Actor Roy Scheider, who died Sunday, spoke to Newsday last year about his decision to sell his Sagaponack home to Billy Joel. Here is the interview with Ellen Yan, which appeared June 5, 2007:
BY ELLEN YAN
yan@newsday.com
Actor Roy Scheider's home went for more than a song; it went to songman Billy Joel.
"Jaws" icon Scheider is expected to close today on the Sagaponack house he built between the ocean and some farms in 1994, said sources close to the deal.
"I'm so happy that Billy Joel is buying it, because it's the perfect house for him," said Scheider, 74. "He can put his piano on the second floor, overlook the beach and the farmland and write beautiful music for all of us. Maybe he'll write an ocean's album."
Agents involved are mum on the sale price for the five-bedroom, five-bath, four-fireplace home with porches and decks galore.
But the 1-acre property was last listed at $18.75 million. Scheider said the price was "close."
Joel's agents confirmed the deal, but declined to comment further.
The singer, 58, has his own real estate for sale. His Centre Island waterside property has five bedrooms, but at $32.5 million, it's stacked with amenities - a tennis court, a music room, a wine cellar and a four-car garage. He also owns a waterfront house in nearby Sag Harbor.
But in a little bit of down-to-earth reality, both stars have felt the pinch of the softer real estate market.
They've had to do what the small guys have done - price chopping. Joel originally asked for $37.5 million last September, when he put his home on the market. Scheider originally asked for $20 million in April 2006 and went down by $1.25million last March.
Scheider and his family are waiting for a new home to be built, not far from their temporary quarters at Sag Harbor's The American Hotel, an 1846 landmark that could belong in a Currier and Ives lithograph. Scheider bought the house when it was half-built and got the chance to put in his own architectural marks.
This time, Scheider's four-bedroom house will be landlocked. That means no more piling sandbags outside the house, like he did in 2005 just before a nor'easter. The house was safe, but the storm bit away more beach. "People who live there have to restore the beach occasionally," Scheider said. "He knows that," he said, referring to Joel.
Scheider said his new home, expected to be livable in August, is "modest." He's like a lot of other Long Islanders who have outgrown their longtime homes.
"It really was fine for its time, but the kids are grown up now," he said. "They're going away and we're downsizing, and I'm doing more work in Europe than I am here."