MY VERSION OF SUCCESS

HOW FAMILY DYNAMICS BOTH REAL AND SCRIPTED HAVE INFORMED THE STAR'S LIFE AND CAREER

- Jennie Noonan

To hear Keiran Culkin tell it, the events of Home Alone - in which a boy, played in the 1990 film by his big brother Macaulay, gets left behind while his family goes on holiday - would never have happened on his watch. As the fourth of seven kids growing up in a four-bedroom apartment in New York City, he was ever vigilant. "Whenever the door would open to let the kids in, I used to stand aside and make sure, and I used to count to make sure all six of them got in before I got in," the 42-year-old said on the November 3 episode of CBS Sunday Morning. "That's how I remember growing up, too, was I couldn't fall asleep until they all fell asleep. Like, I only existed because they did around me."