The clean bold lines of John Lautner’s famous houses are hard to resist for moviemakers. The most famous houses are the Elrod House, which was Willard Whyte’s crib in Diamonds are Forever, the Chemosphere used in Body Double, the Goldstein House featured in The Big Lebowski , and the Schaffer House, which offers a luxurious repose for A Single Man.

Most persons will recognize the space age Chemosphere as Troy McClure’s House in The Simpsons. It was more or less adapted from Buckminster Fuller’s Dymaxion House, offering a stunning view of Los Angeles, which is why it has appeared time and again in telvision and films. It first appeared as the ultra modern residence for The Duplicate Man in The Outer Limits in 1964. It also inspired one of the set scenes in Charlie’s Angels.

The Goldstein House is perhaps Lautner’s most iconic house with its gorgeous spanning concrete roof. It has attracted many filmmakers, but featured significantly in The Big Lebowski. It was used as a veritable pleasure palace in the porn film, Unleashed , and figured into the second Charlie’s Angels movie, Full Throttle.

The elegant Schaffer House provided the perfect home for George in A Single Man. It is one of Lautner’s more subdued designs. By contrast, his dramatic Silvertop residence served as the home in Less Than Zero. There’s also this alluring promotion for Oliver Peoples sunglasses shot in Lautner’s Rainbow House. You can check out more on John Lautner in the documentary Infinite Space.

The Modern World of John Lautner: His Fabulous Houses in Films