Christopher Cornelius "Kit" Culkin (born December 6, 1944) is an American stage and voice actor and former manager. He is the father of actors
Macaulay Culkin
Macaulay Macaulay Culkin Culkin (born Macaulay Carson Culkin; ) is an American actor. Often regarded as one of the most successful child actors of the 1990s, he was placed 2nd on VH1's list of the "100 Greatest Kid-Stars". Culkin rose to prom ...
,
Rory Culkin
Rory Hugh Culkin (born July 21, 1989) is an American actor who is known for his roles in '' Scream 4'', '' Lords of Chaos'', '' You Can Count on Me'', ''Columbus'', and M. Night Shyamalan's '' Signs''. He is the younger brother of actors Macaulay ...
and
Kieran Culkin
Kieran Kyle Culkin (born September 30, 1982) is an American actor. The brother of actors Macaulay and Rory, he began his career as a child actor in the films ''Home Alone'' (1990), ''Father of the Bride'' (1991)'', The Mighty'' (1998), and ''Th ...
, and the older brother of actress
Bonnie Bedelia
Bonnie Bedelia Culkin (born ) is an American actress. After beginning her career in theatre in the 1960s, Bedelia starred in the CBS daytime soap opera '' Love of Life'' and made her film debut in '' The Gypsy Moths''. Bedelia subsequently appea ...
.
Early life
Culkin was born in
Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
, New York City, the son of Philip Harley Culkin (1898–1977), who was in public relations,
and Marian Ethel (
née Wagner; 1914–1964), a writer and editor. He and his sisters Candice and actress
Bonnie
Bonnie, is a Scottish given name and is sometimes used as a descriptive reference, as in the Scottish folk song, My Bonnie Lies over the Ocean. It comes from the Scots language word "bonnie" (pretty, attractive), or the French bonne (good). That ...
and his brother Terry were raised in New York City.
For middle school, Kit attended
Saint Thomas Choir School
Saint Thomas Choir School is a church-affiliated boarding choir school in Manhattan, New York, founded in 1919. The school is supported by the nearby Saint Thomas Church, an Episcopal church, continuing the Anglican tradition of all-male choral ...
in Midtown Manhattan. He and his sister Bonnie took classes at
School of American Ballet (as did his son Macaulay in the late 1980s).
Career
Culkin's early career involved working on
Broadway
Broadway may refer to:
Theatre
* Broadway Theatre (disambiguation)
* Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S.
** Broadway (Manhattan), the street
**Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...
in theater productions with actors such as
Richard Burton
Richard Burton (; born Richard Walter Jenkins Jr.; 10 November 1925 – 5 August 1984) was a Welsh actor. Noted for his baritone voice, Burton established himself as a formidable Shakespearean actor in the 1950s, and he gave a memorable pe ...
,
John Gielgud
Sir Arthur John Gielgud, (; 14 April 1904 – 21 May 2000) was an English actor and theatre director whose career spanned eight decades. With Ralph Richardson and Laurence Olivier, he was one of the trinity of actors who dominated the Brit ...
,
Laurence Olivier and
Anthony Quinn
Manuel Antonio Rodolfo Quinn Oaxaca (April 21, 1915 – June 3, 2001), known professionally as Anthony Quinn, was a Mexican-American actor. He was known for his portrayal of earthy, passionate characters "marked by a brutal and elemental v ...
. His brother Terry and sisters
Bonnie
Bonnie, is a Scottish given name and is sometimes used as a descriptive reference, as in the Scottish folk song, My Bonnie Lies over the Ocean. It comes from the Scots language word "bonnie" (pretty, attractive), or the French bonne (good). That ...
and Candace also worked in theater and television. Culkin credits his mother, who was their manager, for these early successes.
Three of his sons — Macaulay, Rory, and Kieran — are professional actors whose careers eclipse their father's acting career, but gained him prominence as their manager from the late 1980s to the mid-1990s. Macaulay became extremely popular due to his starring roles in the ''
Home Alone
''Home Alone'' is a 1990 American Christmas comedy film directed by Chris Columbus and written and produced by John Hughes. The first film in the ''Home Alone'' franchise, the film stars Macaulay Culkin, Joe Pesci, Daniel Stern, John Hea ...
'' films, and he was the first child in Hollywood to receive a million-dollar salary (for ''
My Girl'' in 1991). From 1995 to 1997, Kit was part of a
child custody
Child custody is a legal term regarding '' guardianship'' which is used to describe the legal and practical relationship between a parent or guardian and a child in that person's care. Child custody consists of ''legal custody'', which is the righ ...
trial.
Personal life
Culkin has eight children; his oldest, Jennifer Adamson (1970–2000), was with Adeena VanWagoner. His other children, Shane (b. 1976), Dakota (1979–2008),
Macaulay (b. 1980),
Kieran (b. 1982), Quinn (b. 1984), Christian (b. 1987), and
Rory
Rory is a given name of Gaelic origin. It is an anglicisation of the ga, Ruairí/''Ruaidhrí'' and gd, Ruairidh and is common to the Irish, Highland Scots and their diasporas. for the given name "Rory". The meaning of the name is "red king", ...
(b. 1989), were with Patricia Brentrup. Culkin and Brentrup were together for 21 years from 1974 to 1995, but never married.
Kit and Adeena's daughter, Jennifer Adamson, died in 2000 from a drug overdose. On December 9, 2008, Kit and Patricia's daughter Dakota was struck by a vehicle when she stepped off a curb into its path. She was taken to the
Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center
Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center (also commonly referred to as ''UCLA Medical Center'', "RRMC" or "Ronald Reagan") is a hospital located on the campus of the University of California, Los Angeles, in Westwood, Los Angeles, California, United ...
, where she died of her injuries the following afternoon, at the age of 29.
Culkin resided in
Grants Pass, Oregon. After his long-time friend and partner Jeanette Krylowski died, on May 31, 2017, Culkin left his Grants Pass residence.
[ Paragraph 13.]
Filmography
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Culkin, Kit
1944 births
American male stage actors
American people of German descent
American people of Irish descent
Living people
Male actors from New York City
People from Manhattan