Stars Who Went From Rags to Riches: Tony Curtis and More

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These famed performers raised themselves up from nothing! Their journeys to Hollywood have been well worth the wait.

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John Springer Assortment/CORBIS/Corbis/Getty Pictures; Sundown Boulevard/Corbis/Getty Pictures

Ava Gardner

“When you’re dirt-poor, and there’s no means of concealing it, life is hell,” mentioned Ava, the final of seven youngsters in a North Carolina farming household. As a baby, she helped her father within the tobacco fields and ironed shirts within the boardinghouse her mom ran. Ava owned one pair of footwear, which have been reserved for varsity and church. The remainder of the time, she went barefoot.

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Tony Curtis

A baby of immigrants, Tony solely spoke Hungarian till he was 6. He grew up sharing a bed room behind his father’s tailor store together with his brothers in an sad dwelling the place his mom suffered from psychological sickness. In 1933, Tony and his brother Julius have been despatched to an orphanage for a month as a result of there wasn’t sufficient meals. “I used to shine footwear in entrance of this resort,” Tony mentioned at NYC’s Palace Lodge in 2002, “and now I’m sitting right here doing an interview. So how do you want that?”

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Debbie Reynolds

The second baby of an El Paso, Texas, carpenter, Debbie knew homelessness as a baby. “We slept within the park earlier than we had a home,” she mentioned, “and ultimately we shared a house — my mother and father, my grandparents and 5 uncles, my household, all of us.”

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Cary Grant

“I acted my means out of poverty,” mentioned Cary, who was born to an alcoholic father and mentally in poor health mom. The neglect of his early childhood grew worse after the disappearance of his mother when Cary was 11. The boy was ultimately instructed she was useless, however she had truly been institutionalized. “The ache of his upbringing,” says Cary’s daughter, Jennifer Grant. “It motivated him.”

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Barbara Stanwyck

After her mom’s sudden demise, Barbara was positioned in foster houses. “I used to be raised by strangers, farmed out,” mentioned the New York native. “Whoever would take me for 5 {dollars} every week, that’s the place I used to be.” She dropped out of college at 14 to take a job wrapping packages in a division retailer.

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Loretta Lynn

Born into the coal mining city of Butcher Hole, Kentucky, Loretta was the second of eight children. Her songs inform of her mom working till her fingers bled and her father shoveling coal to make “a poor man’s greenback.” The hardship continued after Loretta wed at 15. “I do know what it’s prefer to be pregnant and nervous and poor,” she mentioned.

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Sophia Loren

“Starvation was a significant theme of my childhood,” says Sophia, who was born to an unwed mom in Rome however raised in Pozzuoli, close to Naples, which noticed heavy bombing throughout World Struggle II. “My mom was begging for meals for us. She’d deliver us again a potato, a fistful of rice.” In 1943, the Allied forces marched by and a soldier tossed younger Sophia a bit of chocolate, however she didn’t even know what’s was.

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Charlie Chaplin

Deserted by his alcoholic father, Charlie was despatched to a London “poorhouse” for the primary time at age 7. By the point he was a teen, he usually slept outdoor and stole meals to outlive. “I most popular to sleep on park benches,” he mentioned.

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Eartha Kitt

Eartha, whose unwed mom despatched her to dwell with household, began working in South Carolina cotton fields at 7. “She was crushed, mistreated, emotionally and bodily,” says her daughter, Kitt Shapiro. Shipped off to a different relative in New York, Eartha endured one other abusive dwelling till she ran away. For a time, she labored in a manufacturing facility and slept on rooftops.

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Kirk Douglas

“Generally we didn’t have sufficient to eat,” mentioned Kirk, who was raised in a “rundown” clapboard home subsequent to factories in upstate New York. “It didn’t have heating,” he recalled. His father, a Russian immigrant, was an abusive alcoholic. To assist out, teenage Kirk bought snacks to the mill staff. “I used to be dying to get out,” he mentioned. “In a way, it lit a fireplace underneath me.”

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Stars Who Went From Rags to Riches: Tony Curtis and More

Ava Gardner

Tony Curtis

Debbie Reynolds

Cary Grant

Barbara Stanwyck

Loretta Lynn

Sophia Loren

Charlie Chaplin

Eartha Kitt

Kirk Douglas

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Stars Who Went From Rags to Riches: Tony Curtis and More

Ava Gardner

Tony Curtis

Debbie Reynolds

Cary Grant

Barbara Stanwyck

Loretta Lynn

Sophia Loren

Charlie Chaplin

Eartha Kitt

Kirk Douglas

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