The hideaway estate of Jack Ryan creator Tom Clancy has been sold for $4.9million – $1.3million below the asking price.
The vast property known as Peregrine Cliff, in Huntingtown, Maryland, originally went up for sale for $6.2 million in late 2018.
It includes a 17,000-square-foot main home, built in 1989, and also 536 acres of land that extends along a mile of the Chesapeake Bay.
The main house has six bedrooms, six full bathrooms, and two half-baths, vaulted ceilings throughout, a three-level elevator, and an office with numerous bookshelves.
According to Variety Magazine, the sale of the home comes at a time his estate has been trying to offload properties and as a bitter dispute grows between his first wife Wanda and his second wife Alexandra Marie Llewellyn Clancy for the royalties to his character Jack Ryan.
Tom Clancy’s estate, which includes a 17,000-square-foot main home, has been sold for $4.9million
The main property (not pictured) was built in 1989, and the estate has 536 acres of land that extends along a mile of the Chesapeake Bay. (Pictured: A secondary dwelling on the property)
The main house has six bedrooms, six full bathrooms, and two half-baths, vaulted ceilings throughout, a three-level elevator, and an office with numerous bookshelves (pictured)
The property, which was once a kid’s summer camp, was transformed by Clancy with some serious upgrades (Pictured: A gym in the main complex)
Once a kid’s summer camp, Clancy splashed out on serious upgrades including an indoor pool with a retractable roof, basketball and tennis courts, large sports fields, several guest houses, and a private beach.
Underneath the main house lies Clancy’s underground gun range. He was a staunch Republican and supporter of the National Rifle Association, according to Variety.
Clancy, whose thrilling spy and military fiction included bestsellers such as ‘The Hunt for Red October’, ‘Clear and Present Danger’ and ‘Patriot Games’, died in 2013 at the age of 66.
In 2019, Clancy’s widow filed a lawsuit claiming that his estate is the exclusive owner not just of the novelist’s famous character Jack Ryan, but the rights to the character John Clark and several books.
Alexandra expanded her original 2017 lawsuit against the personal representative of Clancy’s estate for allowing other entities to profit from posthumous book revenues.
Those profits and profits involving other characters have been divided between the estate and companies that were owned by Clancy, his ex-wife and children.
In the original 2017 suit, she said, a pair of companies set up by Clancy before his death, exploited the character for massive amounts of money – and now she wants that cash, along with the sole rights to the character.
The root of the dispute lies in a legal wrangle that came about after the publication of Clancy’s first novel, Hunt.
That book was later to become 1990’s The Hunt for the Red October, a blockbuster movie starring Alec Baldwin as Jack Ryan, and co-starring Sean Connery.
The United States Naval Institute (USNI) bought Hunt for $5,000 and published it in 1983 – it then went on to sell over two million copies.
But the USNI claimed it owned the rights to the characters in the book – including Jack Ryan – and threatened to sue Clancy if he tried to use them elsewhere.
The upgrades included an indoor pool with a retractable roof, basketball and tennis courts, large sports fields, several guest houses, a private beach and an underground gun range (Pictured: The entrance to the property)
Clancy, whose thrilling spy and military fiction included bestsellers such as ‘The Hunt for the Red October’, ‘Clear and Present Danger’ and ‘Patriot Games’, died in 2013 at the age of 66 (Pictured: One of the main living rooms in the property)
Clancy’s widow Alexandra is selling a lavish penthouse in Baltimore for $5.9 million (Pictured: The property’s kitchen)
Pictured: The office where Clancy likely worked on some of his famous books. He shot to fame in the 80s with the release of The Hunt for Red October
In 1988 Clancy took them to court and won back the rights, setting up Jack Ryan Enterprises Ltd (JRE) to hold the copyrights to Hunt and several other novels.
Those books include four other Jack Ryan yarns that later became movies: Patriot Games, Clear and Present Danger, and The Sum of All Fears.
Another business, Jack Ryan Partnership Ltd (JPL), was set up to hold the rights to another series of books published from 1993 onwards, including the Jack Ryan stories Debt of Honor and Executive Orders.
But Alexandra Clancy says neither of those companies were expressly given the rights to the Jack Ryan character.
Instead, she claims, those rights remained with her husband until his death in 2013, then passed on to his estate.
If that’s the case, she says, then the money made by those companies from the Jack Ryan character should go entirely to his estate – of which she receives over a third of the royalties, with the rest going to Clancy’s five children.
His widow Alexandra is also selling a lavish penthouse in Baltimore for $5.9 million.
Clancy shot to fame in the 80s with the release of The Hunt for Red October.
That novel – which would later be turned into a film starring Alec Baldwin and Sean Connery – introduced the character of Jack Ryan, a CIA operative and the protagonist of most of Clancy’s novels.
Ryan – who was also played by Harrison Ford, Ben Affleck and Chris Pine in subsequent films – also appeared in Clancy’s novels Patriot Games, Clear and Present Danger, The Sum of All Fears and Debt Honor to name just a few.
Clancy, who was paid just $5,000 initially for The Hunt of Red October, would go on to make millions for his books, which were also turned into video games.
That novel – was turned into a film starring Alec Baldwin and Sean Connery. (Pictured: An exterior shot of the property including a playground)
The Hunt for Red October introduced the character of Jack Ryan, a CIA operative and the protagonist of most of Clancy’s novels. (Pictured: The dining room in the property)
Clancy, who was paid just $5,000 initially for The Hunt of Red October, would go on to make millions for his books, which were also turned into video games (Pictured: Another view of the property’s kitchen)
The sale includes a 17,000-square-foot main home, built in 1989, and also 536 acres of land that extends along a mile of the Chesapeake Bay (pictured)
He was said to be worth $83million at the time of his death according to the Los Angeles Times.
He died at the age of 66 in October 2013 of congestive heart failure, with little to no details being released about his passing at the time.
He was survived by his wife Alexandra and their daughter as well as four children from his first marriage.
Since his death, Alexandra, who controls the late authors estate and is wealthy in her own right, has added to her own property portfolio, splashing out on a glass-walled mansion in Beverley Hills for $8.5million.