Before They Were A-List Celebrities, These 19 Actors Were Houseless At Some Point In Their Lives
Warning: This post contains brief mentions of abuse.
Celebrities might appear to have it all, but several stars had to overcome difficult circumstances before becoming successful in Hollywood.
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Here are 19 actors who have publicly stated that they were unhoused at some point prior to making it big.
1.Carmen Electra
By the time she was in her early twenties, Carmen had earned some impressive entertainment gigs, including touring with Prince and dancing in his "Erotic City" club shows. The Baywatch star was left with only $5,000 to her name, however, following paying off the debt she owed from making her first album. After her then-boyfriend stole this money from her, Carmen ended up unhoused.
"You know, I had a couple of years of being homeless in Hollywood," Carmen told the Las Vegas Review-Journal in 2009. "A lot of people don’t even know this."
Carmen nearly returned to her hometown of Cincinnati but instead decided to contact Jamie King, who had choreographed the "Erotic City" shows. Jamie then helped facilitate Carmen getting a manager. Soon, the actor, singer, and dancer began trying out for parts and securing roles.
"I started going to auditions, and they would [drive] me, because I didn’t have a car," Carmen said.
2.Jim Carrey
During the actor's teen years, Jim and his family became houseless as a result of his father being let go from his job. Jim, two of his siblings, and his parents then lived in a tent at a Lincoln, Ontario park for eight months. They next worked as janitors and security guards in return for housing across the street from a tire and wheels factory where Jim's father had found an accounting job. The Dumb and Dumber star opened up about this time in his life for a past comedy performance.
"A lot of people don't know this, but when I was about 14 or 15, my father lost his job. And I actually became homeless for quite some time," Jim said. "Of course, I grew up in Canada, so I thought we had just gone camping."
In a 2003 interview on The Howard Stern Show, Jim said he "ended up ... trying to be the adult and trying to take care of everything" due to his family's circumstances.
3.Tiffany Haddish
The performer revealed during a 2020 Vlad TV interview that she was houseless after being emancipated from the foster care system.
Additionally, in a 2019 Sunday Today with Willie Geist interview, Tiffany revisited memories of living out of a car before her career took off. The Girls Trip star would show up to comedy events after everyone else had already arrived so others wouldn't be able to look at the car, which was filled with her possessions.
"I would always pull up maybe 5 or 10 minutes late so nobody could see my car because I had all my clothes, everything, suitcases all in the car," Tiffany said.
When she got to a comedy venue one day, fellow comedian and actor Kevin Hart was also arriving and took notice of Tiffany's living situation. He then stepped in to help, giving Tiffany $300 and encouraging her to go after her aspirations.
"[Kevin] was like, 'Well you can't be sleeping in the car on the streets,'" Tiffany said. "He gave me 300 bucks [and] said, 'Find yourself a place for the week. And then write out a list of goals of what you want to do, and start accomplishing those goals.' And then I started attacking those goals."
4.Sylvester Stallone
Sylvester earned $39 a week while living in New York before his Rocky script was picked up and he was given a $1 million budget to make the Oscar-winning film. The actor was forced to sell his beloved dog, Butkus, to get $40 for food, and he spent the night outside at locations like the Port Authority Bus Terminal for a time. A coat of his helped Sylvester stay warm on these occasions, he stated in 2015.
"I had this one coat, and that coat literally was my house," Sylvester said in an interview for Creed with journalist Kjersti Flaa. "And I would sleep at the bus station, Port Authority bus station, or outside the post office in the dead of winter. And boy, it was cold. So that coat saved my life."
5.Jennifer Lopez
When Jennifer told her mother that she wanted to pursue dancing in place of attending college, the two argued over the subject. Jennifer then left home and began spending the night at the dance studio where she trained. She eventually booked a professional dancing gig in Europe, and her career quickly gained speed from that point on.
"I started sleeping on the sofa in the dance studio. I was homeless, but I told [my mom], ‘This is what I have to do,'" Jennifer said to W magazine in 2013. "A few months later, I landed a job dancing in Europe. When I got back, I booked In Living Color. I became a Fly Girl and moved to LA. It all happened in a year."
6.Chris Pratt
In the years following his high school graduation, Chris reconnected with a former classmate and friend who encouraged the Jurassic World star to live with him on the beach in Maui.
" ... He said, 'Look man, I’m going to buy you a one-way ticket to Maui. I’ve been living there since high school, it’s awesome — we sleep on the beach, it’s super fun!'" Chris said on a SmartLess podcast episode in June 2022.
Chris took his friend up on the offer, went to Maui, and started working at Bubba Gump Shrimp Company while residing on the beach. He explained that he and his friends who stayed in this environment for one year were not living without their basic needs being met, however.
"People say 'homeless,' ... living in L.A., there's homeless people everywhere. It's destitute people," Chris said. "We were just a bunch of kids living, camping on the beach for a year."
With only $60 to his name, Chris later left Maui when he was offered a movie role, for which he was flown to Los Angeles and paid $700.
7.Eartha Kitt
When the late legendary actor and singer moved to New York in the '40s, she lived with an abusive relative whom she was told was her aunt, although later she believed it was likely her biological mother. Eartha often ran away due to the abuse, seeking out roofs or subways as places to stay at night.
"I've eaten out of garbage cans, and I've slept on rooftops," Eartha said to The New York Times in 1993.
"That's when I knew homelessness," she added. "Sometimes I would be gone weeks, other times months."
8.Drew Carey
The actor, comedian, and host gave a speech at the Friends of Youth organization's Celebration of Youth Luncheon in 2010. Drew revealed that when he was in his late teens, he made a cross-country trip from Ohio to California to visit his brother. Along the way, he stopped in Las Vegas, where he was unhoused while earning $40 in exchange for selling plasma and struggling to afford boxed macaroni and cheese. The Drew Carey Show star said that he "wouldn’t have had this success if [he] didn’t struggle" amid his journey.
"I have been in a lot of desperate situations," Drew said to the crowd, the Kirkland Reporter wrote. "But it is nothing compared to what some of these kids go through. Just thank God that you or your kids don’t have to go through it."
9.Hilary Swank
Hilary and her mother moved to Los Angeles when Hilary was 15 so she could go after her acting dream. For a couple of weeks, they resided in their car before spending nights at a friend's home that was for sale at the time.
"We had a friend who was selling their house," Hilary said on 60 Minutes in 2005. "And so they said, 'You know, there's no furniture, but you can stay there at night. And then, during the day, you have to leave so we can try and sell it.' So we got air mattresses. Blew the air mattresses up. Slept on the air mattresses. And left in the morning."
The two were able to afford housing in the months following as Hilary began booking Hollywood roles. Eventually, she scored the lead in Boys Don't Cry, which earned Hilary her first Oscar in the category of Best Actress.
10.Steve Harvey
The actor and comedian persevered through difficult times as an up-and-coming performer in the late '80s when he was houseless for three years. Steve had separated from his first wife and was offering most of his income to his two young kids as he traveled for work. Then, after a couple of comedy jobs he had lined up didn't pan out, he had no funds saved and "nowhere to go."
"One or two gigs fell through, and suddenly I was homeless," Steve said to People in 2013.
The Family Feud host lived in his1976 Ford Tempo for these years until he booked a spot on Showtime at the Apollo. This gig was a game changer and kick-started his prolific entertainment career.
"It was so disheartening," Steve said of his time being unsheltered. "A week is really the maximum you can do. This was three years! It was rock bottom. But even in my darkest days, I had faith it would turn around."
11.Rose McGowan
Rose's parents were heavily involved in an Italian sector of the Children of God cult until they decided to leave for the United States when she was 10. By the age of 15, Rose became emancipated and was taken in by a friend who let her stay in a room in their home.
"By then I was living in the back room of a friend’s house in Hollywood and had about 25 cents to my name, so I represented myself in court," Rose said to The Guardian in 2019. "I needed to have control of my own life."
The Charmed star told the Big Issue that same year that she was "on [her] own, ... very lonely," and "was entirely focused on just surviving" while she was unhoused. With nowhere else to turn, Rose felt "forced" to live with a man who was 20 years older than her, the news outlet wrote. She subsequently made enough money to move into an apartment through her early acting roles.
"Being homeless again was always the biggest terror for me," Rose said. "So I took my first acting job."
12.William Shatner
In 2020, William referenced his experience of being houseless via Twitter. After he was cast in Star Trek and played Captain Kirk for three seasons, William "was homeless & divorced," he wrote.
The iconic actor previously revealed that he lived in a pickup truck during this time and "was totally broke" as he performed at East Coast theaters.
"It was the early 1970s, and I was recently divorced," William said, per Metro. "I had three kids and was totally broke. I managed to find work back east on the straw-hat circuit – summer stock – but couldn’t afford hotels, so I lived out of the back of my truck, under a hard shell."
13.Tyler Perry
Years before he would gain fame for playing Madea in blockbuster films and establishing his own production company, Tyler was unhoused and lived in a Geo Metro car for three months. This took place after he'd used all his savings to fund a play he'd written, I Know I've Been Changed, which "didn't work" upon his first several attempts, Tyler told AARP in 2022. The production later saw success and toured from 1998 to 2000, and by 2005 Tyler had made his first film, Diary of a Mad Black Woman.
In 2019, Tyler noticed that a sign on an Atlanta highway had been altered, and it is now labeled with the title "Tyler Perry Studios." This prompted the performer to express his gratitude for the full-circle moment.
"My eyes filled with water knowing what God has allowed to happen in my life," Tyler wrote on Facebook. "Atlanta has truly been the promised land for me. I came here with nothing, lived off Sylvan Road, ended up homeless and starving, but I was always praying and believing."
"I was always keeping the faith, knowing that if I worked hard, did my absolute best, kept my integrity, honored every blessing, and remained grateful through it all that everything would work out. And it has, thank God," he added.
14.Sidney Poitier
With only $3 to his name, Sidney moved to New York on his own at 15 years old to become an actor. The late Oscar winner worked as a dishwasher and slept in bathroom stalls during his early days in New York, he stated in a 1985 interview with ABC News.
"I went to sleep in the toilet. [It] used to be pay toilets," Sidney said. "And it cost a nickel. So I put a nickel in the thing, ... and I got in, I put down the seat. I sat there, put my feet up against the door, and I would sleep, uncomfortably, needless to say."
15.Halle Berry
Early on in her career, Halle moved to New York after she'd earned some money from a modeling job. This sum ran out within three months, however, forcing her to call her mother and ask for financial assistance. When her mother refused to send her money, Halle lived in a homeless shelter for a time.
"That's probably one of the best things [my mother] did for me because it taught me," Halle told People in 2017. "[My mother] said, 'If you want to be there, then you be there. You work it out.' And I had to work it out."
In spite of this setback, the Moonfall star never contemplated throwing in the towel.
"Giving up was never an option," Halle said. "It took me right back to my high school years. You say I can't? Watch me. I'm going to figure this out. And shelter life was part of figuring it out for a minute."
16.Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson
As of February 2022, Dwayne was named the highest-paid actor in the world by Forbes. As a child, however, he and his family members experienced poverty, which resulted in them being evicted from their home. When the Jumanji star was given the Inspiration Award at the 2018 LA Family Housing Awards ceremony, he opened up about "know[ing] what it’s like not to have the security of a home" during his speech.
"What makes this award special to me — not only because it's being presented to me by this beautiful family — is that when I was 14 we were evicted, living in Honolulu, Hawaii," Dwayne said, per The Hollywood Reporter. "We were evicted and forced off the island, and we didn’t have a place to live. I wound up moving to a little motel outside Nashville, Tennessee. It’s a crazy story for another time."
"That’s why this award is really special to me, I know what it’s like not to have the security of a home, and to see your family, my mom crying because of an eviction notice," Dwayne added.
17.Selma Blair
During a 2011 gathering celebrating the Versace for H&M collection, Selma revealed that she "was basically homeless" for a period in her early 20s. The actor set aside her money so she could purchase a Versace dress that she admired rather than saving up for rent, she explained.
"My first Versace piece was a red velvet overall minidress," Selma said, per E!. "I was basically homeless, living in the Salvation Army in New York City. I was 21 years old, and I saved all up my money [for the designer dress] that I should have saved up for rent at the Salvation Army."
18.Sam Worthington
After establishing himself as a respected actor in Australia, Sam decided to move to the United States in the late '00s and audition for Hollywood parts. Prior to getting his breakthrough role as Jake Sully in Avatar, he resided in his car and crashed at his friends' homes.
"I lived in my car, on mates’ couches, I stayed at a girl’s mom’s house," Sam said to the Toronto Star in 2011.
In a 2010 interview with the Times of India, Sam stated that persisting through these hardships prepared him for whatever might come his way in life.
"The journey has just started; I have to go far away in my voyage and have seen a lot of ups and down so far and I am ready for anything, anything that could happen — irrespective of good or bad," Sam said. "I can still live in my car, and I am not at all trapped with stardom."
19.Kelsey Grammer
Kelsey attended The Juilliard School on a scholarship while simultaneously carrying out two jobs. In spite of working long hours outside of class, he still possessed limited funds and slept in the park at night over the course of a few weeks.
"Well that was because it was still warm enough, I could actually sleep there ... for only a few weeks, really," Kelsey told journalist Graham Bensinger in 2019. "But I could sneak behind a certain bush and cover myself with the newspaper, and I was fine. And I showered over at Juilliard."
"Whatever it was, there was always something that kept me safe," the Frasier star added.
