ONTD Original: 10 Celebs With Unusual Family Backgrounds
1. Woody Harrelson's father was a contract killer
Charles Harrelson killed multiple people, including a judge who was about to preside over a court case with a drug dealer. When Woody discovered the truth about his father, he spent millions of dollars trying to get him a retrial. Charles died in prison in 2007.
2. Katy Perry's family is extremely conservative
There's conservative and there's conservative... with Perry's family definitively falling into the latter category. Katy was only allowed her to read the Bible, listen to the Sister Act soundtracks, and the word “devil” could not be spoken. She protested outside of Madonna and Marilyn Manson concerts.
Perry said: "My house was church on Sunday morning, church on Sunday night, church on Wednesday evening; you don’t celebrate Halloween; Jesus gives you your Christmas presents; we watch Bill O’Reilly on TV. That was my whole childhood and youth and early teens. I still have conditioned layers dropping off of me by the day.”
While her parents are Trump supporters these days, Katy Perry supported Hillary Clinton's run and is an advocate for Planned Parenthood.
3. Jackie Chan's mother was a drug dealer and married the cop who caught her
Jackie's father Charles Chan was a spy who worked against Japanese aggressors in the Second Sino-Japanese War before growing sick of government corruption and quitting to become a port inspector in Shanghai.
After her previous husband was killed by a Japanese bomb, Jackie's mother Lee-Lee was forced to abandon her daughters and make a living in Shanghai. She soon discovered she had a talent for gambling and opium smuggling, and before long she had earned the street nickname of "Big Sister". Her operation eventually ran afoul of port inspector Charles Chan, and in a surprising turn of events the two immediately hit it off.
where's the movie script tho???
4. Drew Barrymore was exposed to drugs early on
It's no secret how messed up Drew's childhood was. Her mother dragged her into nightclubs at a young age and as a result, Drew began to drink at the age of nine, smoke cigarettes and marijuana at the age of ten, and snort cocaine at the age of twelve. At thirteen, Drew had already undergone two stays in rehab. Fortunately - against all odds - she managed to turn her life around and has been sober for a long time.
5. Jim Carrey's family was homeless for a while
Jim dropped out of high school to help his father pay the bills, both working as a janitor and a security guard. His family still lost their home and were forced to live out of a van for a while. Jim started doing stand-up comedy in that time to earn some extra bucks.
6. 50 Cent had a rough childhood and started dealing drugs when he was 12
It's an understatement to say that 50 Cent's upbringing was uncommonly rough. His mother died in a fire when he was eight, and he grew up with his grandparents afterwards. At age twelve, Jackson began dealing narcotics when his grandparents thought he was in after-school programs and brought guns and drug money to school. In the tenth grade, he was caught by metal detectors. "I was embarrassed that I got arrested like that ... After I got arrested I stopped hiding it. I was telling my grandmother, I sell drugs."
7. Leighton Meester was born in a prison hospital
Leighton's upbringing couldn't have been more different from that of her most notable role, the rich and glamorous Blair Waldorf. Her mother served time for marijuana drug trafficking and gave birth to her in a prison hospital. At the same time, Leighton's father also served a sentence for drug-related crimes. Her grandparents took on the role as her caretakers until she turned eleven.
8. Kelsey Grammar lost most of his family in violent ways
Kelsey Grammar's life is one defined by extreme tragedy. When he was just 13, his father was murdered by a taxi driver. If that wasn’t awful enough, Grammar’s sister was violently murdered when he was 20. A few years following this, his two half-brothers were killed in a scuba diving accidents (one apparently attacked by a shark and the other dying while trying to help him). Later in life, Grammar lost a close friend in the 9/11 attacks. Another close friend was murdered by his wife.
9. Salma Hayek is the daughter of an oil company executive
Salma's childhood was an extraordinarily charmed one. She grew up in a wealthy family and was (by her own admission) spoiled at every turn. Her was father was an executive at an oil company. Her mother Diana was a former opera singer and philanthropist and opened a school to introduce children to music.
10. Dylan McDermott grew up in the criminal underworld
Dylan's life story reads like the script of a particularly gruesome gangster movie. He was born to the teenage girlfriend of gangster John Sponza (who was not his biological father). Sponza would go on to murder Dylan's mother five years later, a fact not discovered until long after Sponza himself discovered shot dead in the trunk of a car. Dylan spent much of his childhood with his grandmother in a terrible neighborhood, eventually tracking down his father in New York and helping him out in his seedy bar. Dylan was later adopted by his stepmother Eve Ensler, despite her being only a few years his senior and long since divorced from his father. Ensler got him into acting.
Sources: 1 2a 2b 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
What's the single most unusual fact about your family, ONTD?
Charles Harrelson killed multiple people, including a judge who was about to preside over a court case with a drug dealer. When Woody discovered the truth about his father, he spent millions of dollars trying to get him a retrial. Charles died in prison in 2007.
2. Katy Perry's family is extremely conservative
There's conservative and there's conservative... with Perry's family definitively falling into the latter category. Katy was only allowed her to read the Bible, listen to the Sister Act soundtracks, and the word “devil” could not be spoken. She protested outside of Madonna and Marilyn Manson concerts.
Perry said: "My house was church on Sunday morning, church on Sunday night, church on Wednesday evening; you don’t celebrate Halloween; Jesus gives you your Christmas presents; we watch Bill O’Reilly on TV. That was my whole childhood and youth and early teens. I still have conditioned layers dropping off of me by the day.”
While her parents are Trump supporters these days, Katy Perry supported Hillary Clinton's run and is an advocate for Planned Parenthood.
3. Jackie Chan's mother was a drug dealer and married the cop who caught her
Jackie's father Charles Chan was a spy who worked against Japanese aggressors in the Second Sino-Japanese War before growing sick of government corruption and quitting to become a port inspector in Shanghai.
After her previous husband was killed by a Japanese bomb, Jackie's mother Lee-Lee was forced to abandon her daughters and make a living in Shanghai. She soon discovered she had a talent for gambling and opium smuggling, and before long she had earned the street nickname of "Big Sister". Her operation eventually ran afoul of port inspector Charles Chan, and in a surprising turn of events the two immediately hit it off.
where's the movie script tho???
4. Drew Barrymore was exposed to drugs early on
It's no secret how messed up Drew's childhood was. Her mother dragged her into nightclubs at a young age and as a result, Drew began to drink at the age of nine, smoke cigarettes and marijuana at the age of ten, and snort cocaine at the age of twelve. At thirteen, Drew had already undergone two stays in rehab. Fortunately - against all odds - she managed to turn her life around and has been sober for a long time.
5. Jim Carrey's family was homeless for a while
Jim dropped out of high school to help his father pay the bills, both working as a janitor and a security guard. His family still lost their home and were forced to live out of a van for a while. Jim started doing stand-up comedy in that time to earn some extra bucks.
6. 50 Cent had a rough childhood and started dealing drugs when he was 12
It's an understatement to say that 50 Cent's upbringing was uncommonly rough. His mother died in a fire when he was eight, and he grew up with his grandparents afterwards. At age twelve, Jackson began dealing narcotics when his grandparents thought he was in after-school programs and brought guns and drug money to school. In the tenth grade, he was caught by metal detectors. "I was embarrassed that I got arrested like that ... After I got arrested I stopped hiding it. I was telling my grandmother, I sell drugs."
7. Leighton Meester was born in a prison hospital
Leighton's upbringing couldn't have been more different from that of her most notable role, the rich and glamorous Blair Waldorf. Her mother served time for marijuana drug trafficking and gave birth to her in a prison hospital. At the same time, Leighton's father also served a sentence for drug-related crimes. Her grandparents took on the role as her caretakers until she turned eleven.
8. Kelsey Grammar lost most of his family in violent ways
Kelsey Grammar's life is one defined by extreme tragedy. When he was just 13, his father was murdered by a taxi driver. If that wasn’t awful enough, Grammar’s sister was violently murdered when he was 20. A few years following this, his two half-brothers were killed in a scuba diving accidents (one apparently attacked by a shark and the other dying while trying to help him). Later in life, Grammar lost a close friend in the 9/11 attacks. Another close friend was murdered by his wife.
9. Salma Hayek is the daughter of an oil company executive
Salma's childhood was an extraordinarily charmed one. She grew up in a wealthy family and was (by her own admission) spoiled at every turn. Her was father was an executive at an oil company. Her mother Diana was a former opera singer and philanthropist and opened a school to introduce children to music.
10. Dylan McDermott grew up in the criminal underworld
Dylan's life story reads like the script of a particularly gruesome gangster movie. He was born to the teenage girlfriend of gangster John Sponza (who was not his biological father). Sponza would go on to murder Dylan's mother five years later, a fact not discovered until long after Sponza himself discovered shot dead in the trunk of a car. Dylan spent much of his childhood with his grandmother in a terrible neighborhood, eventually tracking down his father in New York and helping him out in his seedy bar. Dylan was later adopted by his stepmother Eve Ensler, despite her being only a few years his senior and long since divorced from his father. Ensler got him into acting.
Sources: 1 2a 2b 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
What's the single most unusual fact about your family, ONTD?