Stars come from the street: 5 celebrities whose life began with a low start

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Children who have been driven to the streets by life - homelessness or begging, unprofessional performances or theft - don't seem to have a chance to become not only outstanding, but even just decent people. But it so happens that someone reaches out to them, at last, a hand … And sometimes thereby lights a new star.

Charlie Chaplin

Childhood Charlie Chaplin for the time being was just chaotic. Mother - Irish or Irish Gypsy and father - a descendant of French emigrants (the surname was originally pronounced as "Chaplain") performed on the stage and from an early age encouraged their children to perform. Outside of her community, the mother had to look for a husband, because she gave birth out of wedlock - from a Jew who was no longer famous for anything. Charles's elder brother Sidney was a faithful companion of the genius of cinema all his life.

The father eventually started a new family, the mother went to the clinic with a mental disorder. After a series of knocks, Charles, still a teenager, was literally a homeless vagabond for a while. He took on any part-time job so as not to stretch his legs, and on cold nights he danced to keep warm - it was still impossible to sleep.

At the age of fourteen, he managed to get a role in the theater, but, as is the case with gypsy children, Charles suffered from dyslexia and could not overcome the text of his role. All his life all the texts were read to him aloud by his brother Sidney. Thanks to his brother, Charles was able to play this first theatrical role, which a few years later gave him the opportunity to become a film actor in distant America. Despite dyslexia, Chaplin was never stupid, he himself composed his own music for films, thought out the scripts, participated on an equal footing with more educated people in public disputes without causing laughter.

Edith Piaf

Edith never remained homeless at all - but her start was very low. Her father, an acrobat, went to the front of the First World War, and during his home leave he saw that his wife had abandoned him and the child, little Edith lay alone in her mother-in-law's crib for days on end, and she drank her with diluted wine so that the girl would be quieter. After picking up the child, Edith's father took her to another grandmother, his mother, the owner of a brothel. She found out that the girl, to all the problems, also lost her sight.

The loss of vision turned out to be temporary, and at one time Edith was sent to school. They were soon expelled from the school: the parents of the students were against the girl from the brothel. Edith never returned to school. Her father performed on the streets with acrobatic stunts, and she herself sang - also on the street. Sometimes without a father, when he was unable to perform. Later, she lured Simona, the daughter of her father from her second marriage, to perform on the streets: the atmosphere in the house of eleven-year-old Simona was terrible, her mother reproached her with a piece of bread.

In the end, it was on the street that the already grown-up Edith was noticed by the owner of the cabaret. So her official stage career began. Alas, childhood was not in vain: Piaf suffered from alcoholism and emotional problems all her life.

L. Panteleev

Everyone knows Panteleev (L. is not decrypted in principle in his pseudonym) from the adaptation of his book “Republic of ShKID”. He himself appears there - after all, this is a book about his childhood. The real name of the writer is Aleksey Eremeev, and the nickname "Lyonka Panteleev", from which the pseudonym grew, was given to him by other street children in honor of the famous, very arrogant raider.

Alexei's family was from the “former”: his father was a Cossack cornet, his mother was a merchant's daughter. During the First World War, the father left the family, and after the revolution, the mother decided to leave with the children to Petrograd. There Lyonka and his brother ended up on a farm in an area where they lived hungry and hard. In the end, Lyonka fled and, as a result, was pushed around a lot, living either by theft or by odd jobs. Lyonka stubbornly tried to return to normal life, but each time he found himself behind the sidelines and returned to stealing.

Finally, he managed to return to his mother, who was already on her feet and could provide for him. All the money that his mother gave him, he spent on books and because of a book passion he dropped out of school. It got to the point that, in order to buy a new book, he began to steal light bulbs - then, at last, he was sent to the very same SHKID, to correct himself. He was thirteen or fourteen years old.

Later Lyonka became a children's writer. His story "Honest Word" in the Soviet Union took place at school and even filmed a cartoon based on it. Panteleev's co-author on the book about ShKID was repressed in 1938.

Carmen Amaya

The daughter of a gypsy guitarist nicknamed El Chino, Carmen performed with her father from the age of six to bring money to the family. When she wanted to raise money for petty expenses, she did not wait for the evening in a restaurant, but went out into the street and began to dance without musical accompaniment. Fortunately, she never spent the night away from home and in her childhood thought about what she would eat in the evening, but she was saturated with the street culture of the Gypsy area.

The plastic girl instantly became a legend in Barcelona, and at the age of ten she already went on her first tour - to Madrid. Even congenital kidney disease did not bother her; her fiery, purely street style of dance was very different from the decorative style that was in vogue in café-chantans, and for a long time determined the image of female flamenco. Due to kidney disease, she died already at fifty, and she is remembered only as the queen of flamenco. An interesting detail: being a gypsy, she was at the same time an ardent Catalan patriot, almost a nationalist.

Tony Gatlif

The award-winning director was born into an impoverished family in Algeria at a bad time. When he was twelve, an uprising against French rule began in the country, resulting in the massacre of the French. Taking this opportunity to change his life, young Michel Dachmani - that was the name of the future director at that time - climbed on a steamer with refugees and sailed to France.

In France, a half-Arab, half-gypsy of twelve years old turned out to be of no use to anyone. He roamed the streets, cleaned his shoes and stole. A little later I managed to get a job as a sailor and began to drink too much. His fate was changed by a conversation with his beloved film actor - pure coincidence. After that, Dahmani found the strength and the opportunity to enter the university. He studied there on the same course with Gerard Depardieu, whose childhood was even worse: using the fact that he looks older, he was engaged in prostitution from the age of ten in order to get some money. The main clients of Depardieu were truckers. A difficult childhood brought the two future movie stars closer together.

Especially many former street kids were among the Hollywood movie stars. From poverty to Hollywood: 11 celebrities who were homeless.