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,
Rory Culkin and
Kieran Culkin, and the older brother of actress
Bonnie Bedelia.
Early life
Culkin was born in
Manhattan, New York City, the son of Philip Harley Culkin (1898–1977), who was in public relations,
and Marian Ethel (
née
A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth re ...
Wagner; 1914–1964), a writer and editor. He and his sisters Candice and actress
Bonnie and his brother Terry were raised in New York City.
For middle school, Kit attended
Saint Thomas Choir School in Midtown Manhattan. He and his sister Bonnie took classes at
School of American Ballet
The School of American Ballet (SAB) is the most renowned ballet school in the United States. School of American Ballet is the associate school of the New York City Ballet, a ballet company based at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New ...
(as did his son Macaulay in the late 1980s).
Career
Culkin's early career involved working on
Broadway in theater productions with actors such as
Richard Burton,
John Gielgud,
Laurence Olivier
Laurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier (; 22 May 1907 – 11 July 1989) was an English actor and director who, along with his contemporaries Ralph Richardson and John Gielgud, was one of a trio of male actors who dominated the Theatre of the U ...
and
Anthony Quinn. His brother Terry and sisters
Bonnie 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'' 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 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 (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, where she died of her injuries the following afternoon, at the age of 29.
Culkin resided in
Grants Pass, Oregon
Grants Pass is the county seat of Josephine County, Oregon, United States. The city is located on Interstate 5, northwest of Medford, along the Rogue River. The population was 39,189 at the 2020 census.
History
Early Hudson's Bay Company hunt ...
. 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
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{{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