14 Celebs With Surprising Famous Ancestors From History

Did you know that Robert Pattinson is actually a descendant of Vlad Cepesh, aka Count Dracula?

Damjan

• Published in Film & TV
• June 13, 2022

We all have ancestors we love and honor, right? Well, some people have ancestors that are loved and honored by many.

And some of the celebs today are actually descendants of some pretty important people - celebs of their time. Is excellence a hereditary trait?

Is celebrity inherited? Isn't it true that some of the traits that help people become celebrities are genetic?

Athletic talent, musical ability, and flawless facial symmetry are all qualities that can run in families, but is there another form of greatness? When we learned how many modern celebrities are related to famous historical individuals, we couldn't help but wonder about that.

A family DNA pool that gives birth to a world-class cricket player, a British prime minister, a quadruple Academy Award contender who also acted in the Harry Potter films, a Spanish ambassador, a navy vice admiral, and a nursing pioneer Florence Nightingale is really special. And each of those individuals is related to a present celebrity (check out No. 4 on our list to find out who).

It turns out that at least 15 celebrities have some interesting or renowned historical forebears, whether it's due to DNA, privilege, or pure chance. Some celebrities have fascinating family trees, ranging from Abraham Lincoln's and Ernest Hemingway's ancestors to Hugh Hefner's distant cousins.

1. Tom Hanks

One of America's favorite actors, Tom Hanks, is a direct descendent of one of the country's most renowned presidents. Through his mother's side of the family, Tom is related to Abraham Lincoln.

Because the two are practically third cousins, Tom's narration of a Lincoln biography is all the more remarkable.

2. Riley Keough

Riley Keough is a rising star in the acting world. She recently starred in the film Zola and will play Daisy Jones in the upcoming (and much-anticipated) Amazon production of Daisy Jones and The Six. She'll play a singer, which may need her to draw on her musical ancestry, which she inherited from her late grandfather, Elvis Presley.

3. Cindy Crawford

Cindy Crawford (and her famous model daughter, Kaia Gerber) are cousins to one of America's literary giants. Cindy's family has deep ties to the United States, and Ernest Hemingway is one of her ancestors.

4. Helena Bonham Carter

Remember the incredibly well-connected actor we described in the article's intro, who is related to a British prime minister and Florence Nightingale, among others? Helen Bonham Carter's family tree includes all of those people.

She comes from a politically and diplomatically well-connected British family.

5. Zooey Deschanel

When actress Zooey Deschanel went on the TV show about genealogy, she, like many other celebrities, learned amazing secrets about her ancestry. Her relatives were involved in the Civil War and owned a property that was a stop on the famed Underground Railroad, among other things.

6. Robert Pattinson

It turns out that Robert Pattison, who played a vampire in the Twilight movies, is actually a distant relative of Vlad the Impaler. Not only did Vlad the Impaler have one of history's most renowned nicknames, but he was also considered to be the inspiration for the most famous vampire of all time: Dracula!

7. George Clooney

George Clooney is another star who can claim 16th President Abraham Lincoln as his ancestor. George's family, like Lincoln's, has deep roots in Kentucky, and the two are linked by a common ancestor named Lucy Hanks.

8. Johnny Depp

Johnny Depp does have royal ties, sharing an ancestor with Queen Elizabeth. They are both linked to King Edward III of England, who ruled in the 1300s.

9. LMFAO

The uncle and nephew duo are not only connected to each other (who knew? ), but also to Berry Gordy Jr., the creator of Motown Records, and former President Jimmy Carter.

10. Ozzy Osbourne

Ozzy Osbourne, the rocker, has always had a rebellious streak, which he may have acquired from one of his distant relatives, bandit Jesse James. Ozzy found this relationship after experts sequenced his DNA, which also indicated that he is related to King George I on a distant level.

11. Sophia Loren

Sophia Loren is one of the all-time idols of sex appeal on the silver screen. She is from Rome and has a family link to former Italian dictator Benito Mussolini through marriage, which she may not be proud of considering his ties to political violence.

12. Glenn Close

Glenn Close is a fourth cousin, seven times removed of George Washington, the first president of the United States. Prince Harry of England is a distant cousin of President George W. Bush. He is nine times removed from Prince William and counts him as a second cousin.

13. Patton Oswalt

Patton Oswalt, a comedian, is one of the many, many persons who claim to have a genetic link to Genghis Khan, the founder of the Mongol Empire. As Patton brilliantly described during an interview with Conan O'Brien in 2017, Genghis Khan was thought to have been very, hmm, productive with his genetic material.

14. Hugh Hefner

Hugh Hefner, the late founder of Playboy, was not a Puritan, but he was a direct descendant of William Bradford, a Puritan leader who arrived on the Mayflower and became the governor of the Plymouth colony. Hef shares this ancestor with former President George W. Bush, which is interesting.

They say the apple doesn't fall far from the tree... unless you fast-forward several generations, change the names, or have a diversified gene pool, in which case the apple appears to have fallen from an orange tree. Friends and acquaintances will occasionally exclaim, "That's your dad?!?" or "You look nothing like your sister."

Genetics can act in odd ways, whether it's with grandparents, parents, or siblings. These people, however, have won the genetic lottery...

Damjan