Raymond Sarlot, who bought and restored Chateau Marmont in Hollywood, dies at 89

Article by: Associated Press
Updated: May 10, 2014 - 6:40 PM

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LOS ANGELES — Raymond Sarlot, who restored the decaying Chateau Marmont, ensuring its place as a Hollywood landmark, has died. He was 89.

His wife, Sally Rae Sarlot, tells the Los Angeles Times (http://bit.ly/1jtloZj ) that Sarlot died April 27.

Once a draw for celebrities such as Greta Garbo and Marilyn Monroe, the 1927 hotel was falling apart and verging on foreclosure when Sarlot and a partner bought it for $1 million in 1975.

Sarlot moved in, oversaw restoration and in 1976 the hotel was declared a city historic-cultural monument. The Los Angeles Cultural Heritage Commission called it a reminder of "the glitter of Hollywood's past."

The hotel drew the likes of Pink Floyd in the rock era, and it became notorious in 1982 when John Belushi died there of a drug overdose.