.
On Mental Illness
Noted Individuals
Have Experienced Homelessness
Pete shares his viewpoint
by Pete Feigal
“The foxes have
holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man
has nowhere to lay his head.” - Matthew 8:20
This is a (short) list of
celebrities and other prominent and famous individuals who have experienced
being homeless for a brief or extended period at one time in their
lives, for whatever reason. Most of the folks in the arts went through
hard times trying to make it in show business. For instance, Cary
Grant (real name Archibald Leach...I wonder why he ever changed it?)
lived in a park for a couple of months after being expelled from
grammar school in 1918. His home life was hard; he had a distant
father, and his mother, as his father told him, was “on a long
holiday.” Twenty
years later, he learned that his mother had actually been institutionalized
for 25 years and was still alive and in a mental hospital. Cary himself struggled
with depression later in life.
Day by day we chip away judgment and prejudice and the wall of stigma
is slowly coming down.
• Lionel
Aldridge: American football player; television sportscaster-analyst;
played in two winning Super Bowl games.
• Drew Carey: Emmy
Award-nominated actor-writer-producer-comedian.
• Jim Carrey: actor-writer-producer-comedian.
• Sir Charlie Chaplin: Oscar-winning actor-writer-director-producer.
• Kelly Clarkson: Grammy Award-winning singer; American Idol
television talent show 1st-season winner.
• Kurt Cobain: Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter; lead
vocalist of the band “Nirvana.”
• Daniel Craig: actor; newest James Bond in the 007 movies.
• George Eads: actor; one of the stars of the television series
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.
• Ella Fitzgerald: Grammy Award-winning singer; U.S. Presidential
Medal of Freedom recipient.
• Chris Gardner: Multimillionaire stockbroker; American author;
his life is the basis for the 2006 movie “The Pursuit of Happyness” starring
Wil Smith.
• John Garfield: Oscar-nominated actor.
• Marvin Gaye: Motown Recording Artist and Rock and Roll Hall
of Fame member.
• Kelsey Grammer: Emmy Award-winning actor; star of the television
series Frasier.
• Cary Grant: Oscar-nominated actor.
• Woody Guthrie: folk singer-songwriter.
• Harry Houdini: magician; escape artist.
• Don Imus: ex- radio-talk show host; best-selling American
author.
• Burl Ives: Oscar-winning actor; Grammy Award-winning folk
singer.
• Jesus of Nazareth: religious leader; source for Christianity;
the Christ; God and Savior in the Christian religion.
• Jewel: Grammy Award-nominated singer-songwriter.
• David Letterman: Emmy Award-winning television writer-comedian;
talk-show host.
• Lil’ Kim: Grammy Award-winning rap singer.
• Harry Edmund Martinson: Nobel Prize-winning Swedish author.
• Jim Morrison: singer-songwriter; poet; lead singer and lyricist
for the 1960s rock band “The Doors“ Rock and
Roll Hall of Fame inductee.
• John Muir: early American naturalist; advocate for the creation
of U.S. national parks; founder of the Sierra Club.
• George Orwell: British author of “Animal Farm” and “1984.”
• Gordon Parks: film director; best-selling American author.
• Charles Sanders Peirce: Harvard University-educated genius
scientist; mathematician; logician; philosopher; American
author; first psychologist elected to the National Academy of Sciences.
• Sally Jessy Raphael: Emmy Award-winning television talk-show
host.
• Debbie Reynolds: Oscar-nominated and Emmy Award-winning actress-singer.
• Joan Rivers: Emmy Award-winning television talk-show host;
comedienne.
• “Colonel” Harland Sanders: businessman; founder
of the “Kentucky Fried Chicken” fast-food restaurant
chair.
• Tupac Shakur: actor; rap music star.
• William Shatner: Emmy Award-winning actor of the television
and movie series “Star Trek.”
• Martin Sheen: Emmy Award-winning actor-director-producer.
• William Smith: British geologist/cartographer; “The
Father of English Geology.”
• Hilary Swank: double Oscar-winning actress (for “Boys
Don’t Cry,” and “Million Dollar Baby.”)
• Rob Thomas: Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter for group “Matchbox
20.”
• Shania Twain: Grammy Award-winning country singer.
• John Woo: Hong-Kong action film director. ![]()
Pete Feigal can be contacted
at PFeigal@aol.com Now
that Pete’s eyesight is failing, he has discovered new careers
as a national speaker and writer. Pete’s art is actually selling
better now than ever. He says jokingly, when he dies, like all artists
his art will become even more popular. “That’s when I’ll
REALLY clean up!”Pete’s
amazing aviation and motorcycle fine art prints and t-shirts can
now be seen on Pete’s fledgling Web site at www.art-that-moves.com
