Famous People Who Used to be Homeless (26 pics)

Daniel Craig was sleeping on London park benches while struggling to be an actor.

When Halle Berry first moved to Chicago, she ran through her savings quickly and asked her mother for money. She was denied, and briefly lived in a homeless shelter.

In her early 20s, Carmen Electra’s boyfriend stole all of her savings leaving her stranded for months.

Suze Orman spent four months “California Dreaming” in her van because she could not afford housing.

Kelsey Grammer’s past is riddled with tragic incidents, including the murders of his father and sister and the deaths of his half-brothers in a scuba diving accident. He also spent some time on the streets, camping out in an alley behind his motorcycle.

When Drew Carey was 18, he embarked on a cross-country trip from Ohio to California to see his brother. He ended up homeless in Las Vegas for a time, selling his blood for extra cash. He slept in his car before eventually finding work as a bank teller and a waiter at Denny’s.

Djimon Hounsou, a West-Aftrican born model and actor spent many of his teen years camping out near a well-known Parisian monument.

Heather Mills claims to have run away from home at the age of 15 to join a “funfair” British carnival. Eventually, she took shelter in a cardboard box under Waterloo Station for four months.

Hillary Swank slept in a car and on an air mattress in a vacant house, along with her mother, while attempting to launch her acting career.

In 1997, Rose McGowan told Interview Magazine that she spent a year homeless in Oregon and Washington.

In 2011, Selma Blair admitted that when she was 21, she lived in a Salvation Army shelter in New York City.

Singer/songwriter Jewel spent some time in her late teens living in a van in San Diego.

Sylvester Stallone lived in the Port Authority bus station for three weeks before accepting a role for $200 in a 1970′s adult film.

Jim Carey lived in a van after quitting school at 15 to begin working to help support his family as a janitor.

Jim Morrison slept on rooftops, in cars, and under the pier at Venice Beach, California.

John Paul Dejoria, the now billionaire once collected cans to make ends meet.

Tyler Perry lived in his car before getting his break.

Kelly Clarkson’s move to LA from Texas turned brutal when her apartment complex burned down on the day of her arrival. Not knowing anyone in LA, she was homeless for some time before finding a new place.

Star Trek wasn’t lucrative enough to keep William Shatner under a roof. The actor struggled to keep up with child support payments and alimony, and was eventually forced to live out of the back of his truck as he too gigs on a summer theater circuit.

Not Lady Gaga, but when David Letterman made the jump from his native Indiana to Los Angeles, he lived rather modestly out of his 1973 Chevy pickup truck. He soon picked up work writing jokes for comedian Jimmie Walker.

Martin Sheen has said that he spent some nights sleeping on the subway during his first days trying to make it as an actor in New York.

Michael Oher, the once homeless teen was adopted by the Tuohy family, and went on to play for University of Mississippi and was then recruited by the Baltimore Ravens. Before Napster, Sean Parker was forced into vagrancy while a series of unsuccessful startups.

During her time as a homeless teen, rapper Lil’ Kim met her future mentor and love Biggie Smalls. She had been kicked out by her father before Biggie Smalls had taken her in.

Shania Twain’s family was so poor they sometimes went without food. In 1979, when Shania was 14, her mother drove her and her siblings to Toronto, where they lived in a shelter.

Sam Worthington enjoyed a thriving film career in Australia before he had an existential crisis at the age of 30. He sold everything he owned and moved into his car in an attempt to figure things out, and was invited to audition for Avatar shortly thereafter. The way he put it, “I had nothing to lose.”