# Why isn't Nick Cage called Nick Copolla? (and other celeb surprise family links)
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-nick-cage-called-nick-copolla-and-other-celeb-surprise-family-links/195043
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [August 14, 2003, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-nick-cage-called-nick-copolla-and-other-celeb-surprise-family-links/195043 "2003-08-14T00:22:31Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 3
### Author:  [@Zhen\_ka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zhen_ka)
#### Post date: [August 14, 2003, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-nick-cage-called-nick-copolla-and-other-celeb-surprise-family-links/195043/41 "2003-08-14T18:20:13Z")
Oh! I remember another one!
Jamie Lee Curtis
[http://us.imdb.com/Name?Curtis,%20Jamie%20Lee](http://us.imdb.com/Name?Curtis,%20Jamie%20Lee)
is married to Christopher Guest
[http://us.imdb.com/Name?Guest,%20Christopher](http://us.imdb.com/Name?Guest,%20Christopher)
and “(b)ecame Baroness, Lady Haden-Guest, when her husband inherited the Barony in 1996.”
From: [http://us.imdb.com/Bio?Curtis,%20Jamie%20Lee](http://us.imdb.com/Bio?Curtis,%20Jamie%20Lee)
I think that’s pretty cool!
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### Author:  [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)
#### Post date: [August 14, 2003, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-nick-cage-called-nick-copolla-and-other-celeb-surprise-family-links/195043/42 "2003-08-14T18:30:01Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Rabid Child \*
> \*\*Oh chill. Sorry I didn’t see YOUR thread, but thanks for posting it. \*\*
Sorry if I sounded snippy - it was all in gest. 🙂
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### Author:  [@Neurotik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neurotik)
#### Post date: [August 14, 2003, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-nick-cage-called-nick-copolla-and-other-celeb-surprise-family-links/195043/43 "2003-08-14T22:04:26Z")
Don’t forget that country musician and Ford pitchman Tim McGraw is the son of the baseball player Tug McGraw.
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### Author:  [@Gangster\_Octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gangster_Octopus)
#### Post date: [August 14, 2003, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-nick-cage-called-nick-copolla-and-other-celeb-surprise-family-links/195043/44 "2003-08-14T22:11:13Z")
Angelina Jolie is Jon Voigt’s daughter and is my future wife.
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### Author:  [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)
#### Post date: [August 14, 2003, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-nick-cage-called-nick-copolla-and-other-celeb-surprise-family-links/195043/45 "2003-08-14T22:40:04Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Gangster Octopus \*
> \*\*Angelina Jolie is Jon Voigt’s daughter and is my future wife. \*\*
:Sigh: There’s a lot of that going around.
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### Author:  [@Sternvogel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sternvogel)
#### Post date: [August 14, 2003, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-nick-cage-called-nick-copolla-and-other-celeb-surprise-family-links/195043/46 "2003-08-14T22:48:14Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Marley23 \*
> \*\*Albert Brooks’s real name is Albert Einstein. I’ve always liked that one. \*\*
Also, David Bowie was originally David Jones, but changed his name to avoid confusion with the Monkees’ Davy Jones. Singer-pianist Ray Charles Robinson dropped his last name because boxer Sugar Ray Robinson was already quite famous.
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### Author:  [@Julius\_Henry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Julius_Henry)
#### Post date: [August 14, 2003, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-nick-cage-called-nick-copolla-and-other-celeb-surprise-family-links/195043/47 "2003-08-14T23:07:18Z")
For those of us too old to know who any of the Beastie Boys are, James Arness from **Gunsmoke** is the brother of Peter Graves from **Mission: Impossible**. I believe Peter changed his last name for the same reason Nicholas Cage did.
Then there were 4 generations of Wynn’s in show business. Fred Wynn was the first, a vaudeville comic, whose sone Ed did some moves and TV – he might best be remembered from **Mary Poppins** as the man who laughed so much he floated in the air – who had a son named Keenan who also did a lot of movies, most notably **Dr. Strangelove** as Bat Guano, and who had a son named Tracy Keenan Wynn who wrote a few movies.
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### Author:  [@t-keela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/t-keela)
#### Post date: [August 14, 2003, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-nick-cage-called-nick-copolla-and-other-celeb-surprise-family-links/195043/48 "2003-08-14T23:35:13Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by LSD-25 \*
> \*\*Bridget Fonda’s not _that_ old. I thought everyone knew she’s Peter Fonda’s daughter? \*\*
Hell, I don’t WTF I was thinking…it’s been one of those \*\*
WEEKS\*\* Plus, I had a f\*\*\*ing ricochet from a nailgun hit me in the eye yesterday… :smack:
Not that it makes up for anything, I’m lucky I can read at all today.
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### Author:  [@Bruce\_Daddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bruce_Daddy)
#### Post date: [August 14, 2003, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-nick-cage-called-nick-copolla-and-other-celeb-surprise-family-links/195043/49 "2003-08-14T23:41:43Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by LSD-25 \*
> \*\*But is she though?
>
> [http://www.i-lisa-marie.com/](http://www.i-lisa-marie.com/) \*\*
Nice.
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### Author:  [@Agrippina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agrippina)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2003, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-nick-cage-called-nick-copolla-and-other-celeb-surprise-family-links/195043/50 "2003-08-15T00:47:46Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Dooku \*
> \*\*Sorry if I sounded snippy - it was all in gest. 🙂 \*\*
No problem! 😃
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### Author:  [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2003, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-nick-cage-called-nick-copolla-and-other-celeb-surprise-family-links/195043/51 "2003-08-15T01:17:06Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Zhen’ka \*
> \*\*Oh! I remember another one!
>
> Jamie Lee Curtis
>
> is married to Christopher Guest
> \*\*
And through her father, Tony Curtis, she’s the half-sister of the twins who played Adam on BEWITCHED. They were the result of one of Tony’s one-night stands and were given up for adoption; when they found their birth mother she confirmed their paternity. [One look at them](http://www.bewitched.net/adam.htm) does away with any need for DNA testing.
Gary Gilmore claimed to be the illegitimate son of Harry Houdini; his grandmother said she had an affair with him while working the same Vaudeville circuit. She did work the circuit though there’s no evidence Houdini had a child with her or anybody else. (Some biographers even speculate that, though married for many years, he may have died a virgin.)
John Carradine claimed to be the illegitimate son of Buffalo Bill Cody. OTOH, he drank a lot and embellished constantly, though his theatrical family did cross paths with Cody a good bit.
Shirley Booth (Hazel) was a descendant of Junius Brutus Booth, father of Edwin and John Wilkes, though she was through a daughter.
Pat Boone and Richard Boone are both descendants of Daniel Boone. Jack Cole, who played the sometimes gay/sometimes straight son on DYNASTY, is a descendant of Benjamin Franklin. Grant Goodeve from 8 IS ENOUGH is a descendant of Ulysses S. Grant. The imdb claims that Robert Duvall is a descendant of Robert E. Lee but I’ve never read that anywhere else.
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### Author:  [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2003, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-nick-cage-called-nick-copolla-and-other-celeb-surprise-family-links/195043/52 "2003-08-15T01:21:35Z")
Jules Asner is, of course, the daughter-in-law of Ed Asner. Juliette Lewis is the daughter of Geoffrey Lewis, one of the most ubiquitous “oh, that’s what’s his name…” characters out there. Danny Masterson (Hyde on THAT 70s SHOW) is the brother of Chris Masterson (Francis on MALCOLM IN THE MIDDLE). The Mastersons, like the Lewis’s, are Scientologists.
Bea Arthur and Gene Hackman are the same person.
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### Author:  [@ElwoodCuse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElwoodCuse)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2003, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-nick-cage-called-nick-copolla-and-other-celeb-surprise-family-links/195043/53 "2003-08-15T14:09:20Z")
Peter White, long-time veteran of the Philadelphia Flyers minor league system and one of the AHL’s all-time leading scorers, is the son-in-law of hockey hall of famer and Flyers GM Bobby Clarke.
Atlanta Braves star Gary Sheffield is the nephew of former Mets pitcher Dwight Gooden.
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### Author:  [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2003, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-nick-cage-called-nick-copolla-and-other-celeb-surprise-family-links/195043/54 "2003-08-15T14:13:35Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Sampiro \*
> \*\*
> Bea Arthur and Gene Hackman are the same person. \*\*
One of the best laughs I’ve had in days!
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### Author:  [@Enola\_Straight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enola_Straight)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2003, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-nick-cage-called-nick-copolla-and-other-celeb-surprise-family-links/195043/55 "2003-08-15T14:30:33Z")
Country+Western singer Tim McGraw is the son of former Phillies pitcher Tug McGraw
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### Author:  [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2003, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-nick-cage-called-nick-copolla-and-other-celeb-surprise-family-links/195043/56 "2003-08-15T14:37:32Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Sampiro \*
> \*\*Bea Arthur and Gene Hackman are the same person. \*\*
What’s really frightening is that as they’ve gotten older, Bea Arthur, Tony Curtis, and William Shatner are all starting to look like each other.:eek:
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### Author:  [@doctordoowop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doctordoowop)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2003, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-nick-cage-called-nick-copolla-and-other-celeb-surprise-family-links/195043/57 "2003-08-15T14:44:06Z")
Kurt Russell’s nephew is Matt Franco- ex-Met , not sure where he is now, Braves I think. Larry Bowa’s nephew is Nick Johnson(Yankee).
George Clooney’s father- Nick Clooney Ohio newsman, aunt Rosemary. Dionne Warwick-Whitney Houston’s aunt.
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### Author:  [@doctordoowop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doctordoowop)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2003, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-nick-cage-called-nick-copolla-and-other-celeb-surprise-family-links/195043/58 "2003-08-15T16:08:06Z")
I forgot brothers-James Arness-Peter Graves
Lawrence Tierney-Scott Brady
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### Author:  [@metroshane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/metroshane)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2003, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-nick-cage-called-nick-copolla-and-other-celeb-surprise-family-links/195043/59 "2003-08-15T18:40:21Z")
Let’s see
Tippi hedrun = melanie griffiths mom
ravi shankar= norah jones’s dad
jennifer anniston is someone’s god daughter
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### Author:  [@Moirai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moirai)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2003, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-nick-cage-called-nick-copolla-and-other-celeb-surprise-family-links/195043/60 "2003-08-15T22:39:05Z")
Jamie Lee Curtis and Jennifer Jason Leigh have cool parents.
And the same mother IIRC- Janet Leigh.
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