Most famous actors end up in Los Angeles, New York, or a gated property somewhere in between. A handful have gone the other way, building their lives around the small places where they were raised.
Here are four stars whose home addresses still point back to their roots. Some details of their living situations vary, so each entry notes what is publicly reported.
Jeff Daniels, Chelsea, Michigan
Jeff Daniels lives with his wife and children in his hometown of Chelsea, Michigan. He didn’t settle in some far-off retreat after leaving Hollywood. He moved back to Chelsea, where he has lived with his wife Kathleen ever since.
Chelsea is a small town in southeast Michigan. Daniels, known for Dumb and Dumber and later The Newsroom, grew up there. He also founded the Purple Rose Theatre Company in the town in 1991, which gave his hometown a professional stage and tied his career to it.
Jamie Lynn Spears, Kentwood, Louisiana
Jamie Lynn Spears was raised in Kentwood, Louisiana, with her sister Britney, and still lives near there today. The actress first became widely known through the Nickelodeon series Zoey 101, yet her home base never moved far from the Deep South.
Kentwood is a very small town, and the family’s ties to it run deep. The Spears family comes from Kentwood and still keeps residences there. For Jamie Lynn, staying close to home has been a long running part of her public story.
John O’Hurley, Kittery, Maine
John O’Hurley was raised in Kittery, Maine, and remains a resident of his hometown. Many viewers know him as J. Peterman on Seinfeld, and he later became a familiar television host.
Kittery sits on the southern edge of Maine, right along the New Hampshire border. It’s a long way from a Hollywood studio lot, yet O’Hurley has kept his address in the place where he grew up, according to Best Life’s roundup of celebrities who stayed in their hometowns.
Dave Chappelle, Yellow Springs, Ohio
Chappelle’s story is a little different, because his roots are split between two places. He grew up in the suburbs of Washington, D.C., but often spent summers in the sleepy town of Yellow Springs, Ohio, and went to middle school there too. Yellow Springs, outside Dayton, has a population of 3,702, and his father was a professor at Antioch College.
Best Life’s list of Hollywood names living in small towns includes Chappelle in Yellow Springs, which shows how closely he is linked to the village today. He has built his adult life there instead of in a major entertainment hub. Of the four stars here, his hometown tie is the most layered, since he spent formative years in two very different places.
