Question of the Week: Do you have any actors in your family tree?

Question

Do you have any actors in your family? 

Tell us about them with an answer below. You can also answer on Facebook or share the question image with friends and family on social media to get them talking.

Comments

Marilyn Monroe is my 10th cousin. There's a few more sprinkled in there: Lucille Ball , Shirley Temple, Katherine Hepburn, Elvis.

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Hi Char, we must be related.  Marilyn Monroe is my 8th cousin and Elvis is my 10th cousin.  I have all of the others you mentioned, too!  Oh, and I'm told Barbara Feldon is my 2nd cousin, although I have not been able to track it.  So fascinating!

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It is isn't it? I am fascinated, as mom was never forthcoming about her family, and dads is just all over the place, never knew much of either until i started digging a few years ago.

Well now I'll have to dig for Barbara :D.    

Nice too meet you likely cousin!

Answer 1

Dick Van Dyke and I are 7th cousins once removed.

• Branch 1¹⁷: Van Dyke (2) → Ware (3) → Strader (2) → Stauffer (1) → Kiesel (2) → Kissell (2) → Buch (5)

Answer 2

Through WikiTree, I was able to find that Chris Pine is my 5th cousin. This is a public domain photo of him as Capt. James T. Kirk. It was taken when he attended a screening for Star Trek in 2009.

Answer 3

Haven't found any blood relations, but my distant cousin John Edwards (Edwards-31778) married a Sarah Ellen Blessed, who is related to Brian Blessed.

Answer 4

Yep, Perry Fenwick (Billy Mitchell of Eastenders) is my 3rd cousin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perry_Fenwick

Comments

My cousin has been assistant director and production manager for Eastenders (and other stuff)!   His father was one of the 1st Doctor's companions.

Answer 5

1940's starlet and WWII-era pinup girl Betty Grable and silent film actress Virginia Pearson (who appeared in the Lon Chaney version of Phantom of the Opera) are my 3rd cousins 3x removed (they're 2nd cousins to each other).

Answer 6

Yes, multiple. One was my 7th cousin 4x removed(!) Fred Kelsey. Another is my aunt (still living,) she is retired now.

Answer 7

According to the tree on FamilySearch, Heather Menzies who played Louisa in The Sound of Music is my 7th cousin 2x removed. She and her brother are DNA matches to me.

Answer 8

Just myself, I think! I had a brief career as a professional actor between 2005 and 2010. I managed to rack up 3 IMDb credits (link in my profile). And I've done amateur acting for 50 years off and on, first at university and then with various community theatre groups.

Answer 9

I have several:

1.  My first cousin Patricia Zentilli is an actress in Canada (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patricia_Zentilli)

2.  My second cousin, twice removed Dietrich von Oppen was an actor in Germany in the 1920's (https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2013793/)

3. My sixth great, grandmother Maria Josepha Seyffert was an actress in Mannheim (https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josepha_von_Heydeck)

Answer 10

I have an actor in my family as well. My Son thoroughly enjoyed several years of drama classes. He started at age 7 and continued until he was 15, they put on two 3 act performances yearly.

Answer 11

Here are my two closest notable cousins, though I am related to many more distantly. I am an actor myself and do smaller films and commercials. Theater many years ago.

9 degrees - Robert Duvall - (5th cousin, 1x removed)
14 degrees - Stephen King - (6th cousin, 1x removed)

I mention Stephen King because he has had minor bit parts/cameos in some of his movies.

Comments

John Waters and Elizabeth Montgomery are also  Mareen Duvall descendants (there are probably more than just those, too).

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Yep! So many additional famous cousins, including Barack Obama, from the upper Duvall line where I also intersect into with my 7th great grandparents Alexander Falconar and Susannah Duvall. But I meet Robert much closer on my Herndon line. His 4th great grandparents, William Herndon and Frances White, are my 5th great grandparents through my great grandmother, Christine Herndon.

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My mistake! I assumed your connection to Robert was through the Duvall line (I'm descended from Susannah Duvall who married Robert Tyler, and I checked the relationship finder and saw you're also a Duvall descendant).

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No worries! I knew about my connection to Robert through my Herndon line for years but it was only when I joined Wiki this year that I discovered my Duvall line (which helped when I discovered the true father of my grandfather). 

Shonda and C Handy
10th cousins
20 degrees (shortest connection - 2 branches)
22 degrees (common ancestor - 1 branch)
MRCA - Maureen Duvall

Nice to meet you, cousin!

Answer 12

Brad Pitt is my 3rd cousin once removed through the Coker/Trotter line.

Answer 13

Not a blood relative but I have an actress/singer  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisa_Stokke ,my wonderful talented niece! She performed Into the Unknown with Idina Menzel during the Academy Awards

Answer 14

My 4th cousin is Ernie Wise, of Morecambe and Wise. Apart from being in the legendary comedy duo, they starred in a number of movies and TV shows.

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Wiseman-3538

Answer 15

Family Hero and Heroine : David Llewellyn (Lynn) Harding, renowned Victorian - Edwardian actor, Born in St Brides Wentlooge, Wales, where a bronze plaque celebrates his life as an actor,  and Rachel Roberts, highly regarded Welsh Actress who is well recorded in Wikitree as a wife of Rex Harrison..

Not sure if I met David as a young child but certainly taken to meet Rachel in Swansea in the early 50's.  My GM was David's sister Alice.   More info if you are a Harding family member.

Answer 16

Neil Patrick Harris and I are 9th cousins, both descended from daughters of Hermann Johann Otterbach, original settlers of the Germanna Colony in 1714 in Colonial Virginia.

Answer 17

John Henry Brodribb aka Sir Henry Irving b 6 Feb 1838 d 13 Oct 1905 is my 1st cousin 3x removed.

Answer 18

My grandmother Grete, née Vogel, (Vogel-2371) was an actress, albeit only for a few years. Her favorite role was Joan of Arc in Friedrich Schiller's play "Die Jungfrau von Orleans" (The Maid of Orleans).

My husband's great-aunt was married to Joseph Wiseman (Wiseman-3115), famous for his role of Dr. No in the first James Bond movie.

Answer 19

My grandfather, Howard Nabors, always said that Jim Nabors, aka: Gomer Pyle, was his cousin. I have not found the connection. My grandfather is buried in the Nabors Cemetery in Sylacauga, AL. That is where Jim Nabors is from.

Comments

Hi Sheila,

It seems that they are 5th cousins...

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Chantal, thank you for that info.

Answer 20

Donnie Wayne Johnson (Don Johnson) is my 4th cousin through the Maples family, on the Gold side of the family (both on my dad's side) I'm 41 degrees.  On my husband's side I'm 20 degrees from Don.