Actor Zach Galifianakis’s sweet act of kindness for a homeless woman captured the hearts of fans, despite him attempting to keep it out of the limelight.
The Hangover star, 54, quietly paid for a formerly homeless woman’s rent for 27 years after the pair became friends when he was an aspiring actor.
Marie ‘Mimi’ Haist had been living in a laundromat in Santa Monica, California, for 20 years when she met Zach while he was trying to make it in Hollywood.Things hadn’t always been this way for Mimi, who was born and raised in Los Angeles. She had previously been married with two children, but lost her home after divorcing her husband when he was unfaithful to her.
Mimi revealed that she began living in a van when she was 50 years old, but it was towed away after she ran out of money, leaving her sleeping on the streets.
On one very cold and rainy night, a janitor took pity on her and let her stay in the local laundromat until the morning, when she charmed the owner who allowed her to stay as long as she needed.
She would help people to do their laundry which made her enough money to afford food and drink.
Mimi had been living there for 20 years, sleeping on a plastic lawn chair between the washing machines and dryers, when she met Zach after helping him to wash his clothes while he was trying to make it as an actor in the 90s.
After the pair became friends and Zach found out about Mimi’s circumstances, he found her a comfortable apartment and began paying the rent for her, despite not yet having made it big himself.
Zach tried to keep his kind act out of the limelight. Credit: Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images
Although he tried to keep the generous gesture under the radar as much as possible, Zach even took Mimi as his date to the 2009 red carpet of The Hangover.
Mimi’s life was immortalized in the 2015 documentary, Queen Mimi, by filmmaker Yaniv Rokah, who discovered her while he was working as a barista at a coffee shop opposite the laundromat where she lived.
Yaniv, who was also an aspiring actor at the time, explained to People in 2016: “I remember thinking, ‘Who is this older woman who’s working at a laundromat seven days a week? And why does she seem so happy all the time?’
“Here I am struggling to make it in Hollywood, working at a coffee shop, and across the street there’s this ball of fire, like a pink-wearing, singing, dancing diva who turns out to be homeless.”
He began filming their days together on his iPhone 4 after befriending her, with the footage later being used in the documentary.
It is in Queen Mimi that the world found out about Zach’s selfless act toward Mimi, though he was reluctant to take part and make it public, as he did not want it to be seen as a publicity stunt.
Mimi explained how the pair’s decades-long friendship had begun, revealing to Glamour in 2016: “I taught him how to wash his clothes.”
Zach joked: “We talk about sex, Mimi and I, and we laugh a lot,” before adding, “It is my honor to know that woman.”
After Zach sorted Mimi out with a safe place to live, he also introduced her to Renée Zellweger, who helped her to furnish her apartment.
Despite their star status, Mimi never thought of Zach or Renée as anything other than her friends, explaining: “I really appreciate Zach and Renée for [everything they’ve done].
“I have a place to live now and my own bed. I now get my social security, so it helps me pay [for food] and my phone bill.”
And although she no longer had to sleep in the laundromat at night, Mimi made sure she was still there for the customers, telling Glamour: “I still go to the laundromat every day.
“I do my own washings, of course. I go there to keep busy and teach people how to wash their clothes. People come into the laundromat and say, ‘Oh, I know you! You’re a star!’ It shocks me.”
Mimi died in 2021 at the age of 96, having shared photos of her birthday celebration just months earlier, which was attended by Renée.