After starring in the 1990 Christmas comedy “Home Alone,” Macaulay Culkin became one of Hollywood’s most beloved child actors, and his family was suddenly launched into stardom.
Macaulay Culkin and his siblings — Kieran Culkin, Rory Culkin, Quinn Culkin, Christian Culkin, Shane Culkin and the late Dakota Culkin — were raised by their parents, Patricia Brentrup and Kit Culkin. His father also had a daughter from a previous relationship named Jennifer Adamson, who died in 2000.
Although he portrayed a bubbly and funny kid on camera, Macaulay Culkin’s life at home was challenging. In a 2018 interview on comedian Marc Maron’s “WTF” podcast, Macaulay Culkin described his father, a former stage actor, as being “jealous” of his acting career, because “everything he tried to do in his life I excelled at before I was 10 years old.”
As a teenager, Macaulay Culkin removed his father and mother as legal guardians in control of his $17 million earnings, he told Esquire in 2020.
In addition to his strained relationship with his parents, Macaulay Culkin’s relationship with his siblings was also affected by his fame. He opened up about feeling slightly disconnected from them during a conversation on the “Sibling Revelry with Kate Hudson and Oliver Hudson” podcast.
While discussing his career, co-host Kate Hudson asked Macaulay Culkin if becoming famous so young impacted how he interacted with his siblings.
“Yeah, to a certain extent,” Macaulay Culkin replied in the March 30 episode. “My older brother (Shane Culkin) was always protective of me and stuff.”
He explained that he traveled about half the year for roles, making his relationship with his siblings “tricky.”
“I felt it the most was I’d be gone for three or four months or something like that, and I’d come back and they would have all new kind of inside jokes and new things they were into. And sometimes they weren’t necessarily keen to plug me into that kind of stuff,” he shared.
But he didn’t seem to blame his brothers and sisters for the disconnection.
“You know, 7 and 8 year olds are not going to be sensitive to know those kind of feelings,” Macaulay Culkin added. “I (didn’t) have the emotional vocabulary to engage in that kind of way either.”
While Macaulay Culkin was the first of his siblings to see his name in lights, his brothers and sisters also explored their creative interests, including younger brother Kieran Culkin who became a child star, as well.
Read on to learn about Macaulay Culkin, Kieran Culkin and their brothers and sisters, below.
Shane Culkin
Born in 1976, Shane Culkin is the oldest child of Kit Culkin and Patricia Brentrup.
In 1988, he starred as Wally Webb in a production of “Our Town” at Lincoln Center Theater, according to Vanity Fair.
The play, which also starred Eric Stoltz, Spalding Gray, Frances Conroy and Penelope Ann Miller, later aired on television, according to IMDB.
Dakota Culkin
Born in 1978, Dakota Culkin, who was known as Cody, worked as an art production assistant on the 2009 supernatural thriller “Lost Soul.”
Dakota Culkin died in 2008 at age 30 after being struck by a car while crossing a street in California.
In 2021, Kieran Culkin opened up to The Hollywood Reporter about his late sister.
“Cody was funny, man,” he told the publication. “She was the funniest person in the family for sure and had a really dark sense of humor.”
The “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World” star said his sister’s death was “devastating” to him and his siblings.
“That’s the worst thing that’s ever happened, and there’s no sugarcoating that one,” he said. “Each one of us handled it very differently. I think everyone was just torn up inside. What has it been, 13 years now? Holy s—. That’s crazy. Jesus f—— Christ.
“I accepted at the time that this is going to be forever, and it’s never going to be fine. It’s always going to be devastating. I still weep about it out of nowhere,” he continued. “Something funny she did will pop in the head and make me laugh, and then I’m weeping. Sometimes it’s knowing that she’s not going to meet my kids and they don’t get to have her, and it’s hard to describe what she was like.”
Macaulay Culkin honored his late sister when he named his firstborn child after her in 2021.
Macaulay’s son, Dakota, 2, made a rare appearance at the Dec. 1, 2023 Hollywood Walk of Fame star ceremony.
Macaulay Culkin
Macaulay Culkin found stardom in the 1990s for his portrayal of Kevin McCallister in the first two “Home Alone” movies.
He went on to appear in movies like “My Girl,” “Only the Lonely” and “Richie Rich” before taking a nearly decade-long break from Hollywood.
Speaking about the hiatus in a 2020 interview with Esquire, he recalled, “It started feeling like a chore. I started vocalizing that and not being heard: I was saying, ‘I wanna go to school —I haven’t done a full year of school since first grade.’ ”
In 2003, Macaulay Culkin, then in his early 20s, returned to the screen to show off his range in the indie “Party Monster” and in a guest starring role on “Will & Grace.” In 2021, he dazzled viewers and critics once more with his portrayal of a struggling with addiction in “American Horror Story: Double Feature.”
Some of Macaulay Culkin’s other pursuits over the years include fronting the comedy rock band the Pizza Underground, publishing the 2006 autobiography “Junior” and launching the comedy website Bunny Ears.
He was honored for his storied career with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame Dec. 1, 2023. Two of his seven siblings, Quinn Culkin and Rory Culkin, were spotted at the ceremony and posed for a picture with the actor.
Fiancée Brenda Song, a fellow former child actor, also attended the ceremony. Macaulay Culkin and Song share two children: oldest son Dakota Song Culkin, who will soon turn 4, and 2-year-old son Carson.
Kieran Culkin
In their pre-fame days, the seven Culkin kids lived together in Kit Culkin and Brentrup’s small New York City apartment, Kieran Culkin told Vanity Fair in 2018.
“It was just a hallway, and there were no separating doors, except for the bathroom, which didn’t have a lock. They raised seven kids in that apartment — for years! They just kept bringing babies home to this little space,” he recalled.
Kieran Culkin also showed an interest in acting like his older brother. In 1990, he had a small part alongside Macaulay Culkin in “Home Alone,” playing Kevin McCallister’s cousin Fuller McCallister. He then appeared in “Father of the Bride” (1991), “Home Alone 2: Lost in New York” (1992) and “The Cider House Rules” (1999), among other box office successes.
In 1998, Kieran Culkin landed his first starring role in the coming-of-age drama “The Mighty.” In 2002, he earned rave reviews and a Golden Globe nomination for starring in the quirky indie “Igby Goes Down.”
Most recently, he won wide acclaim playing the impetuous COO Roman Roy on the HBO series “Succession.” The role earned him an Emmy for outstanding lead actor in a drama series.
He followed his “Succession” success with an Oscar-winning performance in the 2024 film “A Real Pain.” Kieran Culkin won for best performance by an actor in a supporting role.
Macaulay Culkin’s experience in Hollywood impacted how his younger brother navigated stardom.
In 2023, Kieran Culkin recalled the discomfort he felt witnessing the “Home Alone” star struggle with overnight fame in the 1990s.
“Poor f—— guy,” Kieran Culkin told Esquire. “He was little and having to try to accept that level of fame as reality.”
He added, “Even at that time, as a kid, I remember thinking, ‘That sucks for him.’”
As a result, he didn’t want to emulate his older brother’s success.
“I had this unhealthy relationship with what I did for a living,” he explained. “I really wanted to do it, but I didn’t want to be successful at it.”
Like his brother, Kieran Culkin also has little contact with their father, Kit Culkin, who he described as ” not a good dude” in a 2018 Vanity Fair profile.
Kieran Culkin shares two children, daughter Kinsey Sioux, born in 2019, and son Wilder Wolf, born in 2021, with his wife, Jazz Charton.
Quinn Culkin
Like her famous brothers, Quinn Culkin, born in 1984, was bitten by the acting bug at an early age. But it seems for her, the love affair didn’t last.
She made a brief cameo in “Home Alone” as a girl waiting at the airport when the McCallister family is leaving.
She also voiced a character in the animated series “Wish Kid” (1991) and appeared alongside brothers Macaulay Culkin and Rory Culkin in the movie “The Good Son” (1993), according to IMDB.
While the siblings may look similar and their acting credits overlap, Quinn Culkin maintains that they are “all very different.”
“I’ve even been called ‘MacCulkin,’ like I’m a collection of Culkins. As much as we may look alike, we’re all very different,” she told Vanity Fair in 2018. “Mac has his way that he carries himself, and Kieran, and Rory. You see it even in the way they stand. It’s very telling of who they are individually.”
Christian Culkin
Christian Culkin, born in 1987, like his sister Quinn Culkin, only briefly dabbled in acting.
He appeared in the 1994 film “My Summer Story” alongside brother Kieran Culkin.
Rory Culkin
The youngest Culkin, born in 1989, followed in his older brothers’ footsteps and became an actor. Rory Culkin’s earliest on screen appearances, in fact, were in their movies.
He appeared in a photograph in Macaulay Culkin’s movie “The Good Son” (1993) and again as an even younger version of the title character in Macaulay Culkin’s “Richie Rich” (1994). He later played a young version of Kieran Culkin’s character in “Igby Goes Down” (2002).
While still a preteen, Rory Culkin landed his big break starring alongside Laura Linney, Mark Ruffalo and Matthew Broderick in the 2000 drama “You Can Count on Me.” He won a Young Artist Award for his performance.
Two years later, he appeared alongside Mel Gibson and Joaquin Phoenix in M. Night Shyamalan’s sci-fi horror flick “Signs.”
Rory Culkin has gone on to appear in “Scream 4” (2011) and in several critically acclaimed indie movies. He’s also appeared in guest starring roles in “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,” “Halston” and “Black Mirror.”
Jennifer Adamson
Tragedy first struck the Culkin siblings when their half-sister, Jennifer Adamson, died at home on May 20, 2000, according to an obituary in The Missoulian. She was 29.
The daughter of Kit Culkin and his previous partner Adeena VanWagoner, Adamson was born in 1970.
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