The Oscars gala couldn't have started better for Kieran Culkin (42), who was the first of the night to receive his first Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for A Real Pain. In his acceptance speech, he revealed a private pact he had made with his wife, Chazz Charton, whom he has been married to since 2013: "My wife promised me a fourth child with the Oscar, and I have fulfilled it." They have two children, Kinsey (5) and Wilder (3).
The Culkins make up a large family in which Macaulay Culkin was the center of attention for years as one of the most successful child actors in history with the Home Alone franchise. The marriage of Kit Culkin and Patricia Brentrup had 7 children,Shane (49), Macaulay (44), Kieran, Quinn (40), Dakota, Christian (38), and Rory (35). There is also Jennifer, Kit's daughter from his first wife, Adeena Van Wagoner, who passed away in May 2000 due to an overdose. Except for the latter, all are nieces and nephews of actress Bonnie Bedelia (76), unforgettable as the wife of Bruce Willis (69) in the Die Hard franchise.
Shane is the most discreet of the family. He started as a child prodigy but did very little in film. His most notable performance is listed in the play Our Town at the Lincoln Center in New York.
At 10 years old, Macaulay became a star. For his role in Home Alone (1990), he earned $100,000, and with the huge box office success, his fee quadrupled. For Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, he pocketed $4.5 million, making him the highest-paid child actor in the industry. Besides his acting career, Macaulay gained popularity for his close friendship with Michael Jackson, whom he frequently visited at his Neverland Ranch.
Following scandals of child abuse, it was believed that the movie star had fallen under the spell of the king of pop. At 24, he was arrested for drug possession, sentenced to a year in prison, but the sentence was suspended. "I played with fire, I guess that's the best way to put it (...) I wouldn't be the person I am today if I hadn't used drugs at some point in my life. I had some enlightening experiences, but it's also damn stupid, you know?", he commented a few years ago. Gradually, his star faded, but he has built a happy family with actress Brenda Song, with whom he has two children. They live in Toluca Lake in the San Fernando Valley (California) in a property that once belonged to Kiefer Sutherland (58). His last major public appearance was when he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2023. There he reunited with his on-screen mother from Home Alone, Catherine O'Hara (70).
Since the series Succession premiered in 2018, Kieran Culkin has managed to reach the peak of his career. Aside from the Oscars, in the last seven years, he has received some of the industry's most prestigious awards such as the Golden Globe, BAFTA, Emmy, and the Screen Actors Guild Award, among others.
Quinn Culkin's acting career was short-lived. One of her most remembered roles is as Macaulay's sister in The Good Son (1993). In recent years, she has preferred to pursue other activities, but further details about her are unknown.
Unlike her siblings, Dakota chose to work behind the scenes. She worked as an art production assistant on the supernatural thriller Lost Soul (2009). Unfortunately, she passed away in 2008 at the age of 29 after being hit by a car while crossing a street in Marina del Rey (California). She couldn't fulfill her dream of working as a producer in New York.
Christian is another member of the family who at one point chose to step away from the spotlight. He dabbled in acting as a teenager in the movie It Runs in the Family (1994). Little is known about him as well.
Before some of the Culkin siblings reached stardom, they faced notable financial difficulties, for example, Macaulay used to crawl under theater seats to pick up coins that fell from people's pockets. At 10 years old, he earned $100,000 for starring in Home Alone, and following its success, he became the highest-paid child actor in the industry as the next year he earned a million dollars for My Girl and another $4.5 million for Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992). And that's when the problems began.
The Culkin's father began squandering the fortune, leading to legal battles for mismanagement and embezzlement. In his memoirs, Macaulay confessed that his father "mentally and physically abused" him, and in a letter addressed to his father published in the book, he said: "It didn't have to be this way. We could have remained poor. You taught me what it was to be afraid... You hurt a lot of people."
In a candid interview on Marc Maron's WTF podcast five years ago, he described how he used to travel "across the country locked up; I spent time locked up in a room with a man who didn't like me. He was a bad man, a person who was violent, both emotionally and physically. He was a bad guy, a bully. He was a very complicated person." This situation led him to emancipate himself before reaching the age of majority. Kieran confirmed this many years later to the Hollywood Reporter, stating that his father "was not a good person and probably not a good father either (...) I didn't have the same crazy, negative, horrible, and traumatic experiences as a child actor."
The matter reached the courts because it was ruining his most famous son. In 1995, the situation became so untenable that Patricia, the mother of the clan, won custody of all her children.