Former Child Stars Who Sadly Ended Up Homeless

We're so used to seeing our favorite celebrities shine on the red carpet and other prestigious events in their stylish gowns and tuxedos and make headlines for their projects and relationships that we sometimes forget the industry has seen quite a few rags-to-riches stories and vice versa. In fact, many of those widely successful musicians, actors, TV hosts, and sports personalities suffered through a period of destitution before they shot to fame and came to enjoy all the flashy perks that come with it. Some of them even had to grapple with homelessness at one point. We're talking about household names like Tiffany Haddish, Sylvester Stallone, and Jim Carrey. It's been the other way around for former fitness model Loni Willison, though: She's been spotted dumpster diving and pushing a shopping cart around on the streets of Los Angeles this year.

These stories are truly heartbreaking, but it's an even bigger shame when this type of downfall concerns a child or teen star after they've garnered millions of fans around the globe, thinking they've secured themselves a long-lasting career. As for the factors that lead to penury and homelessness, they're too many to list and may include physical and mental health issues, substance abuse, mismanagement of funds, and domestic violence.

From Tylor Chase to Rose McGowan and Jerry Supiran, let's revisit some of the most painful riches-to-rags stories of once-beloved young stars, spanning grief, bipolar disorder, wastefulness, addiction, physical abuse, and more.

Centering on middle school students, "Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide" was a popular sitcom that kept viewers entertained from 2004 to 2007 with its quirky vibe and fourth-wall-breaking scenes. One of its recurring side characters was the geeky Martin Qwerly, played by Tylor Chase. Chase was born in 1989 and had a promising career in comedy, but his struggle with bipolar disorder cut it short.

In 2014, his fans worried when he posted a poetic but disheartening awareness message about his condition on his YouTube channel, saying, "I'm a magician who has misplaced his top hat and rabbit. No one comes to my shows anymore. I'm a leaf in a running gutter with the inevitable fate of ending up in a drain."

Fast-forward to 2025, when TikTok influencer LethalLalli posted a video of him wandering the streets and then started a GoFundMe for his benefit. Chase's family soon stopped the campaign. They argued, "He is unable to manage his medication on his own and often loses his phone within days. Money could actually do more harm than good" (via Maeil Business Newspaper). Another TikTok user, Jax Blax, posted a video of Chase looking disheveled, thin, aging, and rambling incoherently, and he captioned it: "Damn, this is sad." It wasn't long before Chase's former sitcom co-stars, Lindsey Shaw, Devon Werkheiser, and Daniel Curtis Lee, addressed his situation in their podcast and promised they'd lend him a hand.

Jack Veal is a British actor whose most memorable role is Kid Loki in the alternate universe of the Marvel series "Loki." In 2024, at the age of 17, he revealed on TikTok that he was homeless because he could no longer live with his terminally ill grandfather in a house where he's been verbally and physically abused, not to mention having to deal with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and other mental health problems. He also called out social services for not doing a better job at providing him with a safe space or placing him with a foster family. "I'm desperate," Veal pleaded. "I've been sleeping in the streets. I am currently sleeping in a trailer that has smashed-in windows, is unsafe, and is two hours away from my work. This makes it hard to get to work every day. It's difficult. Life is hard. At the moment, I have nothing else." After his TikTok posts went viral, social services were forced to step in and help him get back on track.

Veal seems to be doing much better now. Following this dark period, he posted himself providing the bare essentials to many homeless people and encouraging his fans to share his posts and send donations. Though he says he is currently an ultramarathon athlete and a personal trainer, he hasn't left the spotlight: His most recent role was on the 2025 British comedy series "Amandaland," opposite Lucy Punch and Joanna Lumley.

The 1970s brought us many popular sitcoms, including "The Partridge Family," which featured a witty red-haired, freckled-faced boy: Danny Partridge, played by Dante Daniel "Danny" Bonaduce. Though it was the role he's mostly known for, Bonaduce appeared in other movies and TV shows, including the 1978 adventure-comedy film "Corvette Summer," opposite Mark Hamill; "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation"; and voice-over work in the 2006 fantasy comedy film "Dr. Dolittle 3."

In his early career, the actor was emotionally and physically abused by his father, writer and producer Joseph Bonaduce, which left him emotionally scarred. And so, in the '80s, when his career started to decline, he found himself living in his car around Los Angeles' dumpsters. As he told First for Women in 2024, "When I was living on the street, I would be standing out in front of Grauman's Chinese Theater, leaning against my car and signing autographs, and nobody had any idea that I was living in it. No one had any idea that I was going to pull my car around the corner and go to sleep."

Fortunately, life smiled on him again, and he became a TV talk show host in the '90s, a radio host in 2008, and a commentator for "TruTV Presents: World's Dumbest" from 2008 to 2013. Then, in 2023, he was diagnosed with hydrocephaly, a neurological disorder that causes speech and balance difficulties. After surviving a surgery related to his condition, he retired to Palm Springs.

Erin Moran is perhaps best remembered for playing Joanie Cunningham, the spirited younger sister of the main character, Richie (Ron Howard), in the acclaimed 1970s and 1980s sitcom "Happy Days." With her sparkling blue eyes and irresistible grin, she landed many roles, including on "The Love Boat," "Murder, She Wrote," and the "Happy Days" spin-off "Joanie Loves Chachi."

Unfortunately, life dealt her many harsh blows, and she lost her home to foreclosure in 2010. Soon afterward, she was living in a trailer in Indiana with her mother-in-law. Then, along with her "Happy Days" co-stars, she filed a lawsuit against CBS because they felt they were entitled to merchandising revenues. Instead of investing her $65,000 settlement, she spent it all and was later spotted wandering the streets around motels, likely looking for shelter.

On April 22, 2017, Moran was found dead at her mother-in-law's mobile home: She had succumbed to stage 4 throat cancer. In an open letter to actor and director Scott Baio, Steve Fleischmann, Moran's husband, wrote, "By the middle of February, Erin could no longer speak, or eat, or drink. She had a feeding-tube implant, and I fed her six to eight times a day. She was still happy, she was active, she texted people on her phone all day" (via Facebook). He added that she passed away in her sleep while they were holding hands.

Former Disney star Orlando Brown appeared in various popular sitcoms, such as "Family Matters" and "Two of a Kind," before landing his most memorable role to date: 14-year-old aspiring rapper and basketball player Eddie Thomas on "That's So Raven," which aired from 2003 to 2007.

Then, in 2018, Brown appeared on "The Dr. Phil Show" and admitted to struggling with mental health, drug and alcohol abuse, and homelessness. It was the first time he publicly addressed those issues. Moreover, he revealed he had fathered many kids, only four of whom he'd met. Indeed, the actor has experienced many dark periods over the years. In his early 30s, he was completely broke and bouncing between shelters. His friend and manager, Solomon Barron, even took him in once and then kicked him out for exhibiting violent behavior and threatening to harm his wife. In fact, Brown has been arrested multiple times for various reasons, including violating probation and driving under the influence.

It was high time for him to turn his life around and resume his acting and rapping projects. Some of hismore recent on-screen appearances have included the 2022 action film "Bloody Hands" and the 2023 reality show "Bad Boys Texas." He also released a music video in 2025 for the single "Love to You," and fans are hopeful he'll pull through. He still insists, to this day, that he is Michael Jackson's biological son, though.

Born in 1979, Shaun Weiss debuted as the little boy Elvis on the comedy series "Pee-wee's Playhouse" (1986 to 1990). His breakout role, though, was the young goalie Greg Goldberg in "The Mighty Ducks" movies. You might also remember him from the Disney film "Heavyweights" or as an outcast student on "Freaks and Geeks." Though the young actor's career was promising, it started to decline in the late 2000s. Then, his mom and his dad died, in 2008 and 2016, respectively. Frustrated and overcome with grief, he struggled with alcohol, heroin, and meth addiction and became homeless for a period after the lease on his apartment expired and he couldn't afford to rent another one. To make matters worse, his fiancée broke up with him. He was also arrested in 2017 for petty theft and possession and in 2020 for burglary, the latter of which was a real wake-up call.

Weiss has been sober since 2020. In 2022, he admitted on "Addiction Talk" that drugs provided him with "instant relief." "Instead of reaching out to people that probably would have helped me ... I just stayed chasing that next fix ... Being on the street, it was just hard to keep your possessions ... Every time I would get a phone, I'd have it for a few hours and then it would, you know, get lost or stolen."

Weiss has now mostly found himself in stand-up comedy. One of his most recent screen roles was as a Vietnam vet in the 2023 drama film "Jesus Revolution."

Let's go back further in time to the 1940s and 1950s, when one Robert Cletus "Bobby" Driscoll, a precocious child TV and film actor, rose to stardom. He charmed the industry and the public alike with his upturned nose and freckled face. And his innocent looks landed him roles in "Treasure Island," "The Fighting Sullivans," "So Dear to My Heart," "Peter Pan," and "The Window." He even earned an Academy Juvenile Award for the latter, in which he played the lead role of a boy who has a hard time convincing others he's witnessed a murder.

Unfortunately, when Driscoll's career began to wane in the late '50s, he turned to drugs and was arrested and charged for possession, burglary, and assault. Many factors had led to his downfall. According to The Vintage News, Disney had terminated the actor's contract earlier than expected because he had developed terrible facial acne in his teen years. His final film role was in 1965 in the fantasy short"Dirt," in which he played a nun. Away from the limelight, Driscoll got married and divorced twice to the same woman: Marilyn Jean Rush, with whom he had three kids.

In March 1968, two children found Driscoll's body on the street, lying among beer bottles and religious pamphlets. He was only 31 and had been struggling with homelessness for a while. His death was attributed to heart failure resulting from long-term drug use.

Though she's mostly known for her roles in horror films like "Scream" and "Grindhouse" and the widely popular supernatural TV show "Charmed," Rose McGowan actually debuted as a child model in Italy, appearing in Vogue Bambini and Vogue Italia. At the age of 15, she emancipated herself from her parents — and away from the creepy cult they had raised her in. As a result, she ended up living on the street for a whole year. "I was homeless, I was on my own, and I was very lonely. I was entirely focused on just surviving," she told Big Issue in 2019, adding that she then developed an eating disorder and eventually had no choice but to move in with a much older man.

Fortunately, McGowan's Hollywood career kicked off at the age of 18, when she was cast in the 1992 comedy film "Encino Man." Her memoir, "Brave," which hit the stores in 2018, made shocking revelations, from her struggles with her parents and their cult to her relations with abusive men, her drug addiction, her homelessness, and the murder of the first man she ever loved, a club owner named Brett Cantor.

Today, the actress, director, writer, producer, and musician is also a fervent activist who speaks for women's rights. At the time of writing, her net worth is $3 million, according to Celebrity Net Worth.

With his brown mullet and piercing blue eyes, Canadian actor Corey Haim was an '80s teen icon. He was born in 1971 and made his TV debut in 1984 on the children's series "The Edison Twins." His most memorable film roles are in the vampire comedy cult classic "The Lost Boys," the teen comedy "License to Drive," and the coming of age sports romance "Lucas." Being young and attractive in Hollywood has its perks, but also its hazards, as seen on the 2007-2008 reality show "The Two Coreys," which centered around the trials and tribulations of Haim and Corey Feldman, his co-star in nine films.

Over the years, Haim grappled with the pressure of fame, but also drug addiction, financial problems, and allegedly, sexual abuse by famous figures. He even filed for bankruptcy in 1997, at the age of 24. Running low on funds and struggling with valium and coke addiction, he experienced homelessness in Los Angeles in the summer of 2008. Eventually, Gerard McMahon, who had written music for "The Lost Boys," took him off the streets. Together, they began working on the reality project "Lost Boy Found," but it was shelved.

Haim died in 2010, at the age of 38, likely from a combination of flu-like symptoms and a drug overdose. Feldman claimed on ABC's Nightline in 2011 (via BBC), "There is one person to blame in the death of Corey Haim, and that person happens to be a Hollywood mogul."

Between 1985 and 1989, one sitcom stood out from other comedy and science-fiction shows for its unusual plot: "Small Wonder." The "wonder" in question was an overprotective human-like robot girl who lived with a suburban family, the Lawsons. To shield her from their nosy next-door neighbors, the couple introduced her as the "cousin" of their 12-year-old boy, Jamie. The latter was played by Jerry Supiran, and that role earned him three Young Artist Award nominations. Though Supiran made other TV and film appearances over the years, including on "Policewoman Centerfold," "Newhart," and "Highway to Heaven," he will always be most associated with the shrewd and mischievous Jamie Lawson. He was last cast in a 1988 episode of "Mr. Belvedere."

With his career coming to a halt, Supiran turned to the hospitality industry and started waiting tables. Unfortunately, he was laid off and spent some time living under a bridge and volunteering at a shelter. He even claimed that the stripper he was dating at the time had stolen what was left of his dwindling trust fund.

Today, according to his Facebook page, Supiran is a digital creator, and he's married to Laurie Supiran, a Walgreens employee.