Macaulay Culkin Makes Surprising Legal Name Alteration

Oct 04, 2023

Macaulay Culkin is known to people the world over as the adorable yet mischievous Kevin McAllister, the little boy from the "Home Alone" movies from the '90s. And even though he grew up and continued working as an actor, albeit in more niche and alternative roles, he has never truly escaped his image as the "Home Alone" kid.

In the decades since he first burst onto our screens, the details of Macaulay's life as he grew up have come to light. The picture of a happy child actor that we might have glimpsed onscreen was shattered when the world learned about his home life. Pushed to work by his father, it was only in his teen years when his parents were divorcing that Macaulay was able to gain independence and live his life on his own terms.

Since then, he's led a much quieter life outside of the public eye. And we don't blame him. Thankfully, though, he has found his passion for acting once again. In the last two decades, he's appeared in various movies and shows, and even reprised the role that made him most famous, albeit in a commercial instead of a full-length feature film. 

Macaulay celebrated his 43rd birthday in August 2023, and considering many of us grew up watching him in movies, his presence still resonates strongly with the public. The former child star has even started a family of his own. Read on to learn more about the actor's life after “Home Alone,” and find out why he made a bold decision concerning his legal name.

Macaulay was born on Aug. 26, 1980, to Christopher Cornelius "Kit" Culkin — a former Broadway actor as well as the brother to actress Bonnie Bedelia — and Patricia Brentrup. One of seven children, Macaulay lived a modest childhood. His younger brother, Kieran Culkin, told Vanity Fair in 2018 that the family lived in a tiny railroad apartment "barely suitable for a couple."

"It was just a hallway, and there were no separating doors, except for the bathroom, which didn't have a lock," Kieran shared. "They raised seven kids in that apartment — for years! They just kept bringing babies home to this little space."

Their parents would spend nights on the sofa and work shifts to ensure one of them was home at all times to look after the kids. While they never married, they lived as if they were. Kit, also passionate about acting, had once graced Broadway as an up-and-coming star in the '60s. After becoming a father, he took up a job as a church sacristan so the Culkin kids could get staff rates to attend the parish school. Patricia, on the other hand, worked at a call center.   

According to Emily Gerson Saines, the Culkin family's longtime agent and manager, Patricia took her role as the matriarch quite seriously.

"(She) maintained strong family values, like the family having a meal together, the Christmas tree, Thanksgiving," Saines said. "These are all important things to Patty, and she instilled that in her kids."

According to Kieran, the couple sought out every opportunity to get their kids into acting. "My parents' friends were running a little theater, the Light Opera of Manhattan, and whenever a production needed a kid, they were like, 'What age and what gender? We've got seven of them right over here,'" he said.

So it comes as no surprise that Macaulay's acting career began at the tender age of 4. He started with small parts in off-Broadway productions before working himself up to more prestigious gigs, including the "Bach Babies" at the New York Philharmonic. Although Macaulay was already landing role after role in New York, his family was still struggling financially. Billy Hopkins, the casting director who gave Macaulay his very first job, said that even getting the boy to his rehearsals was a struggle. 

"They were so poor I had to use my own money to make sure that he got to and from rehearsal," Hopkins told New York magazine in 2001. "Macaulay would crawl under the bleachers at the theater to look for change that had fallen out of people's pockets. They were like the Beverly Hillbillies."

Macaulay's on-stage appearances quickly turned him into a sought-after child actor of the '80s. In 1988, he landed his first role on the big screen as Cy Blue Black in the hit drama "Rocket Gibraltar." That following year, Macaulay would land roles in two more high-profile films, "See You in the Morning" and "Uncle Buck."

Then, just shy of 10 years old, the young actor made his big break as Kevin McCallister in the blockbuster comedy film "Home Alone." The movie quickly proved to be an immense success. Grossing $476.7 million worldwide, "Home Alone" was listed by Guinness World Records as the highest-grossing live-action comedy of its time. It also became the third most successful film worldwide, just behind "Star Wars" and "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial." In contrast to those films, however, it wasn't the revolutionary CGI effects that ensured "Home Alone's” success, but rather Macaulay's hilarious portrayal of Kevin McCallister.

His fame, Macaulay said, came about almost overnight. He became the talk of the town among other children in his neighborhood, and he was suddenly surrounded by cameras everywhere he went.

"It was one of those paranoias like, 'There are people in the bushes! There are people in the bushes!' But there really are people in the bushes. It was that kind of thing," Macaulay told New York magazine.

Still just a young kid, he became uncomfortable with the increased attention.

"Hats don't really help," he admitted. "They say if you cover your forehead, you cover 80 percent of what people associate with you, but it doesn't work. When I was 9 years old, I got recognized wearing a ski mask. Maybe it's the lips. I couldn't hide from the world at all." 

Unable to escape the media craze, Macaulay began spending most of his time when he wasn't working inside his family apartment watching TV. His father then quit his job at the church and became Macaulay's manager and the two would spend most of their time on the road.   

By 1993, Macaulay had become one of the highest-paid child actors in Hollywood, earning a whopping $4.5 million for his role in "Home Alone 2: Lost in New York." He had also landed high-profile jobs in multiple films, including "The Good Son," "The Nutcracker," and "Getting Even With Dad." Still, Macaulay was growing tired of life in Hollywood — he had, after all, starred in 15 films in seven years. That didn't mean much to his power-hungry father, however.

Macaulay told New York magazine: 

"I just remember the exact point when I was growing a little more tired — during 'The Good Son,'" Macaulay confessed. "I had already done one or two things that year, and I just said to Kit, 'Listen, I’m really getting tired and I'm not at school as much as I'd like to be; I really need some time off.' He said, 'Yeah, sure,' and the next thing I knew I was on the next set doing the next thing, and it just kind of clicked in my brain: Okay. There’s basically nothing I can do to make this stop."

Despite his fame, Macaulay yearned for an escape from the Hollywood lifestyle. But in 1994, he found his way out; His parents had split, so the young actor took his chance to quit acting and pursue a normal life as an adolescent. He attended a private school in Manhattan and turned down multiple acting jobs. “I was just hoping to disappear off the face of the earth,” Macaulay told Time in 2001. 

At the time of Kit and Patricia’s split, Macaulay said he had no idea how much money he had actually made throughout his career.  

"My father would hide newspapers from me so I wouldn't read the stuff about him or find out how much I was making,” he explained to New York magazine. “I can understand why they did that; they didn't want me running off to my friends saying, 'I just made $8 million!'"

But that information became important during his parents' custody battle.

By 1996, Macaulay discovered he was worth around $50 million. But even with that much money to his name, the family could not access it amid the ongoing court case.

"Basically, I had millions and millions of dollars in the bank and my mother couldn't pay the rent because she was spending all of her money on lawyers," Macaulay said. 

The situation had become so dire that he realized he had to take matters into his own hands. "We were about to get evicted from our apartment. The only way I could get access to that money was to take my father's name off it, but I didn't want to make it messy, so I figured I'd take both their names off."

And with that, Macaulay’s complicated relationship with his father came to an end. Kit never showed up on the last day of the trial, instead, he ran away and Macaulay hasn't seen or spoken to him since. From then on out, he was free to live his life the way he wanted. 

The issue of a parent earning large amounts of money off their children's work is a contentious topic in show business and one that Macaulay weighed in on in his New York magazine interview. He stated:

“That’s kind of something that’s up in the air in my brain, whether parents should be earning money from their children in that kind of way. That’s something for future generations of child actors to figure out, whether parents should be creating that dynamic.”

The next few years Macaulay lived a relatively normal life as he attended high school — or at least as normal as an incredibly famous child star could have.

It was during this time that Macaulay reveled in his youth by rebelling against what was expected of him. He dyed his hair wild colors, smoked cigarettes, and drank before he was of legal age, but he claimed the media blew everything out of proportion and that he "never did anything more than any upper-class Upper West Side kid you know would."  

Then in 1998, Macaulay married his high school sweetheart Rachel Miner when he was nearly 18 years old after they'd first met when they were just 14. Unfortunately, their union lasted only two short years before rumors of infidelity arose and they eventually broke up. However, Macaulay insisted that he was "always going to love her."  

It wasn’t until the early 2000s that Macaulay returned to acting, making his comeback in London's West End in the play “Madame Melville.” In 2003, the actor made a guest appearance on “Will & Grace” as Karen Walker's goofy divorce lawyer.

Since then, he’s only taken up scarce acting projects and has instead focused on picking up projects he feels passionate about. He started a rock band, The Pizza Underground, in 2013, and launched a parody lifestyle website called Bunny Ears in 2018. That same year, Macaulay delighted fans by returning to his “Home Alone” character Kevin in a Christmas ad for Google Assistant.  

In 2017, Macaulay met actress Brenda Song in Thailand, working on the set of the film "Changeland," which was directed by Macaulay’s friend Seth Green. The two got together and eventually moved in together. "In a charming gesture, as reported by Esquire, Macaulay even painted a "yellow brick road" leading to the pair's front door.

Macaulay and Song welcomed their first child together on April 5, 2021, expanding their family that already comprised some fish, a blue-headed parrot, a Shiba Inu and three cats. Their son was named Dakota Song Culkin after Macaulay's late sister Dakota, who passed away in 2008. "We’re overjoyed,” the happy parents told Esquire after the birth. 

In a previous interview with Esquire, Song spoke highly of her partner. She said: 

"You can’t be around him and not be happy."

After four years of dating and becoming parents, in January 2022, Macaulay and Song announced their engagement. By December of the same year, they welcomed their second son, Carson Song Culkin

These days, Macaulay is no doubt a happy parent, and probably a pretty funny dad as well. A stunning example of his humor happened back in 2018 when, on his website Bunny Ears, he asked fans to vote on a new middle name for him that he would legally change. Among the five contenders were “Shark Week,” “Kieran,” which was suggested by his brother, Kieran, “TheMcRibisBack” and “Publicity Stunt,” which was suggested by Song. Finally, the votes were in, and Macaulay revealed the winner in a post:

“My new middle name has been chosen. You voted and the winner is clear. In 2019 my new legal name will be: Macaulay Macaulay Culkin Culkin. It has a nice ring to it (if you like my name).”

A month before the voting concluded, Macaulay confirmed to talk show host Jimmy Fallon that the name change would be legal and that having “Macaulay Culkin” as his middle name would certainly have its perks. He said:

“So if somebody comes up to me at the airport and says, ‘Excuse me, are you Macaulay Culkin?’ I go, ‘Well, Macaulay Culkin is my middle name.’”

Do you find Macaulay Culkin's decision to change his middle name endearing? Does the new choice fit him well? We'd love to hear your thoughts. And don’t forget to pass this on to all the “Home Alone” enthusiasts in your life!