He’s one of Hollywood’s most compelling actors today, known for disappearing into roles that haunt and mesmerize.But his childhood was anything but ordinary. Born into a family that rejected conventional life, his parents abandoned the comforts of California to roam South America, raising their five children in extreme poverty and countercultural chaos.No one could have predicted that one member of the family would grow up to become one of the world’s most famous stars.

Many of Hollywood’s biggest stars had surprisingly unusual and challenging childhoods. Some even grew up in cults, by which we mean any small group led by a self-proclaimed leader who exerts extreme control over its members.Take Oscar-nominated actress Glenn Close, for instance, who spent her formative years — from age 7 to 22 — immersed in a group called the Moral Re-Armament.The Hollywood giant we’re focusing on today left cult life far earlier, by the age of three. He was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, the third of five children to John Lee and Arlyn Bottom. His parents married in 1969 and lived in California before they left everything to become members of a religious cult, called The Children of God.