Unexpected Famous Actor Family Ties
Recently, genealogical communities have been much engaged in the family history of celebrities – including actors. The information obtained about ancestors and family ties is sometimes a surprise even for the stars themselves, not to mention their fans. “T&Gen_web” has collected for you the most surprising and even shocking facts.
Research conducted by the Genealogical Society of New England proved the kinship between Hollywood actor Brad Pitt and President Barack Obama. Their common ancestor, Edwin Hickman, died in Virginia in 1769. Interestingly, during the election race, Pitt joined the number of celebrities who supported Obama, while the actor’s mother Jane favored Mitt Romney.
Angelina Jolie has also revealed ties to the White House. As it turned out, she is a distant relative of former U.S. first lady Hillary Clinton. Clinton has other distant relatives who have achieved success in the field of film and show business: her ancestors on her mother’s side – the Canadian French, and through them she is related to the singers Madonna, Celine Dion and Alanis Morissette.
The common ancestor of Celine Dion and Madonna was Zachary Cloutier, a carpenter who settled in Quebec in 1634.
Family ties unite almost all members of the film and show-business, whose ancestors lived in French Canada. Not so long ago, experts were able to establish a relationship between actor Ryan Gosling and three well-known musicians – Justin Bieber, Celine Dion and Avril Lavigne.
Hollywood has several relatives of the 16th president of the United States, the legendary Abraham Lincoln. First established a connection between him and Tom Hanks. And more recently, experts have again set out to compile a family tree of the president for the release of the biographical film by Steven Spielberg and accidentally discovered the relationship between Lincoln and George Clooney.
While American stars are often related to one president or another, many Britons boast connections to the royal family. Thus, actor Ralph Fiennes (“Schindler’s List”, “Harry Potter”) is related to Prince Charles, and “Sherlock Holmes” director Guy Ritchie is a relative of the Duchess of Cambridge, Kate Middleton. However, the British royal family also has blood relatives among the famous residents of the United States. According to studies, the closest American relative of Queen Elizabeth II is actress Hilary Duff.
Glenn Close (“Fatal Attraction,” “Dangerous Liaisons”) is a unique actress, who has been nominated for “Oscar” six times, but has never won a single award. But her distant relative turned out to be more fortunate: Glenn has common roots with Meryl Streep, who was nominated for “Oscar” a record 17 times and has already won three statuettes.
Matt Damon and Ben Affleck share a long friendship, a shared Oscar nomination for “Good Will Hunting” and, as it turns out, a bloodline. According to archival records, Matt and Ben’s common ancestor was named William Knowlton, Jr. He was a bricklayer, originally from England, who moved to Massachusetts in 1630.
Sometimes archival documents give the most general idea of a person who lived centuries ago – name, occupation, occupation, year of birth and death. But sometimes they manage to extract a little more information. This worked, for example, for researchers who delved into the genealogy of Tom Cruise. It turned out that the great-grandfather of the charming actor is not distinguished by beauty: the card that was filled out when he joined the army, he is described as “small, fat and bald.
In addition to relationships that are lost in the depths of time, many Hollywood and “okolololollywood” characters are connected by closer family ties, which, for one reason or another, is not advertised. For example, not everyone knows that Nicolas Cage’s real last name is Coppola: he is a cousin of Sofia Coppola and a nephew of Francis Ford Coppola, the creator of “Apocalypse Now” and “The Godfather”. And model Jenny McCarthy is a cousin of Melissa McCarthy, a character actress with unconventional looks. It wasn’t until 2011 when Jenny congratulated her cousin on winning an Emmy on her Twitter.
Those Hollywood celebrities who are not close or distant relatives are connected thanks to the institution of godparents. For example, Nicole Richie, the adopted daughter of musician Lionel Richie, is simultaneously the goddaughter of Michael Jackson. Jackson’s children were baptized by Elizabeth Taylor and Macaulay Culkin. Sophia Loren became Drew Barrymore’s godmother; Drew, in turn, fulfilled this duty to Frances Bean Cobain, daughter of Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love. Jake Gyllenhaal baptized Matilda, daughter of his Brokeback Mountain partners Heath Ledger and Michelle Williams, and Jake’s own godparents were Paul Newman and Jamie Lee Curtis.