generated $37 million, with all money raised going to the V Foundation for Cancer Research, named in honor of former North Carolina State basketball coach Jim Valvano.
“It gives me goosebumps just thinking about it,” the now 81-year-old Vitale told the Herald-Tribune in September when asked about the total dollar amount raised in the gala’s history. “It will affect the lives of kids with cancer for many, many years to come.”
Nik Wallenda
Circus royalty since birth, Sarasota native Nik Wallenda is a member of the legendary Flying Wallendas family, forming his own troupe about 15 years ago. Most famous for his nationally televised high-wire walking stunts, Wallenda traversed Niagara Falls in 2012, the Little Colorado Gorge near the Grand Canyon in 2013, and then tightrope walked between skyscrapers in Chicago in 2014 for another TV special.
In 2020, the 41-year-old multiple Guinness World Record holder donned a gas mask to walk over Nicaragua’s Masaya volcano, spending more than 30 minutes crossing the lake of lava 1,800 feet below as part of ABC’s “Volcano Live! With Nik Wallenda.”
Wallenda also released the book “Facing Fear” in 2020, which addresses the tragic 2017 rehearsal accident he was involved in that found five of its eight performers falling about 30 feet to the floor. In November, it was announced that Wallenda will be inducted into the Circus Ring of Fame.
“I’ve been recognized on so many levels over the years, but nothing compares with being honored this way by your peers,” Wallenda told the Herald-Tribune. “Now to be standing alongside my great-grandfather (Karl Wallenda) – that’s just tremendously humbling and exciting.”
Wade Tatangelo is Ticket Editor for the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, and Florida Regional Dining and Entertainment Editor for the USA TODAY Network. Follow him on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. He can be reached by email at wade.tatangelo@heraldtribune.com. Support local journalism by subscribing.
This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Who lives here? Famous people with homes in Sarasota, Bradenton area
