{"id":2188,"date":"2026-06-18T11:46:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T11:46:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gleamgrid.co.za\/?p=2188"},"modified":"2026-06-18T11:46:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T11:46:11","slug":"5-celebs-who-were-actual-criminals-before-they-got-famous","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gleamgrid.co.za\/index.php\/2026\/06\/18\/5-celebs-who-were-actual-criminals-before-they-got-famous\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Celebs Who Were Actual Criminals Before They Got Famous"},"content":{"rendered":"

You think you know your favourite stars? Behind the red carpets, some of Hollywood’s biggest names have rap sheets longer than their filmographies. Here are five famous faces who traded prison jumpsuits for the spotlight.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Mark Wahlberg \u2013 From Hate Crime to Hollywood Royalty<\/span><\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

At 16, Wahlberg was convicted of assault for a brutal racially motivated attack that left one man blind. He spent 50 days in prison at Deer Island penitentiary. He later tried to have the charges pardoned, but the dark chapter still haunts him.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Danny Trejo \u2013 The Convict Who Became Hollywood’s Favourite Bad Guy<\/span><\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

A heroin user by 12 and dealer by 13, Trejo spent years in San Quentin and Folsom for drug dealing and armed robbery. He held boxing titles behind bars before finding sobriety in 1968. His big break came when an assistant director spotted his rough look and cast him as a convict extra.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

50 Cent \u2013 Shot Nine Times And Still Standing<\/span><\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

By age 12, 50 Cent was selling crack on the streets of Queens. His mother was murdered when he was just eight. In 2000, he was shot nine times and survived \u2013 then turned that street credibility into a multi-platinum music career.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Tim Allen \u2013 One Pound Of Cocaine Away From Life In Prison<\/span><\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

In 1978, Tim Allen was arrested at a Michigan airport with over a pound of cocaine in his luggage. Under Michigan’s “650-lifer law,” he faced life in prison without parole. He served two years and four months, then became America’s favourite dad on Home Improvement.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Ozzy Osbourne \u2013 The Attempted Murder He Doesn’t Remember<\/span><\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

In 1989, a drug-crazed Ozzy tried to strangle his wife Sharon to death. He had no memory of it the next morning and was arrested for attempted murder. He served six months in medical detention, and Sharon somehow forgave him.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You think you know your favourite stars? Behind the red carpets, some of Hollywood’s biggest names have rap sheets longer than their filmographies. Here are five famous faces who traded…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2193,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,1,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-celebrities","category-exclusives","category-photo-vault"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gleamgrid.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gleamgrid.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gleamgrid.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gleamgrid.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gleamgrid.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2188"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gleamgrid.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2188\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2195,"href":"https:\/\/gleamgrid.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2188\/revisions\/2195"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gleamgrid.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gleamgrid.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gleamgrid.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gleamgrid.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}