As Kinky Friedman puts it “No matter how good Hank Williams Jr. is, someone has to come up to him after every concert and say ‘You’re not as good as your daddy was.’”
So who was/is the highest talented offspring of a highly talented person?
Well, theres Dumas *pere *and Dumas fils, for starters.
In the sports world, near Hall-of-Famer Bobby Bonds sired multiple record holder Barry Bonds. Likewise, the very good right fielder Ken Griffey, Sr. is father to All-Century Teamer Ken Griffey, Jr.
This might raise some hackles, but George Bush, Sr. fathered George Bush, Jr. Being POTUS, even a derided one, must be seen as involving a good deal of talent.
Judy Garland and Liza Minnelli.
Kirk Douglas and Michael Douglas were both pretty good in their primes.
Also forgot to point out John Adams and John Q. Adams. Neither were among my favorites to hold the office, but as I said, POTUS is nothing to sneeze at.
Don’t forget Hank Jr’s son Hank III!
Baseball player Cecil Fielder produced a powerhouse of a son in Prince Fielder. The two are not on speaking terms IIRC.
Also in baseball you have Sandy Alomar with his sons Sandy Jr. and Roberto. Roberto was better than the other two but all 3 were all stars.
And more in baseball, Filipe Alou played in the 60s (along with his brothers Matty and Jesus) and his son Moises played in the 90s. Both were multiple All-Stars.
In music you have Loudon Wainwright and Kate McGarrigle with their famous kids Rufus Wainwright and Martha Wainwright.
Alan Hale Sr. and Alan Hale Jr. Titans of the big and small screens, respectively.
I understand the Wainwright family’s relations are a little strained as well;)
Tim and Jeff Buckley.
Games Goals Assists Points
Bobby Hull - 1474 913 895 1808
Brett Hull - 1269 741 650 1391
Not that unusual in sports; I can think of Yannick Noah (tennis) and Joachim Noah (basketball), Calvin Hill (football) and Grant Hill (basketball), and Ken Norton (boxing) and Ken Norton (football) off the top of my head.
Clearly George HW Bush and George W Bush!
Yeah, I know - not funny.
Kingsley Amis was a very, very highly-regarded Brit author mid-century. His son **Martin Amis ** has gone on to outshine him as an author.
Also you have to define “enormously talented” - Paul McCartney’s, Pete Townshend’s and Billy Corgan’s dads were all working musicians with some level of talent.
Tug McGraw(baseball), father of Tim MCGraw(country music).
Archie Manning had Peyton and Eli.
There is a third son Cooper who is reputed
to have been just as talented, but who suffered
spinal stenosis, and so he could not play.
Academy Award winner Jon Voightand Academy Award winner Angelina Jolie. Ditto with the Fonda and Redgrave families, among others.
In science, there’s the ridiculously talented Curie family. Marie and Pierre shared a Nobel prize (and Marie won another on her own), their daughter, Irene, shared a Nobel prize with her husband, and THEIR children and grandchildren are hotshot scientists on their own.
There are so many Curies in the world of science that Wikipedia has this understated and sad comment about the other Curie daughter.
The Bernoulli family is a pretty legendary group of mathematicians. In particular, Johann Bernoulli’s children were all pretty seriously talented, and the old man was no slouch either.
I’m surprised someone mentioned the Bach family. While several of JS’s sons were very talented, I don’t think anyone considers any of them to be the absolute once-in-a-millenium genius that their father was.
I’ll offer Frederick Law Olmsted and Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr., father and son who pretty much wrote the book on park design and (to a degree) public landscape architecture/urban design as we know it today.
While they were perhaps equally important in terms of actual designed and build output, you still have to give the dad the nod, because he came first, and so by definition was more of a pioneer in the field.
ETA: Turns out it took two brothers (sons) – the other being John C. Olmsted – to live up to the output of their father. So maybe this turns out to be not such a good example after all.