Tron actor Jared Leto’s haunted $7.5m Hollywood fortress

Jared Leto isn’t just starring in Tron: Ares, he’s living it.

The Oscar winner, whose estimated net worth is about $US90m ($A137m), has transformed a top-secret Cold War military compound into one of Los Angeles’ most extraordinary celebrity homes.

Hidden behind steel gates in the Hollywood Hills, Leto’s Laurel Canyon property is a decommissioned US Air Force base that once helped film America’s atomic weapons program.

The sprawling Lookout Mountain Air Force Station was built in the 1940s as a radar hub before being converted into a classified military film studio, where crews with top-secret clearance produced nuclear test footage for the government.

Leto quietly snapped up the Cold War relic for $US5m ($A7.5m) in 2015, buying it off-market through a trust.

The enormous compound covers more than a hectare and still includes a soundstage, screening rooms, film vaults marked “USAF Top Secret” and a control tower with sweeping views of the canyon.

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Jared Leto as Ares in Disney’s Tron: Ares. Picture: Leah Gallo

The Oscar winner has transformed a top-secret Cold War military compound into one of Los Angeles’ most extraordinary celebrity homes. Picture: Everett Fenton Gidley

Leto quietly snapped up the Cold War relic for $US5m ($A7.5m) in 2015. Picture: Everett Fenton Gidley

Rather than strip away its history, Leto has leaned into it.

He’s turned the original soundstage into a recording studio for his band Thirty Seconds to Mars, converted old screening rooms into editing suites and left the thick concrete walls and blast-proof doors that give the property its eerie, cinematic feel.

“It’s like camping out inside history,” he once said to Vanity Fair.

The site’s past is almost as dramatic as Leto’s film career. Between 1947 and 1969, the facility operated under the Atomic Energy Commission, producing millions of feet of film and collaborating with Hollywood icons including Walt Disney and Jimmy Stewart.

After it was decommissioned, the property was used as an art studio and later a rehab centre before Leto bought it.

Locals whisper it’s haunted — a housekeeper once claimed to see a ghost, while a tradesman reportedly quit after a “strange encounter”. Leto simply calls the energy “beautifully strange”.

The screening room features a bathtub. Picture: Everett Fenton Gidley

Locals whisper the home is haunted.

The enormous compound covers more than a hectare. Picture: Everett Fenton Gidley

While most stars amass sprawling global portfolios, Leto owns just two confirmed homes, both in Los Angeles.

Property analysts call it the “Leto Doctrine” — buying unique spaces with history, privacy and creative purpose rather than postcode prestige.

The actor’s first, a mid-century house in Cahuenga Pass, was bought for $US1.65m ($A2.5m) in 2006 and sold for $US2.05m ($A3.1m) in 2017 to model sisters Cara and Poppy Delevingne.

That home also featured a recording studio but was soon eclipsed by his grander Laurel Canyon fortress.

The actor has also been spotted exploring property markets outside California.

In 2021, he toured an $US8.43m ($A12.8m) penthouse at 199 Mott St in Manhattan’s Nolita district, a full-floor apartment with skyline views and polished concrete interiors.

No sale was confirmed, but it sparked speculation about a future New York base.

Rumours of London interest have circulated too, though none have been verified.

For now, the Tron: Ares star remains firmly anchored in Los Angeles, living inside a Cold War time capsule that could easily double as a movie set.

And as Disney prepares to release the long-awaited sequel this weekend, the parallels are impossible to ignore.

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