Macaulay Culkin

Macaulay Culkin
Culkin in 1991
Born	Macaulay Carson Culkin August 26, 1980 (1980-08-26) (age 30) New York City, New York, United States[1]
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1985–1994, 2003–present
Spouse	Rachel Miner (1998–2000) (divorced)
Partner	Mila Kunis (2002–present)

Macaulay Carson Culkin (born August 26, 1980) is an American actor. He is best known for portraying Kevin McCallister in Home Alone and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York. At the height of his fame he was regarded as the most successful child actor since Shirley Temple.^[2] He was also considered one of the late entertainer Michael Jackson's best friends.^[3]

He was ranked #2 in VH1 and E!'s respective lists, the "100 Greatest Kid-Stars" and "50 Greatest Child Stars".^[4]

Early life

Culkin was born and raised on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, New York City, the son of Patricia Brentrup and Kit Culkin, a former stage actor known for his productions on Broadway.^[5] Culkin was raised Roman Catholic;^[6] he attended a Catholic school (St. Joseph's School of Yorkville) for 5 years^[7] before moving on to Professional Children's School. Culkin also studied ballet at the School of American Ballet.^[8] Culkin was the couple's third of seven children; he has four brothers: Shane (born 1976), Kieran (born 1982), Christian (born 1987) and Rory (born 1989), and two sisters: Dakota (1978 – 2008)^[9] and Quinn (born 1984). Culkin is the nephew of actress Bonnie Bedelia, who is his father's sister. During Culkin's early childhood, the family lived in a small apartment; his mother was a telephone operator and his father worked as a sacristan at a local Catholic church.^[10]

Career

Culkin began acting at the age of four. Early roles saw him appearing in a stage production of Bach Babies at the New York Philharmonic. He continued appearing in roles on stage, television, and in films throughout the 1980s. Notable parts in this period included an episode of the popular action series The Equalizer in which he played the victim of a kidnapping, and also in the TV movie The Midnight Hour. He also appeared in the movie Uncle Buck in which his character probed John Candy's title character over his background on the basis that "I'm a kid - that's my job".^[11]

Culkin rose to international fame with his lead role as Kevin McCallister in the blockbuster film Home Alone (1990), where he was reunited with Uncle Buck's writer and director John Hughes.^[12] He reprised the role of Kevin in the 1992 sequel Home Alone 2: Lost in New York. Culkin also starred in a Saturday morning cartoon entitled Wish Kid, and hosted Saturday Night Live in late 1991.

Despite the huge success of Home Alone, Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, and My Girl, other films Culkin acted in, such as The Good Son, which co-starred Elijah Wood and Culkin's sister, Quinn Culkin (and featured a photo cameo of Culkin's youngest sibling, Rory, as Culkin's character's deceased infant brother), only did reasonably well, and he was nominated for MTV Movie Award in the category for Best Villain for his performance in the film. Getting Even with Dad, Richie Rich and The Pagemaster, all released in 1994, were all only mildly successful at the box office. He also appeared in a filmed version of The Nutcracker as the title role in 1993, which was staged from the 1954 George Balanchine New York City Ballet version of the ballet. He appeared in the 1998 music video for the song "Sunday" by the rock band Sonic Youth.

After several years of inactivity, Culkin returned to acting in 2000 with a role in the play Madame Melville, which was staged in London's West End.^[13] In the spring of 2003, he made a guest appearance on the NBC sitcom Will & Grace.^[14] His role as Karen Walker's deceptively immature divorce lawyer won him favorable reviews. Culkin headed back into motion pictures in 2003 with Party Monster, in which he played a role very different from those he was known for, that of party promoter Michael Alig, a drug user and murderer. He quickly followed that with a supporting part in Saved!, as a cynical wheelchair-bound, non-Christian student in a conservative Christian high school. Though Saved! only had modest success at the box office, Culkin received positive reviews for his role in the film and its implications for a career as an adult actor.^[15][16][17]

Culkin began doing voice-over work, with his appearances on Seth Green's Robot Chicken. In 2006, he published an experimental, semi-autobiographical novel, Junior, which featured details into Culkin's stardom and his shaky relationship with his father. Culkin starred in Sex and Breakfast, a dark comedy written and directed by Miles Brandman.^[18] Alexis Dziena, Kuno Becker and Eliza Dushku also star in this story of a couple whose therapist recommends group sex to them. Shooting for the film, Culkin's first since Saved!, took place in September 2006. The film opened in Los Angeles on November 30, 2007, and was released on DVD on January 22, 2008 by First Look Pictures. Culkin's next project was a role in the thirteen-episode NBC television series Kings as Andrew Cross.^[19]

In 2009, Culkin appeared in a UK-based commercial for Aviva Insurance (formerly Norwich Union) to help promote their company's rebranding. Culkin stared into the camera citing the phrase "Remember me".

On August 17, 2009, Culkin made a brief cameo appearance on WWE Raw at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis, Missouri, following a "falls count anywhere" match between Hornswoggle and Chavo Guerrero in which Guerrero was defeated by the classic Home Alone gag of rigging a swinging paint can to hit him upon opening a door. Culkin appeared in the doorway and said, "That's not funny."

Personal life

Around the time of the first Home Alone movie, Culkin became close friends with pop legend Michael Jackson, making an appearance in the "Black or White" music video. Culkin and Jackson went on vacations together (to such places as Bermuda and Disney World) and Culkin often stayed at Neverland Ranch. His brothers, Shane and Kieran, occasionally joined them. Jackson later asked him to be godfather of his children: Michael Joseph "Prince" Jackson Jr. and, Paris Michael Katherine Jackson,^[20]. During the trial against Michael Jackson, Culkin reported he had slept in Jackson's bed on countless occasions, but that Michael Jackson never sexually molested him nor touched him in improper ways, and referred to the allegations as "absolutely ridiculous"^[21] He attended Jackson's funeral on September 3, 2009.^[22]

Culkin married actress Rachel Miner in 1998.^[23] They separated in 2000^[24] and divorced in 2002.^[25]

Culkin was raised in the Roman Catholic faith. His father Kit later withdrew his children from the church, and Macaulay now describes himself as more spiritual than anything else. The 2004 film Saved!, in which Culkin starred, proved controversial among many in America's Christian community.^[26]

Culkin has dated actress Mila Kunis since May 2002.^[25] Despite rumors of an engagement in 2006, they have no current plans to marry.^[27][28] They currently divide their time between New York City, Los Angeles and Glendale, California.^[27]

On September 17, 2004, Culkin was arrested in Oklahoma City for the possession of 17.3g of marijuana and two controlled substances, 16 mg of Xanax and 32 mg of clonazepam.^[29] Culkin was briefly jailed in Oklahoma but soon released on a $4,000 bond.^[30][31] He was later arraigned in court for misdemeanor drug offenses. At trial (October 15, 2004 to June 9, 2005) he pled not guilty, then later reversed the plea to guilty. His lawyers reached a plea bargain with the state of Oklahoma and he received three one-year suspended prison terms, a probationary drug treatment program and a $540 fine.

Filmography

References

External links

• Macaulay Culkin at the Internet Movie Database
• Macaulay Culkin at TV.com
• BBC News report on drug charges
• Oklahoma Court case file report
• Oklahoma police report file at thesmokinggun.com