Donald Bren

She was a movie star from the so-called Golden Age of Hollywood celebrating life in her eighth decade. I was a 30-something former network TV producer writing a column for the Daily Pilot. It was an unlikely alliance, but in spite of the obvious...

1.) Our Olympians: No one made us prouder this year than the capable athletes, coaches and announcers from Newport Beach, Costa Mesa and Irvine who represented Team USA in the 2012 Summer Olympics Games in London. They grew up, trained or live here. Costa...

Raymond Watson, the architect and community planner who steered the development of Orange County's signature master-planned city of Irvine and briefly ran Walt Disney Productions during one of its most tumultuous periods, has died. He was 86. Watson died...

The Irvine Co. plans to expand its Newport Center headquarters by adding a 19-story tower to its complex there, a news release said last week. Construction on the building at 520 Newport Center Drive is expected to begin early next year and be...

Bill Gates has been the richest person in the country for an entire generation, cinching the top spot on Forbes’ list of the 400 wealthiest Americans for the 19th consecutive year. That’s what a net worth of $66 billion will do for a guy....

Kenneth Leventhal, a Los Angeles accountant who oversaw some of the largest real estate transactions in the country, died Tuesday at his Bel-Air home. He was 90 and had prostate cancer. Leventhal was a key figure in the transformation of Southern...

The CHOC Follies recently wrapped up its 15th annual production, "Christina and the Crystal Ball: A Cinderella Story for the Social Net Set." It was a four-show run that played to some 2,300 cheering fans at Orange Coast College's Robert B. Moore...

F. Sherwood Rowland, the UC Irvine chemistry professor who warned the world that man-made chemicals could erode the ozone layer, has died. He was 84. Rowland, known as Sherry, died Saturday at his home in Corona del Mar of complications from Parkinson'...

1.) Jim Righeimer. Costa Mesa's mayor pro tem led an unapologetic charge to restructure the city with layoffs, pension reform and the creation of a proposed city charter, making him the target of organized labor and a hero of reform-minded conservatives...

Donald M. Koll, a real estate developer who pioneered high-rise office building in Orange County and among other projects helped turn Los Cabos, Mexico, into a premier resort destination, has died. He was 78. Koll died Tuesday at Ronald Reagan UCLA...

IRVINE — The first photo book cataloging the historic Irvine Ranch captures a "sense of freedom," Irvine Co. Chairman Donald Bren said at a book-release party last week. The 208-page book, "Southern California Coastal Mountains to the Sea: A...

NEWPORT COAST — Managing Director Giuseppe Lama still has the receipt from the Resort at Pelican Hill's very first customer and purchase: an early-morning cappuccino. Pelican Hill, owned by the Irvine Co., runs an occupancy rate of about 70%...