Homeless, in distinguished company
Major financial difficulties can hit anyone. Ask James A. Conrad, coauthor of “Filmmaker’s Dictionary,” who has compiled a list of Noted Individuals Who Have Experienced Homelessness -- including himself -- at angelfire.com/stars4/lists/homeless.html.
Founder of the Celebrity Research Lists website, Conrad speaks from experience. “The first list I created was the bankruptcy list in 2001, because there was a chance back then that I was going to file for bankruptcy [but] I didn’t,” he says via e-mail. “I wanted to have a place on the Internet where I could send people to learn and to prove that some very famous people had also filed in their pasts and they are still respected today. I added the other lists ... and soon it became sort of a hobby, a site for researchers and a public service.”
Conrad’s site identifies those who’ve told of sleeping in their vehicles (Drew Carey, David Letterman, William Shatner), on the streets (Charlie Chaplin), or staying, however briefly, in homeless shelters (Kelly Clarkson, Tupac Shakur). Several Nobel Prize, Academy Award, Emmy, Grammy nominees and winners also make the list.
“Some people find the lists psychologically helpful, that there have been famous people throughout history who have experienced their similar situation,” says Conrad, who updates the site from a public library in Florida. He describes himself on the list as “American author; physics researcher; the first researcher in history to offer a scientific equation for telekinesis (car/outdoor camping: ‘Like the song says, “I’ve looked at life from both sides now.” ’)”
He hopes his luck will change soon. “There is a good chance I will escape homelessness before the end of this year, assuming I make it safely through another hurricane season,” he says. “I am currently writing a feature spec screenplay of the fairy tale ‘The Sleeping Beauty’ with two other writers, one a medieval history PhD. We already have an agent-attorney-author interested in the material. Events in motion could help get me out of homelessness sooner than later.” True to his “there’s no shame in homelessness” ethos, he says that wherever fortune takes him, his name will remain on his site.