# That famous person is related to WHO? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 14, 2011, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-famous-person-is-related-to-who/589049 "2011-07-14T19:34:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2011, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-famous-person-is-related-to-who/589049/41 "2011-07-15T06:04:16Z")
Jeanette MacDonald, the famous actress and singer from the 1930s and 40s, had a sister, Edith, who was also in show business. Edith MacDonald wasn’t famous under that name, however. She was married to a gentleman named Clarence Rock and was known as Blossom Rock. She became famous in the 1960s for playing Grandmama in “The Addams Family.” ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2011, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-famous-person-is-related-to-who/589049/42 "2011-07-15T06:53:12Z")
Jon Voight’s brother wrote the song “Wild Thing.” ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2011, 6:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-famous-person-is-related-to-who/589049/43 "2011-07-15T06:59:57Z")
Chris Stamp (who co-produced most of the Who’s albums) is brother to Terrence Stamp (who played General Zod in Superman II, and Chancellor Valorum in Star Wars Episode I). Norah Jones is Ravi Shankar’s daughter. Kiefer Sutherland is the grandson of the late Canadian PM Tommy Douglas. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2011, 7:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-famous-person-is-related-to-who/589049/44 "2011-07-15T07:45:56Z")
> [@Argent\_Towers](#): > > Jon Voight’s brother wrote the song “Wild Thing.” He’s [Chip Taylor?](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chip_Taylor) I have never been surprised by one of these trivia threads, but you got me. Bravo! ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2011, 8:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-famous-person-is-related-to-who/589049/45 "2011-07-15T08:20:27Z")
Julia Louis Dreyfus’s half sister Lauren Bowles plays Holly on _True Blood_. The Everly Brothers are first cousins of James Best (character actor and acting teacher best known as Roscoe P. Coltrane). Mia Sara (_Legend_, _Ferris Bueller’s Day Off_) is the mother of Sean Connery’s grandchildren. Jules Asner is the former daughter in law of Ed Asner but is now the wife of Stephen Soderbergh. (She’s been divorced from her first husband for 16 years and has been married to Soderbergh much longer but still retains the surname Asner.) Jennifer Love Hewitt has apparently shagged every third straight guy in show business. Known relationships include Carson Daly, John Mayer, Joey Lawrence, Rich Cronin, Will Friedle, Ross McCall, and Jamie Kennedy- and that’s just the more famous ones. Not a legal relationship, but Mindy Cohn of _Facts of Life_ is godmother to the children of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. She and Pitt met in an acting class when he was new to Hollywood and have been friends ever since. Per prevalent rumor Ron Glass of _Barney Miller_ & _Firefly_ and Tony Geary of _General Hospital_ have been a couple since the 1970s. ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2011, 8:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-famous-person-is-related-to-who/589049/46 "2011-07-15T08:36:56Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > Mia Sara (_Legend_, _Ferris Bueller’s Day Off_) is the mother of Sean Connery’s grandchildren. And the mother of Jim Henson’s grandchildren as well ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2011, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-famous-person-is-related-to-who/589049/47 "2011-07-15T12:32:44Z")
The little girl who starred in \*Escape to Witch Mountain \*is Paris Hilton’s aunt. ---
**Author:** ![GrandWino](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grandwino/32/67_2.png) [@GrandWino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrandWino)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2011, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-famous-person-is-related-to-who/589049/48 "2011-07-15T12:37:55Z")
Maya Rudolph is singer Minne Ripperton’s daughter (the song “Loving You” is about Maya.) ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2011, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-famous-person-is-related-to-who/589049/49 "2011-07-15T13:23:38Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > Charlie Chaplin’s father-in-law was the playwright Eugene O’Neill. (Chaplin married Oona O’Neill when she was 18 and he was 54, after which Eugene O’Neill never spoke to his daughter.) Cannot read this one without thinking about Mia, Woody & Soon-Yi. Jimmy Swaggart, Mickey Gilley and Jerry Lee Lewis are all first cousins. I knew about and admired both NYC Fire Commissioner Thomas von Essen and Broadway actor Max von Essen for many years, but had to read it in a book to realize they were father and son!:smack: ---
**Author:** ![postcards](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8e8cbc/32.png) [@postcards](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/postcards)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2011, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-famous-person-is-related-to-who/589049/50 "2011-07-15T14:20:28Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > … > > George Clooney is one of the closest living relatives of Abraham Lincoln. His Aunt Rosemary was pretty well known, too. > [@Superdude](#): > > Julia Louis-Dreyfuss is married to her former **SNL** castmate Gary Kroeger. According to both Wikipedia and IMDb, you spelled ‘Brad Hall’ wrong. (And why did I ever think she was related to Alfred Dreyfus of [‘The Dreyfus Affair’](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreyfus_affair)?) ---
**Author:** ![lost4life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c4cdca/32.png) [@lost4life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lost4life)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2011, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-famous-person-is-related-to-who/589049/51 "2011-07-15T14:22:06Z")
Father Guido Sarducci’s sister, Antonia Novello, was Surgeon General of the US. Geoffrey Fieger (Dr. Jack Kevorkian’s high profile lawyer) is the brother of the late Doug Fieger, lead singer of The Knack and writer of My Sharona. ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2011, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-famous-person-is-related-to-who/589049/52 "2011-07-15T14:54:39Z")
Nixon’s daughter is married to Eisenhower’s grandson, in an early attempt to breed the GOP Kwisatz Haderacht. ---
**Author:** ![42fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/4/b487fb/32.png) [@42fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/42fish)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2011, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-famous-person-is-related-to-who/589049/53 "2011-07-15T15:02:52Z")
Rage Against The Machine/Audioslave guitarist Tom Morello is the grandnephew of Jomo Kenyatta, the first president of an independent Kenya. ---
**Author:** ![Bearflag70](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Bearflag70](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bearflag70)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2011, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-famous-person-is-related-to-who/589049/54 "2011-07-15T15:16:23Z")
Sgt. Getraer \> Capt. Kirk ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2011, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-famous-person-is-related-to-who/589049/55 "2011-07-15T15:43:37Z")
Actor Mark Harmon gives us a lot of material: 1. His father, Tom Harmon, won the Heisman Trophy at Michigan 2. His wife, Pam Dawber, starred on “Mork & MindY” and “My Sister Sam.” 3. His sister married former teen idol Ricky Nelson. 4. His nephews Matthew and Gunnar were the hair metal duo Nelson. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2011, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-famous-person-is-related-to-who/589049/56 "2011-07-15T15:46:59Z")
Jason Miller was both a successful actor (he starred in “The Exorcist”) and an acclaimed playwright (he won a Tony for “That Championship Season”). He married Jackie Gleason’s daughter. His oldest son is actor Jason Patric. His other son Joshua was a child actor who specialized in creepy roles, in weird movies like “River’s Edge.” ---
**Author:** ![MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MPB_in_Salt_Lake)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2011, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-famous-person-is-related-to-who/589049/57 "2011-07-15T16:49:16Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > Actor Mark Harmon gives us a lot of material: > 3) His sister married former teen idol Ricky Nelson. Didn’t one of his sisters (maybe the one married to Ricky Nelson, maybe a different one) get pretty far gone into hardcore addiction and lose custody of her kids, with Mark Harmon and Pam Dawber eventually adopting them? ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2011, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-famous-person-is-related-to-who/589049/58 "2011-07-15T16:58:33Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > Actor Mark Harmon gives us a lot of material: > > 1. His father, Tom Harmon, won the Heisman Trophy at Michigan > > 2. His wife, Pam Dawber, starred on “Mork & MindY” and “My Sister Sam.” > > 3. His sister married former teen idol Ricky Nelson. > > 4. His nephews Matthew and Gunnar were the hair metal duo Nelson. His sister Kelly (?) was the [Tic Tac girl](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwf37CRZUNk) I had a crush on back in the day… ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2011, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-famous-person-is-related-to-who/589049/59 "2011-07-15T17:03:48Z")
> [@MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](#): > > Didn’t one of his sisters (maybe the one married to Ricky Nelson, maybe a different one) get pretty far gone into hardcore addiction and lose custody of her kids, with Mark Harmon and Pam Dawber eventually adopting them? Harmon petitioned for custody of his sister’s youngest son, Sam. Her other three children (actress Tracy Nelson and brothers Matthew and Gunnar) were adults by that time. Harmon and Dawber dropped the suit when Kristin Nelson insinuated she could produce witnesses who could testify that they had snorted coke with Dawber. She kept custody of Sam, but her brother was granted visitation rights. ---
**Author:** ![missred](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/missred/32/14096_2.png) [@missred](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/missred)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2011, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-famous-person-is-related-to-who/589049/60 "2011-07-15T17:16:36Z")
> [@postcards](#): > > His Aunt Rosemary was pretty well known, too. > > \]?) As well as his uncle by marriage, Jose Ferrar. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-famous-person-is-related-to-who/589049.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-famous-person-is-related-to-who/589049.md?page=4)