He was beaten with a stick, a shoe, an ashtray, a phone—anything his mother could give him. By age 11, he was already taking his mother’s “nerve pills,” and by 14, he’d tried every drug imaginable. Despite this, he’s still one of Hollywood’s most prominent actors, with films that have grossed over $10.8 billion worldwide

Unfortunately, in the family home, everyday life was dominated by violence and disorder.

“There was definitely physical violence, which could take the form of throwing an ashtray, hitting someone in the head, hitting them with a high-heeled shoe or a phone—anything that was handy. So we never felt any sense of security in our home,” the actor once confessed.

He added: “The verbal abuse, the psychological abuse, was almost worse than the beatings. The beatings were simply physical pain. You learn to cope with physical pain. You learn to accept it. You learn to cope with it.”

His father’s reaction.
The Hollywood star revealed that his mother, Betty Sue Palmer, was the abuser. Speaking of his father, he recalled his quiet strength, which he observed: