Tom Cruise was once the super of this NYC townhouse — and now it’s $3M cheaper
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The Upper West Side townhouse where Tom Cruise, now 61, used to work as the super — changing lightbulbs and sweeping floors in exchange for cheap rent when he was an up-and-coming actor — has just received a $3 million price cut.
The landmarked, Renaissance Revival property, at 50 W. 86th St., is now asking $12 million — down from its $14.99 million ask last fall, as Gimme Shelter reported at the time.
Back in the 1980s, Cruise wasn’t the only future star to call the building home. Long before “Sex and the City” and “Iron Man,” Sarah Jessica Parker and her then-boyfriend, Robert Downey Jr., lived there, too — and in a penthouse, no less.
At 25 feet wide, the grand five-story townhouse is divided into eight separate, market-rate units, including two duplex apartments — but it can be converted back to single-family status. All combined, the home features 15 bedrooms and 8½ baths.
The address was also aptly known as the “Good Luck Building” because of all the actors who gained good fortune while living there.
Cruise, for example, was living in the building — in a modest 300-square-foot studio — shortly before his big break in the 1981 film “Taps.”
His mom paid half the rent — and Cruise paid the rest by working, said the seller Therese Flaherty.
At 9,165 square feet, the townhouse comes with a private, gated entrance — and 18,000 square feet of air rights.
Inside, it features an ornate staircase and details such as original moldings, high ceilings, hardwood floors and exposed brick. There’s also a commercial space and a pool.
Flaherty is a former celebrity makeup and hair artist who lived in the building before buying it — for $2.7 million in 1999 — from the former owners, show business couple Lee and Libby Allen. Lee was an actor, dancer and comedian who played Eddie Ryan in the film “Funny Girl” with Barbra Streisand; Libby was a singer and cabaret performer. The Allens even hosted a cast/birthday party for Streisand in the building, and often rented to struggling actors.
Flaherty continued the tradition, renting to actors, including Hank Azaria.
Built in 1907, the building was also home to King Curtis, Aretha Franklin’s musical director and band leader, who was stabbed to death in front of the townhouse in 1971
The listing broker is Rex Gonsalves of Brown Harris Stevens.
