Throughout Hollywood history, there have been many examples of stars who seemingly made it big pretty much overnight. As a result, a lot of people don’t put much thought into the importance of their upbringings. For example, most people have no idea that many stars actually feuded with their parents for one reason or another.
In an ideal world, everyone would have loving and supportive parents that would set a good example for them. In reality, however, this isn’t an ideal world as far too many people aren’t that fortunate. For example, Terrence Howard’s father did something that set a very bad example for him and the famous actor, unfortunately, followed in his footsteps to a certain degree.
Abusive Behavior
Even though it could easily be argued that Terrence Howard is a fascinating person and one of the best actors of his generation, he hasn’t been embraced by Hollywood in the same ways that his peers have. While that is a shame in a lot of ways, there also is no doubt that there are valid reasons why a lot of people may not be interested in working with him. After all, Howard’s history of being abusive is well documented at this point.
Over the years, several of Terrence Howard’s romantic partners have stated that he physically abused them. Unlike some stars that have been accused of things, Howard has admitted to his deplorable behavior. While talking to People in 2017, Howard revealed that when he was a kid, his “dad whooped [him] every day until I was 14”. While it is important to note that a lot of victims of abuse break the cycle, some people who were victims as kids grow up to do the same things as adults. Based on what Howard told People, he was in the latter group but he wanted to do better.
"I've made terrible mistakes throughout my life. I was dragging baggage with me that was crippling me mentally and physically. But I finally feel I can put that to rest. I can breathe again."
A Life-Changing Incident
Before most of the abuse that defined Terrence Howard’s early years, his life underwent a huge change when he was still a toddler due to his father’s violence. The reason for that is that Howard witnessed something ghastly that involved his father when he was a youngster.
In 1971, when Terrence Howard was 2-years-old and his mother was pregnant, his family went to a department store to see Santa. While the Howards were waiting in line, another man who was there with his family accused them of cutting. While this should have been a minor argument, things quickly turned violent when his father Tyrone Howard, and the man began trading blows. From there, things only got more out of hand when Tyrone got ahold of a nail file and began wielding it like a knife.
Ultimately, the man that Tyrone Howard fought and then wielded a nail file against lost his life and the incident came to be known as the Santa Line Slaying. Tyrone was then convicted of manslaughter and served 11 months behind bars. Since it was horrible that a man lost his life in front of his family as they waited in line to see Santa, Tyrone's 1971 crime became famous enough that it has its own Wikipedia page today. Witnessing something that violent when he was a kid was bound to have a profound effect on Terrence as he grew up even though he isn’t the only star with a tragic upbringing.
Similar Incident
Even though Terrence Howard has been open about doing some really bad things in his life, nobody has accused him of anything as bad as what his dad did in 1971. However, in 2005, Terrence was involved in an incident that had some truly remarkable similarities to the event that made his father the subject of many headlines.
When Terrence Howard was waiting to be seated at a restaurant in 2005, a man and woman who were in line to be served accused the actor of cutting. Again, that kind of thing happens all of the time and accusations like that rarely lead to anything serious. Unfortunately, just like his father before him, when Terrence was accused of cutting in line, that resulted in violence. In fact, shortly after he was accused, Terrence knocked the man to the ground and hit the woman. Given the fact that his father went to prison after things got out of control when he was accused of cutting, it is a shame that Terrence didn’t learn to walk away from a situation like that.
