What actor or actress actually came from poverty and didn’t have the benefit of nepotism?
Wednesday, 12 Mar 2025
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Jim Carrey was homeless as a child and lived with his family in a van.
Terry Crews grew up poor with an abusive father. He actually started lifting specifically to be able to stop his father from beating him and his mom.
Woody Harrelson, grew up poor in West Texas with his mom and sibs after his dad got two life sentences for ASSASSINATING A SITTING FEDERAL JUDGE FOR A DRUG LORD
Macaulay Culkin!
Before Home Alone fame, he was poor and shared one room with his six siblings in a tiny New York apartment.
Richard Pryor. Comedian & actor. Grew up in a brothel, his grandmother ran it and his mother worked there as a prostitute. Pretty sure anyone that’s listened to his comedy knows that though.
Barry Keoghan basically walked out of a crack house into a theater.
Leighton Meester. She was literally born in a prison while her mother was serving time for drug trafficking. After failing to become a model in New York at age 10, she moved to LA at age 14, where she began taking acting classes and auditioning for roles. She only got her first role in 2003 and today she is a multi-millionaire.
Sarah Jessica Parker’s family had a lot of money struggles and would have their utilities turned off; Arnold Schwarzenegger has said a highlight from his youth was when his family bought a refrigerator.
Lori Petty. Grew up in a trailer park before her mother left her abusive father, then had to help raise her sisters because her mother got addicted to drugs and became a prostitute. She made a movie about her childhood called The Poker House staring Jennifer Lawrence.
Michael Caine and Sean Connery were working class.
Pretty much any Canadian actor. They learn the craft here or in the UK. They move to the U.S. for money. When the pressure gets too much or the career winds down, they move back to Canada.
Pedro Pascal.
His parents fled Chile as political refugees when Pinochet was in power and settled in America when Pedro was 9 months old and his elder sister was around 2 or 3.
He was raised in Texas and then California, and moved to New York at age 18 with $7 in his bank account and worked in several restaurants as a waiter until he got a few small roles, then had his big break in Game of Thrones in 2014 when he was 39.
Reginald VelJohnson, Carl Windslow on Family Matters, was a struggling actor and only getting uncredited and bit parts his whole career. He was living with his parents in his 30s (I think) and literally about to call his agent and quit acting when his mom told him to wait just a little longer. I think it was the next day he was offered the role in Die Hard. He thought he totally blew the audition. Heard that first hand from him during a Mondo screening of Die Hard. Family Matters was so fundamental to me as a young black kid in the 90s.
Jon Hamm didn’t get his break with Mad Men until his forties and lived with a bunch of other actors doing odd jobs that have all worked their way from very little to be the power house A listers they are today. I’ve met him once but haven’t gotten to work with him yet, but everyone says he’s a really chill dude and often gets beers with the crew after filming days.
1. Jim Carrey grew up in a working-class family and faced severe financial struggles. His family lived in a van for a time, and he worked as a janitor to support them.
2. Oprah Winfrey was born into poverty in rural Mississippi, Oprah faced numerous hardships, including abuse. She wore potato sacks as dresses because of extreme financial difficulties.
3. Sylvester Stallone struggled to find acting work and was so broke he had to sell his dog for $25.
4. Charlize Theron grew up on a small farm in South Africa, raised by a single mother. Her childhood was marked by financial and emotional hardships.
5. Samuel L. Jackson was raised in a segregated community in Tennessee by his factory-worker mother and grandparents. His family faced poverty.
6. Leonardo DiCaprio grew up in a rough neighborhood in Los Angeles, raised by a single mother who worked multiple jobs.
7. Halle Berry grew up in a single-parent household in Cleveland, Ohio. At one point, she lived in a homeless shelter while trying to break into acting.
8. Chris Pratt lived in a van in Hawaii and worked as a waiter before being discovered. He faced years of financial struggles.
9. Hilary Swank grew up in a trailer park in Washington state. Her family faced severe financial issues, and she lived in a car with her mother while auditioning in Hollywood.
10. Tom Cruise grew up in a financially unstable household and moved frequently. His father was abusive, and the family often struggled to make ends meet.
Clara Bow, Barbara Stanwyck, Susan Hayward…
Charles Bronson came from an extremely poor coal mining town. He was the 11th of 15 children. I once saw an interview where he said he sometimes had to wear his older sister’s hand me down dresses to school because they couldn’t afford clothes.
Jeremy Strong lived in the projects in JP here in Boston
Tobey Maguire: if you want a good celeb deep dive, his childhood & experience as a kid/teen actor is a crazy one. Aside from your typical “stayed at homeless shelter” and “got into acting for the money” stuff, there’s also an insane but sad story about his dad robbing a bank & going to jail when he was a teen because they were so poor after a death in the family
danny devito!!
George Takei. After ww2 his family lived in alleyways in LA due to the fact the government stripped them of literally everything they owned save the clothes on their backs and threw them in internment camps for the crime of being japanese.
He may not be a billionaire, but i dare you to find someone on this planet in the english speaking world who doesnt know “*OH MY*”
Demi Moore has alluded to an impoverished childhood.
Danny Trejo. Abused by his father since birth, dealt drugs from age 7, went to juvie at 10, spent years in prison, got clean, and set up sober houses.
He auditioned as an extra, though his first industry job was as Eric Roberts’ boxing coach. He had a number of small roles portraying prisoners, and then the rest, as they say, is history.
Trevor Noah grew up in apartheid South Africa in the slums with his mom and grandmother. Read his auto biography
Octavia Spencer. Her mom was a maid in Alabama, and her father died when she was 13, and then her mom died when she was 17.
Whoopi Goldberg lived in the projects as a child and spent some time being homeless.
Halle Berry was raised by a single mom, and when she left home to try acting, she lived in a homeless shelter and the YMCA for a whime.
Kate Winslet. Not poverty, but definitely lower middle class. Her parents were both amateur actors in the local community theater and worked odd jobs here and there. Kate worked at a local deli to pay for the arts and theater school she attended and was still working there when cast in “Heavenly Creatures.”
Shania Twain grew up in a small town in rural Ontario. Her parents struggled to make ends meet; she said in an interview they ate mustard sandwiches for lunch because they couldn’t even afford bologna or other meat. Sometimes they bathed in the river behind their house because their water would get shut off for the bill not being paid. She ended up raising her younger brothers when their parents were killed in a car accident. She was only 21 and the boys were teenagers but Shania worked at a casino as a lounge singer. She didn’t make much, but it was enough to pay the bills. Once her brother’s graduated high school she started auditioning and doing demos with record companies until she was discovered.
Lance Henriksen.
Left a difficult home life at 12, and school after the first grade. Spent time in a childrens’ home and was illiterate until he taught himself to read at 30. Served in the Navy during the Korean war, then worked as a set designer in theatre, and got his first acting roles off the back of his set designing work.
When James Cameron wrote *The Terminator,* it was Henriksen he had in mind for the eponymous role.
Bruno Mars was poor/homeless as a child. He had an early interview on 60 Minutes where he was talking about how his dad would take the kids to neat places to sleep, like a locked shed at a park. The interviewer had to break it to him that he’d clearly been homeless.
– Leighton Meester was a prison baby
– Macaulay Culkin was the bread winner for his 6 siblings who all shared a room
– Jeannette McCurdy’s family was low-income, working class and had mental illness, specifically hoarding
– Jim Carrey was homeless
– Eartha Kitt’s mom was a sharecropper
– Sylvester Stallone grew up in poverty, and even had to sell his dog to pay bills. He bought the dog back when he finally had money from the success of Rocky.
– Marilyn Monroe grew up in foster homes
– Julie Andrews came from poverty
Sir Patrick Stewart. Read his autobiography. Raised in absolute poverty. As a kid, he had to wash in his older brother’s bathwater and then siphon it out with his mouth. Worked his way up to the Royal Shakespeare Company, then Hollywood, then a knighthood.
Jewel
Channing Tatum was a male stripper before his big break. Magic Mike was based on his experience
Dolly Parton is the definition on self-made. She used her talent and determination to change her and her families lives.
Snoop Dogg
Felicia Pearson who played snoop in the wire, was born while both parents were in prison, got involved with drugs, killed someone as a teenager and then served jail time herself
Tobi McGwire and Leo DiCaprio grew up together in the same trailer park.
Sylvester Stallone and Cameron Diaz were in porn before famous (not together)
Djimon Hounson (Gladiator, Guardians of the Galaxy, Fast & Furious 7) moved from Africa to Paris as a 13 year old and ived rough for years until he was spotted by Thierry Mugler and became a successful male model before getting acting roles.
Steve Martin grew up as a poor black child in Mississippi.
Rami Malek talked in his Oscar acceptance speech about being an immigrant and living 4 in a single room.
Mila Kunis
Charlize Theron
Tiffany haddish. Her parents dies when she was a teenager leaving her to raise her 2 or 3 younger siblings. I love her. She cracks me up every time.
Misha Collins
Craig Charles – he grew up in Liverpool and his family wasn’t very well-off. He got his big break in the early 1980s thanks to his unconventional poetry, which allowed him to expand his horizons into acting – he got the lead role in Red Dwarf, and the rest is history.
Debbie Reynolds grew up poor in El Paso Texas
Wesley Snipes. He grew up in the Bronx on the streets. New Jack City was his big break.
Viola Davis’ memoir details her childhood in abject poverty — quite a resilient woman and so talented