Telly Savalas, who was best known for portraying Lt. Theo Kojak in Kojak, lived a very unique life. The Greek-American actor – who was a proud father to six children, shared with four mothers – had a quirky living situation.
Telly, who was born in 1922, famously lived at the Sheraton-Universal Hotel in Universal City, California. The nearly 500 room hotel is nestled beneath the Hollywood Hills and is minutes from Universal Studios Hollywood.
The Kojak actor lived there for 20 years, until his death on January 22, 1994. Telly died of complications of prostate and bladder cancer the day after his 72nd birthday. For two decades before he passed away, he was such a fixture at the hotel bar that it was renamed Telly's.
© Getty ImagesHow did Telly Savalas end up living at the Sheraton-Universal Hotel?
Telly didn't just live in a room in the Sheraton-Universal Hotel. He lived in a luxurious suite. While he was shooting the detective series in the early 1970s, he settled into a suite on the third floor. Telly decided to stay there because it was too inconvenient to travel back to his home every night.
Did Telly Savalas' kids live with him at the hotel?
© Getty ImagesTelly had six children – Christina, Penelope, Candace, Nicholas, Christian, and Ariana. And many of them called the Sheraton-Universal Hotel home.
His youngest daughter, Ariana, recalled to Neo Magazine the years she and her brother Christian spent there.
"We literally lived in a hotel for six years," she said. "We had an apartment there, and the bartenders and the people who played the piano were our friends. We used to hang out and run around the halls and just be crazy, and we didn't think anything different existed."
After Telly died in 1994, Ariana and Christian moved to Minnesota with her mom, Telly's third wife Julie Hovland.
© Getty ImagesWhat do Telly's kids do now?
Telly first became a father in 1950 when he welcomed his daughter, Christina, with Katherine Nicolaides. Soon after, with his second wife, Marilyn Gardner, the actor welcomed two more daughters, Penelope in 1961 and Candace in 1963. In 1973, Telly and his partner, Sally, welcomed the actor's first son, Nicholas.
After settling down with Julie, Telly became a father for the fifth and sixth time, welcoming Christian and Ariana. The Kojak actor's children have carried on his legacy in different ways.
© Penske Media via Getty ImagesChristina and her husband, John Peter Koussakis, were awarded Greek citizenship in honour of her late father in 2004. Candace enjoyed a brief acting career, being active between 1985 and 1993. Nicholas also had a small acting career, appearing alongside his father in Beyond All Reason and a Kojak television movie. He also lent his voice to Superman: The Animated Series.
Christian is a musician and tech designer, designing apps for pet owners like SwiftScales Vocal Trainer and Perfect Pitch Pipe. And Ariana has become a famous singer, being one of the original members of Postmodern Jukebox, which is known for transforming modern songs into different vintage genres, including jazz.
