Mr. Big Shot Oh, snap! Ron Galella shows off 7,000-square-foot Manse

DAVID ROSENZWEIG

Ron Galella, seen here at his Montville, NJ, home, is the don of paparazzi.

Ron Galella has seen everything. And photographed it. The walls of his 7,000-square-foot Montville, NJ, mansion are adorned with hundreds of images he’s shot of the most prominent celebrities over the last 50 years.

“Our old house had a two-car garage that was full of pictures,” Galella says of deciding with his wife, Betty, to move here in 1992. “We had to find a bigger house.”

SEE THE PHOTOS

David Rosenzweig

Photographer Ron Galella at his home.

His path to notoriety started in The Bronx, as the son of an Italian immigrant who built cabinets. Galella began his artistic career as a ceramist, but after enlisting in the Army during the Korean War and photographing the stars who visited his base to entertain troops, his interest in celebrity was sparked. Moving back to New York City, he became one of the first paparazzi to chase down celebrities, capturing them in candid yet glamorous moments. Galella trailed everyone from Jackie O and Liz Taylor to Robert Redford and Marlon Brando, and became a trailblazer in his own right. He is known as the godfather of American paparazzi.

But now, at 82, Galella lives a private life away from the spotlight he once sought. In his quiet, tree-lined neighborhood, he and Betty have settled into an airy, impeccably designed, palatial home that boasts a master bedroom, two upstairs bedrooms (used for print storage), a private suite with a kitchenette, maid’s quarters, six bathrooms, a great room, an Andy Warhol-themed lounge and a sprawling basement that houses his extensive archives.

Galella has custom-designed colorfully patterned plush chairs inspired by the ’60s, which furnish his “Warhol Room.” He also crafted white ceramic statues that sit atop the railing of his sun deck out back, which overlooks a sprawling garden and a now empty rabbit hutch.

Galella and his wife adore bunnies, and had seven named after prominent gossip columnists like Hedda Hopper and Walter Winchell. Galella now keeps cabinets full of porcelain bunny statues.