Rags to Riches

Stephen King’s father abandoned the family when the author was 2, forcing them to move wherever his mother could find work. It wasn’t until King turned 11 that his mother had a stable income, which was thanks to her siblings, who paid her to look after their elderly parents in Durham, Maine. King has said the family lived off the kindness of relatives, including bags of groceries and hand-me-down clothes. After making it big with his best seller Carrie in 1973, King went on to publish more than 40 books and is now, according to Forbes, worth well over $200 million.

Rags to Riches

The Sex and the City star was the youngest of four children born into a struggling family in an Ohio coal-mining town. Her parents divorced when she was 2; soon after, her mother remarried and had four more children. With so many mouths to feed, her housewife mother and truck driver stepfather struggled to get by. Parker’s path to stardom began early, however, when she landed her first Broadway role at 11, and moved to Hollywood in 1981 to appear on the TV show Square Pegs. The actress is reportedly worth more than $130 million today.

Rags to Riches

Stephen King’s father abandoned the family when the author was 2, forcing them to move wherever his mother could find work. It wasn’t until King turned 11 that his mother had a stable income, which was thanks to her siblings, who paid her to look after their elderly parents in Durham, Maine. King has said the family lived off the kindness of relatives, including bags of groceries and hand-me-down clothes. After making it big with his best seller Carrie in 1973, King went on to publish more than 40 books and is now, according to Forbes, worth well over $200 million.

Rags to Riches

Born Demetria Guynes in Roswell, New Mexico, Demi Moore was raised in a trailer park by her alcoholic mother and stepfather. The two had a violent relationship and frequently moved the family around the country. Moore eventually dropped out of school at 16 to pursue modeling. She moved to Europe for a brief period and married rocker Freddie Moore at 18. Her breakthrough came a year later, when she landed a spot on General Hospital.

Rags to Riches

Born and raised in Canada, Jim Carrey was a high school dropout whose family fell on hard times when he was a teenager. With his father laid off, Carrey helped pay the bills by working as a janitor and a security guard. However, the family eventually lost their home, and was forced to live in a van. After moving to the U.S. and struggling on the comedy circuit in Los Angeles, Carrey broke it big on the television show In Living Color. According to Forbes, he now earns around $20 million per film