LaBeouf was born in Los Angeles, California, the only child of Shayna (née Saide) and Jeffrey Craig LaBeouf.[2] LaBeouf's mother, a native of New York, is a dancer and ballerina turned visual artist and clothing jewelry designer; before she met LaBeouf's father, she ran a head shop in Brooklyn.[3] LaBeouf's father is a Vietnam War veteran who "drifted" from job to job, working as a mime at a circus, a snow cone salesman, a rodeo clown, a stand-up comedian, and touring with the Doobie Brothers as their opening act.[4][5][6][7] LaBeouf's mother is Jewish and his father is a Cajun (once described by LaBeouf as a "Ragin' Cajun"). LaBeouf was raised in his mother's Jewish religion and had a Bar Mitzvah, though he was also baptized.[8][9][10] LaBeouf has said that he comes from "five generations of performers" and was "acting when [he] came out of the womb."[7] One of LaBeouf's great-grandmothers played piano in gangster Lucky Luciano’s casino.[11] LaBeouf's maternal grandfather, a Polish-born Holocaust survivor who shared his first name,[12] was a comedian who worked in the Borscht Belt of the Catskill Mountains and sidelined as a barber for the Mafia.[11] LaBeouf's alcoholic paternal grandfather was a Green Beret in the military[11] and LaBeouf's paternal grandmother was a Beatnik poet and lesbian who associated with Allen Ginsberg.[4][13][14]
LaBeouf has described his parents as "hippies", his father as "tough as nails and a different breed of man", and his upbringing as similar to a "hippy lifestyle", stating that his parents were "pretty weird people, but they loved me and I loved them."[7][15][5][7] The actor also accompanied his dad to alcoholic anonymous meetings.[4] LaBeouf has also said he was subjected to verbal and mental abuse by his father, who once pointed a gun at his son during a Vietnam War flashback.[7] LaBeouf says his father was "on drugs" during his childhood and was placed in drug rehabilitation for heroin addiction while LaBeouf's mother was "trying to hold down the fort."[5] His parents eventually divorced, mainly due to financial problems,[16] and LaBeouf had what he has described as a "good childhood", growing up poor with his mother, who worked selling fabrics and brooches in Echo Park, Los Angeles, California.[17][18] LaBeouf's uncle was going to adopt him at one stage because his parents could not afford to have him anymore and "they had too much pride to go on welfare or food stamps."[19] As a way of dealing with his parents divorce he would perform for his family, mimicking his father.[20]
LaBeouf attended 32nd Street Visual and Performing Arts Magnet in Los Angeles (LAUSD)[7] and Alexander Hamilton High School, although he received most of his education from tutors.[18] Following high-school, LaBeouf was accepted to Yale University but declined, later saying, "[I am] getting the kind of education you don't get at school,"[21] although he would like to attend college.[7] In a May 2009 Parade magazine interview, LaBeouf commented on how his parents' personal struggles, and his childhood, had an influence on him, "My dad and my mom were both artists who never found an audience for their artwork. And so I lived in poverty. Now that I'm not poor, I know that is what it was. Like Hemingway said, you can't write anything if you've never been shot at or been gored by a bull, you know? So I look back at that stuff and I'm grateful. It's like scars. You become proud of them."[16] In that same interview, LaBeouf explained that part of what he remembers is in 1988, when he was two, his dad began dressing him up as a clown and putting him to work shilling for the family's pushcart business.[3] LaBeouf recalled, "It was a hustle. We’d walk around the neighborhood in full clown regalia [...] My embarrassment factor didn't exist. I had fun, because I knew that in the middle of a performance my parents couldn't fight. So, for sure, every day, there had to be some peaceful time for us, or we weren't going to make it through the week financially."[16]
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