Novelists Isabel Allende and Amy Tan, athletes JR Hildebrand and Tim Lincecum and musicians Janis Joplin and Otis Redding are currently the most-discussed Sausalito celebrities who have lived, worked or had fun here. But that’s just the start of a long list, and the roster of famous residents and visitors in Sausalito stretches back over 125 years. Here’s our Insider’s Guide, presented in alphabetical order:
Isabel Allende — The award-winning Chilean novelist and author of The House of the Spirits lived in Sausalito in the 1990s and still lives nearby and maintains an office here. Her works, sometimes classified as “magical realism,” often feature female characters who choose independence and unique paths over traditional cultural roles, Learn more!
Maya Angelou — Although we know Angelou as a poet and a chronicler-of-our-age, in the mid-1950s she lived in Sausalito for a-year-and-change while performing as a calypso musician and dancer in night clubs in San Francisco’s North Beach, a two-part residency wrapped around two years performing in New York and across Europe. She spent much of that time living in a group setting in a houseboat moored at Waldo Point Harbor (now the Gate 5 Road location of Main Dock and Issaquah Dock) with her ten-year-old son, before moving to LA and then New York. Learn more!
Gina Berriault – An award-winning novelist and short story writer, Berriault lived in Sausalito for much of her career. Her 1996 short story collection, Women in Their Beds, received the 1997 National Book Critics Circle Award, the PEN/Faulkner Fiction Prize and the Rae Award for outstanding short story. Learn more!
Rosie Casals – The tennis star who was one of “The Original Nine” who started the independent WTA Tour in 1970 lived on Toyon Court in Sausalito for many years. She moved to the Palm Springs area in 2001 while keeping a local spot in Mill Valley for when she comes north to visit. We all got used to the TV news sportscasters saying, “Rosie Casals of Sausalito won the championship today 6-4 6-2 over…”
Julie Christie – The British film star — and the female face of the 1960s British Invasion conquest of the US by young English music and movie stars — stayed in Sausalito during the filming of her 1968 movie, Petulia. Some of the film’s sailboat scenes may also have been shot here.
Bill Cosby – Long before he was convicted of repeated sexual assaults, Cosby and his wife lived on a Sausalito houseboat during a period in the 1960s when he did gigs at Enrico Banducci’s hungry i club in San Francisco’s North Beach. Like many prominent musicians and actors, he spent a lot of time at The Trident in Sausalito. When Cosby became the first African American to win a lead role in a network series (I Spy), they moved to LA. Learn more!
Diesel — I’m sorry to ruin a great story believed by many Sausalito visitors, but… Diesel is not a celebrated Sausalito band. In fact, Diesel never even played in Sausalito. Although the song Sausalito Summer Nights was a hit in the 1980s. it was actually written in The Hague, a city in the Netherlands, and only one of its authors had ever even been to Sausalito. In fact, the song is all about an ill-fated drive north from Los Angeles to the Bay Area, car troubles along the way, and how the protagonist in the song’s story wanted to fly, not drive, so he’d actually have arrived! Sausalito was the dream destination, and the song’s story ends before they ever get here.
George Duke — Duke was a Grammy-winning, genre-busting multi-talented jazz, funk, pop and rock musician and record producer who grew up in Marin City, an unincorporated area just north of Sausalito that shares our 94965 Zip Code. He played with groups as diverse as Cannonball Adderley and Frank Zappa & the Mothers of Invention, eventually breaking out as a chart-topping solo recording star before turning to production for many high-profile stars including Gladys Knight and Smokey Robinson. The video above features his tribute to Sausalito. Learn more!
Clint Eastwood — Local legend has it that Eastwood spent a great deal of time at The Trident after being smitten with one of the (multiple) attractive servers there, during the time when he was filming Play Misty for Me in Monterey and other Northern California locations.
Fleetwood Mac — The Record Plant recording studio in Sausalito was the site where many major hit albums by Rock & Roll Hall of Fame stars were created. Out of all those albums, bands and stories none was as successful as Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours (with over 40,000,000 copies sold). And, at a place where triumph and tragedy both grew to be routine, few stories are more heartbreaking. During the recording and production of the album Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham broke up (inspiring him to write You Can Go Your Own Way, see the video below), and Christine McVie and John McVie separated and then divorced (resulting in her writing Don’t Stop Thinking About Tomorrow).
Phil Frank – For most observers, Phil Frank is remembered as the successful cartoonist behind the comic strips Farley, Travels with Farley and The Elderberries. In Sausalito he’s remembered as a tireless local volunteer for Sausalito civic causes. As one of the most active members of the Sausalito Historical Society, Frank literally went crawling through overgrown Sausalito hillsides and climbing into 19th century mineshafts looking for lost historical sites in town. He passed away in 2007, shortly after announcing that he had brain cancer. A statue of Phil Frank can be seen in downtown Sausalito near the ferry pier, next to the Ice House History Center. Learn more!
Jerry Garcia and the Grateful Dead – Like the Santana Blues Band, the Grateful Dead’s first-ever concert — after changing their name from the prior The Warlocks — was in Sausalito. The concert took place October 15, 1966 (poster above) at the Heliport on Bolinas St. at the north end of town (now the Commodore Heliport). Apart from a short period of concerts, the Heliport was primarily used as a rehearsal hall for the Dead in 1966-67, alongside other local bands. This was convenient, since the band members’ homes were scattered across Marin County and the heliport was (and is) near the Sausalito offramp on Highway 101. Like many local musicians whose shows were promoted by Bill Graham, they also frequented The Trident restaurant in town. Their 1973 album The Wake of the Flood was also recorded at The Record Plant recording studio in Sausalito, which also still stands today. Learn more!
Allen Ginsberg — Although he lived in San Francisco, the famed Beat poet spent a lot of time as a member of Jean Varda and Alan Watts’ social (and occasionally anti-social) group on the old ferryboat the Vallejo at Varda Landing (the entry road for which still connects to Gate 5 Road at the north end of Sausalito). He also was an habitué of The No Name Bar near the ferry pier, where they — in the words of drummer Michael Aragon — “played chess, read poetry, wore lots of berets and horned-rimmed glasses, and played bongo drums.” This was about a decade before I made Ginsberg angry with a respectfully-spoken question at a poetry reading, but that’s a story for another day. Learn more!
Graham Gouldman — Although the famed 1960’s English rock composer for The Yardbirds, the Hollies and Herman’s Hermits hadn’t visited here, he still created a beacon for Sausalito. His song Sausalito is the Place to Go To (video above) was recorded during a brief period when he took the money and wrote bubblegum songs like the awful 1968 hit, Yummy Yummy Yummy I’ve got Love in my Tummy. The song Sausalito is the Place to Go To (which is far better than the yummy yummy disaster) had just one historic role: recorded in the UK, it documents the town’s emerging worldwide reputation as a late-60s cultural hotspot.
Bill Graham — Although he eventually had a large home in nearby Corte Madera, rock music impresario Bill Graham kept a houseboat in Sausalito for many years. It is most famously remembered as the spot where Otis Redding (see below) wrote the classic song, Sittin’ on the Dock of the Bay. Graham would also throw over-the-top parties at The Trident restaurant in Sausalito for artists in town for his concerts, the most famous of which was for Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones. Learn more!
Paul Hawken – The co-founder and CEO of natural garden and lifestyle company Smith & Hawken, he now works from his base in Sausalito to support solutions to the challenges of Global Warming. Learn more!
Sterling Hayden — A denizen of Sausalito for over 25 years, Hayden was a famous movie star from the 1940s through the 1960s. After naming fellow actors who were communists at the 1950’s communist-hunting House hearings, his life spiraled downward in self-hatred and he went through a nasty divorce. After living in the Netherlands and in France, Hayden returned to Sausalito around 1961 and rented a pilot house on the old retired ferryboat The Berkeley, which was docked here. He used the space as an office to write a memoir — the book sold well, but unpaid back taxes devoured the royalties. Hayden then lived on a nearby houseboat called “The Pirate,” but later moved into a modest apartment. Alcohol sabotaged many of his dreams and emptied his bank account, and eventually he was more of a “character” around town rather than a celebrity. He died here in 1986. Learn more!
Rita Hayworth & Orson Welles — Hayworth and Welles came to Sausalito to film The Lady from Shanghai in 1947 (you can check out the locations and same-spot modern day view here). Some of the buildings used in the Old Town neighborhood, like Sally Stanford’s Valhalla, have now been torn down. You can, however, still walk on the southern portion of the Sausalito boardwalk and recreate a dramatic scene between the two famous stars!
Edith Heath – Heath opened the Heath Ceramics factory in Sausalito in the Marinship neighborhood shortly after World War II. She mixed a knowledge of chemistry with a mid-century modern focus on clean lines and simplicity to create solid, well-made lasting pieces in an era where “planned obsolescence” was starting to emerge. She lived near the Sausalito factory briefly, on a converted barge floating home named Dorothea. In 1949 they floated the barge farther north to Tiburon. Heath Ceramics continues to thrive in the original location on Gate 5 Road today.
William Randolph Hearst — A wealthy 19th Century newspaper owner firebrand (and the subject of the fictional film Citizen Kane), Hearst moved to a hillside spot above the Sea Lion Statue in Sausalito in about 1889. Unfortunately, he invited his mistress to take up residence there, which did not go over well with the stately neighbors on The Hill. As has happened to many homeowners in the intervening 135 years, his plans to erect a castle above the Sausalito waterfront were rejected, and he instead built Hearst Castle at San Simeon. He sold the Sausalito property in the early 1940s, and only a portion of an old seawall remains.
Dan Hicks — In the Bay Area Hicks is known as first the drummer and later the front man for The Charlatans, one of the major local bands of the 1967 Summer of Love, and at one time lived on a Sausalito houseboat. Unlike Jefferson Airplane, the Grateful Dead and Janis Joplin with Big Brother & The Holding Company, the Charlatans were not great musicians (apart from Hicks) and never broke out with a big hit that would create a national audience. After leaving the Charlatans in 1968, he founded Dan Hicks and his Hot Licks, a folk-swing-jazz fun-music band, ultimately appearing at Carnegie Hall, on Tonight with Johnny Carson (and, after losing a decade to alcohol and drugs and then recovering) Austin City Limits and many other shows and venues. He died in 2016.
JR Hildebrand — Originally from Sausalito and raised here, Hildebrand is a veteran of the Indy Car racing series and the Indianapolis 500. He was 2nd in the Indy 500 in 2011 when his move around a lapped competitor took him into the wall while leading on the final lap. Learn more!
Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones — The Stones were the most famous members of rock royalty who were celebrated at The Trident restaurant in Sausalito with a lavish party by music promoter Bill Graham. Graham hosted these events for artists in town for his national and international concert tours. Bobby Lozoff, the bartender at The Trident, invented the Tequila Sunrise there. When Jagger attended the 1972 party he was served the new creation, which Lozoff said was designed for their traveling lifestyle because it was so simple that band members could make it for themselves with Jose Cuervo tequila, orange juice and a drop of grenadine. Three days of partying in Sausalito and San Francisco later (including all of the Trident’s employees boarding buses to attend one of the concerts for free), The Stones resumed their tour and spread the joys of the Tequila Sunrise around the world (see video with Lozoff above). Learn more!
Janis Joplin — Joplin lived to the north in Larkspur (on the slopes of Mt. Tamalpais) in the late 1960s after sharing a house in rural Lagunitas to the northwest with her bandmates in Big Brother and the Holding Co. When she wasn’t on the road sje would often drive down to The Trident — where she had her own reserved table — and reportedly drank the afternoons away. The carved and painted ceiling at The Trident was done by Dave Richards, who also did the woodworking at The Record Plant in Sausalito and painted Janis Joplin’s famous 1964 psychedelic Porsche.
Timothy Leary — The psychedelic professor, author and bon vivant was a leading member of Jean Varda and Alan Watts’ 1967 “Houseboat Summit” (along with Allen Ginsberg and Gary Snyder) on the old ferryboat The Vallejo at Varda Landing at the north end of Sausalito. Learn more!
John Lennon and Yoko Ono — The ex-Beatle and his wife attended the masquerade ball at the 1972 grand opening of The Record Plant recording studio in Sausalito, where they arrived dressed as trees. Lennon usually recorded his solo albums at the original New York Record Plant studio. They also ate dinner there one evening and thanks to big hats were able to remain incognito when a bunch of fans stormed their dinner guest, Elton John.
Tim Lincecum – In the late 2000-oughts the San Francisco Giants’ star pitcher lived on Prospect Ave. in Sausalito. He was nicknamed “The Freak” for getting so much speed and movement on his pitches despite only being 5’11” and having a unique, fun personality, and was part of the first two World Series wins out of the three that they achieved in 2010-2014. Sausalito loves/loved him. He moved away in 2010. You can see photos of the house, but if you drive by there please remember that Prospect is a very narrow street and please don’t bother the current owners or neighbors.
Mary Tuthill Lindheim – A prominent ceramics artist of the mid-20th century, she lived in Sausalito for a time and was active in the Art Festival. Learn More!
Vijay Mallya – Once celebrated as “India’s Richard Branson,” Mallya is an entrepreneur who built his father’s brewing company into the largest beer producer in India. But when he started Kingfisher Airlines in 2005, he eventually proved that he was more of Brash Rich One than a Richard Branson (and yes, I know that line was a stretch). The airline folded in 2012 with over $1.5 Billion in debt, and since then he’s been indicted for fraud in India and fighting extradition there from expensive quarters in the UK. But what about Sausalito? He owned 6 Bulkley Ave. (see real estate sales video above), a huge mansion that was foreclosed by the bank. During the years when he and his family spent time here there were shopkeepers, servers and real estate agents in the community who told me they got to know them and liked them, and his daughter went to school nearby. 15 years ago, early in the history of OurSausalito.com, we had offices on the second floor of a building in the Marinship area where much of the first floor was a private, locked museum of classic cars owned by Mallya, and he also had cars stored at two or more other buildings in town. The museum in our old building has now been closed.
Rod McKuen — If you ever wonder about the Beat generation and Beat poetry, Rod McKuen is their “romantic,” appearing in clubs alongside more cynical peers and friends like Jack Kerouac and Alan Ginsberg (whom I once pissed off royally, but that’s another story). McKuen’s Beat-era piece about Sausalito in the above video is a great example of a cross between a story and a poem, something you might hear recited at a “salon” on the old Charles Van Damme Ferry, alias “the Ark” in Sausalito back in the day. He also had a long music career despite damaging his vocal chords, which for some people made his songs very hard to listen to even as his albums charted in the Folk category on Billboard Magazine.. His most famous poem, Stanyan Street and Other Sorrows, also refers to Sausalito. Learn more!
Juanita Musson — There is no such thing as a short bio of Juanita Musson, who was not famous anywhere else but was a well-known character in Sausalito. From the 1950s to the 1970s she owned and operated a series of restaurants that occasionally moved to different locations around Sausalito (as well as into and out of other towns as well). The best known of her places was called Juanita’s Galley. Known for her loud voice and raucous laughter (some have called her expressions “bellows”), she was a larger-than-life character who for the Beat Generation and then the Hip Generation was a real-life Saturday Night Live restaurant owner. A large woman typically dressed in a muu-muu, she was known to personally eject complaining customers with extreme prejudice, leaving them semi-horizontal outside as she walked back inside. For people who were mellow and there to get along with folks she was warm, welcoming and generous. Those who were obsequious were ignored. Two well-written stories about her can be found at The Floating Times (with a mildly NSFW photo) and at The Sausalito Historical Society. She passed away in 2011, and I heard that her old friends threw her one helluva wake. (Unfortunately, I wasn’t invited. Maybe I’m not such a Sausalito insider after all!)
“Baby Face” Nelson – The famous gangster and bank robber of the 1930s hid out in Sausalito with his wife and baby son in 1932, living on Turney St. in New Town and working at the Valhalla as a bartender prior to its acquisition by Sally Stanford. He was killed by the FBI in 1934 after joining the gang led by John Dillinger, returning to Chicago and committing more robberies and murders.
Pink Floyd — The band famously stayed at the Casa Madrona Hotel in Sausalito while playing concerts in San Francisco in 1967, where a photographer named William Baron took a famous series of informal group portraits.
Otis Redding – There are many versions of the story about how Sittin’ on the Dock of the Bay was written and recorded by Otis Redding, but most of the stories agree that he wrote the song while staying on Bill Graham’s houseboat in Sausalito (or, as one theory maintains, on a houseboat that Bill Graham rented for him). Several different local houseboat piers and docks still claim to be the famous Sausalito location, but the best-documented of these is Waldo Point Harbor. You’ll note on the map below that there’s an “Otis Redding Dock.” That’s a recent addition named in his honor, not the actual spot of the houseboat. There are also stories of the houseboat being “near the heliport,” which would imply the floating homes on Gate 6 1/2 Road (next to the merge lane for the Sausalito onramp to northbound Highway 101, which is also the merge for the Highway 1 offramp from northbound 101), but the distance between the two spots is only the equivalent of about two city blocks.
Carlos Santana — Still called the Santana Blues Band, the group played their first-ever gig — for rock impresario Bill Graham — on March 1, 1967 at The Ark in Sausalito, alias the old ferry boat Charles Van Damme, which was then used for many purposes including a concert and dance venue. They returned again on January 26-27, 1968. After their performance at Woodstock their success exploded in 1969 and they toured the world playing larger venues. His song Samba de Sausalito was first played in concert in June of 1973, and the studio version was released in 1974. Although he has lived in Mill Valley, San Rafael and Tiburon (all nearby, north of Sausalito) for several decades, Carlos Santana has occasionally turned up for short unannounced Sausalito performances, most recently at a Caledonia St. restaurant. He has now moved part-time to Las Vegas due to his performance residencies there. Learn more!
Tupac Shakur — Shakur lived in Marin City for several years as he was growing up, the unincorporated area at the north end of Sausalito that is part of the local school district. He attended Tamalpais High School in Mill Valley, which also serves students from Sausalito.
Shel Silverstein – A prolific cartoonist (best known for two decades in Playboy), songwriter (A Boy Named Sue) and children’s book author (The Giving Tree), Silverstein lived in the floating homes community from about 1967 to 1975.
Sally Stanford – Born as Mabel Janice Busby, she became San Francisco’s most famous and powerful madame, running a luxurious brothel on Pine Street that catered to the elite. During the conference where the United Nations was originally organized in 1945 she discreetly hosted world leaders, and some journalists joked that more work on the UN was done at Sally’s than at the official Opera House venue. When her ability to pay off local police and politicians to maintain her prostitution business faded after World War II, she sold off her assets of ill-repute to become a respected restaurateur in Sausalito. Despite her colorful past, she was elected to the Sausalito City Council in 1972, bringing with her a plain-spoken, no-nonsense approach to governance. (Not to mention her trademark mink stole as part of her wardrobe!) In 1976, Sally achieved the pinnacle of her political career, becoming the mayor of Sausalito. Rather than a publicity stunt, her tenure was marked by a pragmatic and progressive leadership style… albeit one that featured very direct verbal feedback that was not always appreciated by others. Her life story was portrayed in the movie Lady of the House in 1978, starring Dyan Cannon. Sally Stanford passed away in 1982, and her will left a bequest to set up the Sally Stanford Memorial Fountain… and Dog Fountain near the ferry pier.
Al Sybrian — A longtime resident of Sausalito, Sybrian was a prolific sculptor and a well-known denizen of our local drinking establishments who was born in 1924. His best known work is the Sausalito Sea Lion statue, which he cast in concrete in 1957 and installed on the Bridgeway Promenade with no city approvals or permits. Its popularity saved it from the wrath of city planners, and it was later recast in brass and has been repaired after several different major storms over the last 50 years. He passed away in 2007.
Amy Tan —
Jean Varda –
Grover Washington Jr. — Although the song Sausalito was a success for Washington, there’s no record of him spending any extended time here and he is not listed as one of the six composers of the track.
Alan Watts –
Lew Welch — Major Beat era poet and stepfather to Huey Lewis, lived in Marin City
Orson Welles — See “Rita Hayworth and Orson Welles” above.
