SOMETIMES THE RICH and famous have inspiring rags-to-riches stories. Other times, these fallen stars lose their way and end up lost, desperate, or homeless.
Blame it on drug abuse, chronic illness, poor financial planning, or just bad luck.
Here are some of the stories of stars who had nowhere else to turn but shelters and the streets.
Kidder, the actress who played Superman’s love interest Lois Lane in the Christopher Reeve-era films, was once a Hollywood star who dated “bigs like Richard Pryor and Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau”.
According to Daily Finance, Kidder battled schizophrenia and manic depression and even refused treatment at one time. “[P]lagued by paranoia, [Kidder] slept in cardboard boxes and backyards around Los Angeles in 1996. With her front teeth missing and her hair hacked off, a disheveled Kidder announced to the Glendale, Calif., woman whose yard she occupied, ‘I may not look like it, but I’m Margot Kidder“.
Today, the actress lives in Montana and is a grandmother.
Margot Kidder with Christopher Reeves (Image Credit: Reed Saxon/AP Photo)
In the late-1970s through the mid-1980s, Williams was captain of the New York Knicks and played for the Boston Celtics’ 1985 NBA Finals team.
But in 2010, The Boston Globe reported that he was sleeping in the backseat of his 1992 Buick in Pompano Beach, Florida. In an interview with Bob Hohler at the Globe, Williams said that the NBA should take better care of their retired players, as he is only one of many former stars in need of assistance.
“When I played the game, they always talked about loyalty to the team,’’ Williams said. “Well, where’s the loyalty and compassion for ex-players who are hurting? We opened the door for these guys whose salaries are through the roof.’’
Robert Cletus “Bobby” Driscoll became famous as a child through movies such as “So Dear To My Heart,” “The Window” and “Treasure Island.”
In 1950, he won an Academy Award for his role in “The Window”, but by 1956, he was arrested for marijuana and was reportedly using harder drugs. In 1968, his body was found by two children in an abandoned building in downtown New York.
He “died penniless from drug-hardened arteries at age 31“.
Bobby Driscoll in 1946 with a black lamb to be used in the filming of So Dear To My Heart (Image Credit: AP Photo)
In 2010, the New York Post reported that the former boxing champion was sleeping in a Howard Johnson Express in the Bronx.
In the ’80s and ’90s, Barkley made around $5 million, but eventually lost those earnings. Barkley was then forced to move in with his niece living in the Patterson Houses, a public housing development in the Bronx. When she evicted him, the former boxing star slept in subway cars before ending up at Howard Johnson.
In the ’90s, Lyonne was all over the screen in “But I’m a Cheerleader,” “Slums of Beverly Hills,” and “American Pie”.
But her promising career was “derailed” after a series of encounters with the law. Sara Vilkomerson at Inside Movies reports:
“In 2001, [Lyonne] was arrested for a DUI [and] in 2004, she was charged with mischief, trespass, and harassment of a neighbour (and the neighbour’s dog).” These incidents were followed by a 2005 hospitalisation “for a variety of ailments, including a collapsed lung and hepatitis C.”
She was eventually evicted from a friend’s townhouse, and ended up living on the streets.
Since then, Lyonne has tried to revitalise her acting career. She currently plays inmate Nicky Nichols on Netflix’s “Orange is the New Black”. Shortly before that, Lyonne played an alleged rape victim in an episode of “Law and Order: SVU”, and appeared in the off-Broadway play “Tigers Be Still”.
Natasha Lyonne at the Annual Gotham Awards in 2001 (Image Credit: Rich Lee/Press Assoication)
The ’70s smash hit “The Partridge Family” made Bonaduce a household name. But the actor later became known for his stints in rehab, which eventually led to his experience with homelessness as an adult.
According to Daily Finance, “Bonaduce lived in his car behind Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood … [and] said on a radio show he would greet autograph seekers there”.
He is now a drive-time DJ on WSYP in Philadelphia and has recently remarried, reports AOL TV.
Faithfull was homeless for a period of time during the mid-’70s, although got back on the straight and narrow, released a solo album and even set out on an acting career.
She penned ‘Sister Morphine’ when dating Jagger in the late ’60s, and was present when police raided Keith Richard’s mansion.
By the 1990s, she had left that world behind her and was living in a little cottage in Ireland.
Butler found her rise to stardom in the ABC sitcom “Grace Under Fire,” but during the show, she battled a recurring drug addiction and spent time in rehab.
After Grace was cancelled in 1998, Butler moved out of L.A. and onto a farm in Georgia where she lived with 15 pets. When the money ran out, she turned to a homeless shelter for cover.
A 2011 Hollywood Reporter article said that Butler was attempting to make a career comeback, and is working on “developing a reality TV show about her self-professed psychic abilities and performing at the Downtown Comedy Club in Los Angeles”.
Moran became a household name at the age of 14 through her role as Joanie Cunningham on ABC’s “Happy Days.”
In 2012, Virginia Skeels at the Daily Mail reported that the 52-year-old was “reportedly being kicked out of the trailer she shared with her husband Steve Fleischmann”.
In the 1970s and ’80s, Lockridge was a world boxing champion, but lost it all when he started losing his winning stride.
According to an interview with Todd Schmerler at The Star-Ledger, Lockridge admitted to having a 20-year drug addiction and said that after each fight, he would party for “two weekends, snorting cocaine and drinking whatever was around”.
He’s been living on the streets of Camden, N.J. for 10 years. Schmerler writes:
“Lockridge has no money. His body tilts to one side when he walks, the result of a stroke he says he suffered three years ago. His scraggly, graying beard makes him seem far older than 50.”
Rocky Lockridge after winning a fight in 1987 (Image Credit: Jeff Robbins/Press Association)
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