Ray William Johnson: True Story Podcast - Charlize Theron Was Almost Murdered

Episode Date: May 28, 2026

Charlize Theron’s father, Charles Theron, was legally shot and killed by her mother, Gerda, in self-defense on June 21, 1991, after he violently attacked his family. Charles, a chronic alcoholic, returned to the family’s South Africa home in a drunken rage.

You know that actress Charlize Throne? Do you know she was almost murdered by her own father? All right, so Charlize is 15 years old when this story starts, and she's living on a small farm in South Africa, and at this point, she has no idea she's going to be an Oscar-winning Hollywood star one day. She's just a poor kid living with her parents, who spends all her time taking care of farm animals and walking around with her best friend, her goat.

But Charlize has a problem. Her dad is a terrible human being. His name is Charles. And Charles, he's an alcoholic, and when he drinks, he gets really aggressive over any little thing, he becomes a pretty scary dude. And he and Charlize's mom will fight about his drinking quite a lot. Her mom is this woman, Gerda. And Gerda, she wants to protect Charlize, and she knows that growing up around this drunken

behavior is bad for her. So Charlize wakes up every morning not knowing what kind of of hell awaits her. It all depends on her dad's mood and how much he's drank that day. So the best thing she and her mom can do is to try and avoid setting him off, knowing that he could explode at any moment. And that moment is about to come. Because one night in 1991, Charlize and Gerta drive into town to go to the movies together. And when they come home, they try to get in their house through the front steel door. Their doors are all made of steel because of the crime in the area during this time, not just the front door, but all the doors in the house

are steel. Anyway, they quickly realized that they can't get in, and their steel front door is locked and they don't have the key, because Charles, he's actually taken it and left the house. Now, they know where he is, he's off at his brother's place getting drunk. So with no way to get inside, they have to go get the key from Charles, even though the last thing they want to do is be around him when he's been drinking. So they drive to Charles's brother's house. And when they get there, Charles and his brother are already sloppy wasted. So Charlize and her mom want to get out of there as soon as possible.

So Gertie gets the key from Charles. But Charlize has to go pee real quick. So she runs to the bathroom and she runs right past her dad without greeting him or saying anything. And Charles, being the insecure, angry person that he is, he takes the this as a sign of disrespect. And so when Charlize comes back, he starts going off like, you walk right past your father without saying hello? Who do you think you are? Disrespecting me like that? And this confrontation is getting louder and uglier by the second. And he's completely belligerent and getting out of control. So Gerta takes Charlize and they get the hell

out of there and they go back home. Once they're home, they sit down to talk. They know that dad is going to go ap shit when he gets there. And Charlize, she straight up tells her mom, I think you should get divorced. We can't keep living like this. And she also says, when he comes home, tell him I'm asleep. That way, he's less likely to yell at her if he thinks that she's gone to bed. Then Charlize goes to her room. Then she turns off her lights, but she looks out from her bedroom window, watching for Charles to come home so that she can be prepared for his potential outburst. Meanwhile, back at his brother's house, Charles is super pissed off. He can't stop thinking about what just happened.

How dare his daughter walk right past him without greeting him. In his culture, young people show respect to their elders. And as he gets drunker and drunker, he gets more and more angry. And Charles's brother, he's totally not helping. He keeps telling Charles that he's right to be angry and offended, that the way Charlize acted was wrong and that he should set her straight. So Charles decides he's going to go home and he's going to teach his daughter a lesson. So pretty quickly, Charles comes tearing into the driveway and his brother is in the car with him.

And poor Charlize, she's watching through her bedroom window. And she can tell by the maniacal way that he pulls in that shit is about to get crazy. And when he steps out of the car, Charlize is now terrified. Because she can see that her dad isn't just angry. He's also armed. Then suddenly, blam, blam! Blam! Charles starts shooting into the steel front door, and he breaks into the house. And Charlize, she knows what's about to happen.

He's about to kill her and her mom. While Gerta, she hears the gunshots, and she immediately runs to the family safe, and she opens it and she grabs her own gun. Then she runs to Charlize's bedroom to protect her. So now, Charlize and her mother are inside the bedroom, pressing their bodies against the door to barricade. it shut because there's no lock on it and they have to physically hold the door closed with everything they've got and boom charles tries busting through it but they block him and he can't get

through so he decides he's going to blast his way in and he points that gun at the door and blam blam blam he starts shooting it he's shooting at his own wife and daughter through the bedroom door while his drunk brother cheers him on now remember all the doors in the house are steel which is probably why Charlize and her mom didn't get shot in the head. So pretty quickly, Charles runs out of ammo. So he heads to the family safe to get more weapons. So now, Gerta has a choice to make. She can either kill this guy,

or she can let herself and her daughter be killed. So she makes her choice. She stops pressing against the door, and she opens it up, and she steps into the hallway, and she sees Charles's brother first, and blam, she fires, and a bullet misses and ricochets off the hallway wall and hits his hand.

And he's like, ah, and he runs away. Then she sees Charles at the family safe, reaching for more guns. So she points her gun at him, and blam, she shoots him. And so finally, their nightmare is over. And Charlize sees her dead dad on the ground, and she knows her mom just saved both of their lives. And of course, police come out and they investigate, but pretty quickly the whole situation is determined to be self-defense,

and Gerta is never charged with anything. But even so, Charlize has another problem. Everyone at school has always known her dad is a drunk asshole, and they mock her for it. It's actually quite humiliating. So her mom tells her, you know what, go out and make a life for yourself. There's nothing here for you now.

And that is exactly what Charlize does. At just 16 years old, she quits school and she leaves home to go start a career as a model. Three years later, Charlize is in Hollywood and she's completely broke. And she like often steals bread from restaurant baskets to keep from starving. Like that's how broke she is. Now at one point, her mom sends her a little money to help her survive. But Charlize takes it to the bank and the teller won't cash it because it's from, you know, out of state. And Charlize is desperate for money.

and she's down to her last few dollars. So she starts flipping out, having a meltdown, arguing with the bank teller, yelling, loud enough for the whole bank to hear. And that is when a man behind her in line thinks, wow, that angry chick is pretty hot. And he's super impressed by her persuasion, and he hands her his business card. And Charlize is absolutely stunned because this guy ends up being a talent agent. And so this is actually the start of four. her massive acting career.

And much later, when Charlize wins her Oscar, her mom is sitting in the front row watching the daughter that she saved. And Charlize goes ahead and thanks her.