Some of the world's most recognizable celebrities were actually lacking a household before becoming
household names.
From comedians and Oscar-winners to music stars, these rich and famous people were once
homeless.
Long before Chris Pratt was helping save the universe as Star-Lord in Guardians of the
Galaxy and making audiences chuckle as Andy on Parks and Recreation, he was just another
young, aspiring actor, except, unlike many of his peers, he wasn't banging on doors in
Studio City.
Nope, Pratt was living out of a van in Hawaii.
"I am 35 years old, I am divorced, and I live in a van down by the river."
How did he wind up there?
"I lived in a van in Maui for about a year when I was 19."
"That van.
Right there."
"Is that the van?"
After studying acting at a local community college in his native Washington for half
a semester, the future velociraptor handler found himself tempted by island life.
Pratt told Entertainment Weekly:
While Pratt lived out of that van, he also waited tables at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. in
Maui.
"Where were you waiting tables?"
"Uh, the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company."
"Oh my gosh!"
"Anyone?
Anyone know Bubba Gump?"
At 19, he reportedly waited on actress and director Rae Dawn Chong, who then cast Pratt
in the 2000 horror-comedy Cursed Part 3.
That movie didn't catapult him to international super-stardom, but it did give him a ticket
straight off the island and out of that van.
"That script is for Cursed Part 3, the movie that I got paid $700 to do, that —"
"$700?"
"I know!
I was like, 'Score!'"
For Alaskan-born singer-songwriter Jewel, the road to fame was a rocky one, indeed.
The Pieces of You songstress started performing early, singing and yodeling at local venues
with her father, but the family faced housing uncertainty and the star struggled growing
up as a result.
"So, I moved out at fifteen, knowing that I didn't receive good nurture, and if I didn't
receive good nurture, could I get to know my real nature?"
She admitted at an event for the Inspiring Children Foundation:
Jewel left home at age 15 to pursue her music dreams and landed her big break at 18 after
signing with Atlantic Records, but she could have used a helping hand during the years
in between.
Jewel told The Hollywood Reporter that she wound up on the streets after losing a job.
The singer claims her boss at the time fired her for refusing to have sex with him.
Unable to pay her rent, she lived out of her car until her car was stolen.
She said:
"I love a comeback story.
I love people who've overcome, succeeded against the odds, who've fallen and got back up.
You did it, I'll tell you that."
Steve Harvey has a knack for making audiences chuckle, but the hardship he faced in the
early days of his career was no laughing matter.
In an interview with People magazine, Harvey revealed that he took some "Little Big Shots"
of his own and quit his job as an insurance salesman after winning $50 for his first performance
as a stand-up comedian.
His decision to quit his job reportedly kick-started a family feud with his wife and twin daughters.
"I was homeless from thirty to thirty-three.
I lived in a 1976 Tempo.
I lived in a car for three years, man."
Harvey slept in his Ford Tempo and survived on mostly bologna sandwiches, using a cooler
in place of a refrigerator, washing in rest stop bathrooms, and sometimes stealing fuel
from gas stations, People reported.
He told the magazine:
For Carmen Electra, starting out in Hollywood was a bit like watching a scary movie.
The Ohio-born model, actress, and dancer got her first taste of fame collaborating with
Prince on a professional, and personal, level.
Unfortunately, after ending her involvement with "the Purple One," Electra hit hard times.
In 2009, the former Playboy model told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that she was homeless
for a couple years in Hollywood after her then-boyfriend stole $5,000 from her, effectively
cleaning out her savings.
She described the experience:
Her situation was dire, but Electra's luck eventually turned around thanks to help from
choreographer Jamie King, whom she'd met while dancing for Prince.
King helped her find a publicist, and in 1997, Electra was cast as a series regular on Baywatch
and started hosting MTV's Singled Out.
Those gigs launched her career to the next level.
As for her experiences being homeless?
She told the paper:
Canadian-born funnyman Jim Carrey is best known for his over-the-top, slapstick performances
in films such as Ace Ventura: Pet Detective and Dumb & Dumber, but underneath that iconic
sense of humor is a hardscrabble history.
When he was just 14 years old, his father Percy, an accountant and, according to Carrey,
a talented sax and clarinet player, got laid off.
"It wore him down, you know?
It wore him down.
And he got a little bit bitter, especially when he lost his job when he was 51."
According to Rolling Stone, Carrey's dad snagged a job working at a Titan Wheels factory.
Meanwhile, Jim and his siblings would lend a hand as janitors and security men after
school.
They allegedly lived, quote, "feudal style in a big stone house next to the factory."
The experience reportedly fueled major tension throughout the family, and eventually Percy
quit that job and resettled the brood in a VW camper van.
"But when I was about 14 or 15, my father lost his job and I actually became homeless
for quite some time.
Of course, I grew up in Canada so I thought we'd just gone camping."
That sounds like an experience some might want to wipe clear from their memories, but
the Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind star told Rolling Stone that life in that
van was great, admitting:
"I don't know why I ever leave this place.
I've got all the company I need right here."
Jennifer Lopez danced her way onto the small screen as a Fly Girl for the '90s sketch comedy
show In Living Color …
"First of all, we have a new Fly Girl.
Coming all the way from Bronx, New York, Miss Jennifer Lopez."
… but the Bronx native who became an international film, television, and music sensation had
beginnings that were less than spectacular.
In fact, Jenny from the Block once had to hit the block, literally.
Lopez told W magazine:
Lopez, who had studied dance at the Ballet Hispanico and at the Kips Bay Boys & Girls
Club, was just 18 at the time.
Fortunately, Lopez's gamble paid off.
She booked a dancing job in Europe, and within a year, she was reportedly living in Los Angeles,
moving and shaking.
In the 1976 sports drama Rocky, actor/writer/director Sylvester Stallone captures the rags-to-riches
story of boxer Rocky Balboa, a working class Italian-American from Philadelphia who manages
against all odds to get a shot at the world heavyweight championship.
The film has become the stuff of legend, earning $225 million in global box office receipts,
but what some may not know is that Stallone's own success story is pretty legendary in its
own right.
The man who portrayed Rocky throughout the film franchise endured hard times before he
sold the script for that first boxing film.
According to The New York Times, Stallone was, quote, "farmed out to foster homes while
[his] parents worked" and, quote, "was a juvenile delinquent who attended 12 schools by the
time he was 15, and was kicked out of most of them."
He was so destitute that he even supposedly sold his dog for $50 to a guy known as Little
Jimmy.
Stallone told ShortList:
It's worth noting that "Little Jimmy" also got a part in that first Rocky flick.
Wonder if that was part of the dog deal!
Halle Berry became the first actress of African-American descent to win the Academy Award for best
actress for her performance in the 2001 film Monster's Ball.
But long before she captivated audiences and critics alike with her riveting turn as a
grieving widow and mother, Berry faced hard times of her own.
At 21, she ended up in a homeless shelter as she was struggling to break into show business.
Berry, who was first runner up in the Miss USA Pageant in 1986, told People that she
moved to New York City with money she earned from modeling.
Unfortunately, that dough didn't last long in the Big Apple.
"I mean three months later I was out of my cash and I called my mother and I asked her
to send me some money, and she said no."
According to Berry, her mother's refusal to lend her a hand led to a year of estrangement
in which they didn't speak.
The actress now believes that her mother had her best interests at heart, claiming that
those hard times strengthened her resolve to succeed.
She said of the experience…
"It took me right back to my high school years.
'You say I can't, watch me.
I'm going to figure this out.'"
Audiences know Hilary Swank for her two Academy Award-winning roles.
She portrayed transgender murder victim Brandon Teena in the 1999 biographical film Boys Don't
Cry and impoverished prizefighter Maggie Fitzgerald in Clint Eastwood's 2004 drama Million Dollar
Baby.
Less known is that this A-list actress faced homelessness when she first moved to Los Angeles.
According to CBS News, Swank dropped out of high school, and she and her mother left their
trailer park in Washington and headed to Hollywood.
But they didn't have a place to land in California.
They reportedly lived out of a car and squatted in a vacant property.
Swank explained:
Even after winning her first Oscar, Swank still had trouble making ends meet.
She'd reportedly made only $3,000 for Boys Don't Cry.
She told CBS News:
"So, I had an Academy Award, and I didn't have health insurance.
The life of an actor."
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