Kit Culkin - Life and Career

Life and Career

Culkin was born in Manhattan, New York, the son of Marian Ethel (née Wagner), a writer and editor, and Philip Harley Culkin, a journalist. He spent his youth in New York City, working on Broadway in theater productions with actors such as Richard Burton, John Gielgud, Laurence Olivier and Anthony Quinn. He also took class at the School of American Ballet, like son Macaulay. His brother, Terry, and sisters Bonnie Bedelia and Candace, also worked in theater and television. Culkin credits his mother, who was their manager, for these early successes.

Culkin is the father of Shane (1976), Dakota (1979-2008), Macaulay (1980), Kieran (1982), Quinn (1984), Christian (1987) and Rory (1989) with Patricia Brentrup. Culkin and Brentrup were together for 21 years from 1974–1995, but never married.

Three of his sons – Macaulay, Rory, and Kieran – have taken up acting. Culkin served as their manager from the late 1980s to the mid 1990s. In just a few years, the Culkin family went from modest means to wealth. Macaulay became the first child in Hollywood to receive a million dollar salary for My Girl (1991). From 1995 to 1997, Kit was part of a child custody trial.

On December 9, 2008, Kit's daughter Dakota was struck by a vehicle when she stepped off a curb. She was taken to UCLA Medical Center where she died of her injuries the following day. Culkin also had another daughter, Jennifer Adamson, from a previous relationship who died in 2000 at age 29 from a drug overdose.

Culkin now lives in Oregon with his long-time friend and partner, Jeanette Krylowski.