Some were born here, some came later.
Some had to leave to get famous; others came here as fame was upon them…and sometimes fading away.
Please remember that there’s an alphabetical listing of 50 famous Montana celebrities in this post.
Now, let’s add a few more.
Julia Roberts
“Julia Roberts owns a house in kalispell mt she was here last summer,” meaning the summer of 2015
I think the house is closer to Whitefish, actually, and I don’t think she owns it…or any other homes in Montana (but I could be wrong on that last part).
You see, in February 2016, that lake house sold for $12 million.
It was built by Roberts’ fiancé, Kiefer Sutherland, in 1990 and called Goldenbear Ranch.
The address is 3500 E. Lakeshore Drive.
It had 5 bedrooms, a wine cellar, gym, and even a nine-hole folf course on the 5.5-acre property. There’s also a 2,200 square-foot guesthouse with 2 bedrooms.
I don’t think Roberts spent much time in the place, as she called the wedding off in 1991…just 3 days before the June 14 wedding date, in fact.
She was 23 and Sutherland was 24.
The young starlet had a friend call Sutherland up to deliver the bad news. A couple days later she jetted off to Ireland with new fling – and Sutherland friend – Jason Patric.
It wasn’t the first time this runaway bride had pulled the stunt – she’d left Dylan McDermott in 1990 to be with Sutherland.
Nicolette Larson
She teamed-up with Neil Young in the 1970s, and covered his #1 hit, “Lotta Love,” a song which you probably hear her singing more than him.
Here it is:
I have to admit, I had no idea this great singer of this great song was born in Helena in 1952.
She didn’t stay too long in the Queen City, as her father worked for the U.S. Treasury Department and they had to move a lot.
Larson finished up high school in Missouri, and did a year and a half of university there before heading to San Francisco to pursue her musical dreams.
By 1975 she was doing a lot of work, mainly with Commander Cody, but then with Emmylou Harris in ’77. Her friendship with Linda Ronstadt got her introduced to Neil Young, and she sang on some tracks for him.
She got her own debut album in 1978, Nicolette, and that year Rolling Stone magazine called her the Female Vocalist of 1978.
She never really broke it big, however, and her last album was in 1988. She died in 1997 at the age of 45 from liver failure.
Bill Pullman
He first came to the state after college. This would have been the late-70s, maybe early-80s…even before he got into the movie business.
Pullman has a place on Highway 69 between Boulder and Whitehall, one he’s owned with his brother since the 1990s.
At one point, Pullman refurbished a barn into a house. One commenter on this site mentioned that they knew the family that lived on the place and took care of it while he was gone.
The same person said that Pullman sometimes came into Boulder to eat breakfasts, but usually didn’t take his family.
Another commenter said that Pullman had sold his place in Whitehall and moved to upstate New York. She mentioned that Pullman’s brother, John Pullman, is an infectious disease doctor in Butte and that he saved her husband's life. “Smart guy and unpretentious,” she adds.
So does he still live here or not?
In this 2016 MT Standard article he’s listed as living outside Cardwell and that he has “family who live in the area.”
You can also see him with Monica Lindeen in this 2016 Ravalli Republic article on a fraud documentary.
In this March 2017 YouTube video, Pullman discusses how he still has cows and horses, and how his sister’s “really the straw boss” and he has a “neo-western, where the woman’s running the ranch now.”
So it sounds like he’s still in Montana often and that he enjoys it here.
Hits & Misses
I hear about a lot of celebs in Montana, but I’m not sure they’re all living here.
Maybe they’re just visiting, or maybe people have some mistaken information.
Or maybe I’m wrong and these celebs are great at keeping it on the down-low.
Let’s go through a few.
Tom Selleck
Supposedly Tom Selleck has a large stone house on the Missouri River between Craig and Cascade.
I’ve also been told that Tom Selleck may have an ownership interest in a place called Packer’s Roost in Coram, Montana.
That’s interesting, as Coram is about 240 miles and a 3-to-4-hour-drive from where Selleck supposedly has his home.
I can find nothing on Selleck living in Montana, or ever having lived here. He seems to have the ranch in California and that’s as much as I know.
Lucille Ball
I’ve heard a few times now that Lucy was actually from Butte, not the hometown that’s listed for her in many places, Celeron, New York (Wikipedia lists Jamestown, New York).
I can’t find much on this Montana connection.
Caroll O'Conner
Caroll O'Conner lived in the University area for years. He got a degree in journalism from UM in 1956, working at the Kaimin as an editor while doing so.
O’Connor’s wife, Nancy, grew up in Montana and they had a home in Missoula for years. In 1999 the two gave $1 million to UM.
In 2000, the 75-year-old O’Connor taught a screenwriting class at UM. He had to turn down a couple movie parts to do so.
“It’s now or never,” he told local reporters. O’Connor died the following year.