# Worst Acting by Actors Cast Through Nepotism **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 19, 2005, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-acting-by-actors-cast-through-nepotism/308871 "2005-06-19T02:51:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2005, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-acting-by-actors-cast-through-nepotism/308871/41 "2005-06-19T18:20:54Z")
Cullen Crabbe – stared with his father Buster in “Captain Gallant of the Foreign Legion.” Zeppo Marx – pleasand and forgettable actor who only made movies because he was in the act with his brothers. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2005, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-acting-by-actors-cast-through-nepotism/308871/42 "2005-06-19T18:34:09Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > Cullen Crabbe – stared with his father Buster in “Captain Gallant of the Foreign Legion.” > > Zeppo Marx – pleasand and forgettable actor who only made movies because he was in the act with his brothers. Well, I can’t vouch for this, since I never saw the Marx Brothers on stage, but I’ve read that in the boys’ days in vaudeville and in theater, Zeppo was the understudy for each of his brothers- and that he was talented enough to play Groucho as well as Groucho did, to play Chico as well as Chico did, and to play Harpo as well as Harpo did. He was NOT an untalented performer by any means. His misfortune was, he never developed a memorable character of his own, which meant that in the Marx Brothers’ movies, he was usually a very forgettable, and not terribly funny character. - You know, early in Nicolas Cage’s career, Ithought he was a horrible, inept, utterly untalented actor. He was so awful in “Peggy Sue GOt Married” that I figured his uncle Francis Ford Coppola hired him out of misguided loyalty and nepotism. SINCE then, Cage has given some superb performances, while Coppola has made one rotten movie after another. So, in retrospect, I now wonder if maybe the fault lay with Coppola, rather than with his nephew. Maybe Cage gave a hammy, shrill performance because his increasingly out-to-lunch uncle told him to play the role that way. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2005, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-acting-by-actors-cast-through-nepotism/308871/43 "2005-06-19T18:41:28Z")
Jerry Van Dyke. Robert Crosby. Frank Sinatra, Jr. Yeesh. ---
**Author:** ![Mockingbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c68b51/32.png) [@Mockingbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mockingbird)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2005, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-acting-by-actors-cast-through-nepotism/308871/44 "2005-06-19T19:00:51Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > Jerry Van Dyke. Robert Crosby. Frank Sinatra, Jr. Yeesh. Playing Rob’s brother on the original Dick Van Dyke show, Jerry was quite funny. Especially the sleep walking episode. ---
**Author:** ![Mockingbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c68b51/32.png) [@Mockingbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mockingbird)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2005, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-acting-by-actors-cast-through-nepotism/308871/45 "2005-06-19T19:03:05Z")
> [@Zabali\_Clawbane](#): > > Liv Tyler started her career in modeling, she won a modeling contest for the teen magazine, Seventeen. Then she was in her father’s band video. AFAICR, Liv didn’t know she was Steven’s daughter until she was already starting to be famous in her own right. ---
**Author:** ![Julius\_Henry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8797f3/32.png) [@Julius\_Henry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Julius_Henry)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2005, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-acting-by-actors-cast-through-nepotism/308871/46 "2005-06-19T20:20:32Z")
> [@Tracy Lord](#): > > Kate Capshaw, aka Mrs. Stephen Spielberg. Blech! Ms Capshaw, unfortunately, doesn’t qualify for this thread. From IMDB: > [@](#): > > She met her future husband, Steven Spielberg while beating out 120 actresses for the female lead in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984). ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21906_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2005, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-acting-by-actors-cast-through-nepotism/308871/47 "2005-06-19T20:34:05Z")
On a much smaller and local scale, the man who owned the Alhambra Dinner Theater in Jacksonville, FL, was fond of casting his wife in the plum lead roles. She was truly, truly horrible, and she would never have landed any of the parts on her own. I expect this may be true at many local theater groups. ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2005, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-acting-by-actors-cast-through-nepotism/308871/48 "2005-06-19T22:23:25Z")
\*\*Katharine Houghton \*\* (the niece of Katharine Hepburn) in _Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner_? ---
**Author:** ![UntouchedTakeaway](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/d78d45/32.png) [@UntouchedTakeaway](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UntouchedTakeaway)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2005, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-acting-by-actors-cast-through-nepotism/308871/49 "2005-06-19T22:33:39Z")
> [@FairyChatMom](#): > > On a much smaller and local scale, the man who owned the Alhambra Dinner Theater in Jacksonville, FL, was fond of casting his wife in the plum lead roles. She was truly, truly horrible, and she would never have landed any of the parts on her own. I expect this may be true at many local theater groups. HIJACK: Are you from Jax? That’s my hometown. VCNJ~ ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2005, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-acting-by-actors-cast-through-nepotism/308871/50 "2005-06-19T22:34:22Z")
Mockingbird writes: \> AFAICR, Liv didn’t know she was Steven’s daughter until she was already \> starting to be famous in her own right. Not true. Liv discovered that she was his daughter at about the age of 11. That was the point where she changed her name from Liv Rundgren to Liv Tyler. (Todd Rundgren was her mother’s boyfriend around the point she was born, and her mother and Rundgren agreed to pretend that Liv was her daughter.) This was before she began modeling and well before she began acting. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2005, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-acting-by-actors-cast-through-nepotism/308871/51 "2005-06-19T22:35:34Z")
Excuse me. I meant “. . . agreed to pretend that Liv was his daughter . . .” ---
**Author:** ![andros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e480ec/32.png) [@andros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andros)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2005, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-acting-by-actors-cast-through-nepotism/308871/52 "2005-06-20T01:57:18Z")
> [@Julius Henry](#): > > Ms Capshaw, unfortunately, doesn’t qualify for this thread. From IMDB: Well, damn. Good catch, thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Gamaliel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b487fb/32.png) [@Gamaliel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gamaliel)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2005, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-acting-by-actors-cast-through-nepotism/308871/53 "2005-06-20T02:17:37Z")
> [@levdrakon](#): > > I nominate Dom DeLuise’s family. I didn’t mind Dom himself appearing in a couple Stargate SG-1 episodes, but none of his kids have any acting ability, and I get sick of them constantly showing up in various sci-fi shows. > > What’s up with that anyway? Peter Deluise is a writer/director/producer for Stargate SG-1. ---
**Author:** ![PunditLisa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/4af34b/32.png) [@PunditLisa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PunditLisa)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2005, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-acting-by-actors-cast-through-nepotism/308871/54 "2005-06-20T02:19:02Z")
Alec Baldwin, for all his flaws, can act. Same cannot be said for his brother, Stephen. Though I think he may be the best looking of the bunch, he is a one-dimensional actor. ---
**Author:** ![Stuffy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f17d59/32.png) [@Stuffy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stuffy)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2005, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-acting-by-actors-cast-through-nepotism/308871/55 "2005-06-20T02:36:52Z")
> [@levdrakon](#): > > I nominate Dom DeLuise’s family. I didn’t mind Dom himself appearing in a couple Stargate SG-1 episodes, but none of his kids have any acting ability, and I get sick of them constantly showing up in various sci-fi shows. > > What’s up with that anyway? That’s because his son Peter produces and directs Star Gate SG1 and Stargate:Atlantis. So it’s sort of reverse nepotism as far as the father and naked nepotism when it comes to that no talent hack of a brother who played a love interest briefly. ---
**Author:** ![sunfish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/96bed5/32.png) [@sunfish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sunfish)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2005, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-acting-by-actors-cast-through-nepotism/308871/56 "2005-06-20T03:14:29Z")
> [@Stuffy](#): > > That’s because his son Peter produces and directs Star Gate SG1 and Stargate:Atlantis. So it’s sort of reverse nepotism as far as the father and naked nepotism when it comes to that no talent hack of a brother who played a love interest briefly. Do you mean Pete? Sam’s fiance that even she never seemed to be all that thrilled about? Lordy, he _was_ terrible, but I didn’t realize he was another DeLuise. On the subject of sci-fi nepotism, how about Melissa Gilbert’s appearance as Anna Sheridan, wife of hubby Bruce Boxleitner’s John Sheridan on _Babylon 5_? Certainly not a stellar performance on her part, although to be fair he’s never been a Laurence Olivier either. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2005, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-acting-by-actors-cast-through-nepotism/308871/57 "2005-06-20T03:34:17Z")
John Lithgow (who though very successful is still one of the most underrated performers in Hollywood, imo) cast his son Ian in a recurring role as a slacker student in _Third Rock From the Sun_. The kid (20 something) wasn’t memorably awful but certainly had none of dad’s comic timing or presence (and the show never explained why a kid who wasn’t a Physics major had Dick Solomon as a professor every semester for several years). There was a very brief syndicated version of _Bonanza_ in the early 90s that featured none of the original cast (I think Landon and Pernell Roberts were the only ones still alive) but featured Michael Landon, Jr. and Lorne Greene’s daughter Jillian as latter day Cartwrights. Greene was so-so but Landon-the-Younger was really really bad. Some trivia about the Brothers Van Dyke: while Jerry is usually seen as riding his brother’s coattails, he actually went into show business (and had some success) years before his brother. On the subjects of Van Dyke’s and nepotism, however, Dick’s boy Barry has never had a successful venture that didn’t star Dick. Speaking of Dicks in show business, Dick Smothers, Jr., became a porn star at a fairly late age for entering that particular genre (mid-late 30s). He claims not to be cashing in on his father’s marginal fame, though prior to entering the biz he’d always gone by his middle name (which was Robert or something else totally un-Dick-like) and had never gone by Dick Smothers, Jr… He gave some “My daddy is a scuz-bucket” style interviews (Dick Sr. was distant, needy, usually absent, self absorbed, wah wah wah) that made him look far worse than his dad. (A large part was how he was broke and in debt and his dad wouldn’t help… you’re in your 30s for Gawd sake… you ain’t _supposed_ to be getting support from your dad [who has several other kids, some of them still minors]…) Jason Gould was… eh… not bad not good as Barbra Streisand’s son in _Prince of Tides_. I’ve heard his drag rendition of his mother is pretty good, though. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Punkyova](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@The\_Punkyova](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Punkyova)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2005, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-acting-by-actors-cast-through-nepotism/308871/58 "2005-06-20T04:32:10Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > Zeppo Marx – pleasand and forgettable actor who only made movies because he was in the act with his brothers. Them’s fightin’ words, boy! Everything **astorian** said, and then some. I’ll leave out Zeppo’s very impressive list of accomplishments in his offscreen life, and point out that the Brothers never really figured out what to do without him. In every movie after Zeppo left the group, there was some other actor who played the romantic lead. None of them could withstand the full Marx treatment (which could be cruel, quite frankly) as well as Zeppo, and none of them did as good a job as he did with the parts. (Kenny Baker? Anyone? Anyone?) In addition, Zeppo was a fine singer and dancer, which mattered since the movies always had musical numbers. He was also quite handsome, and being significantly younger than his brothers, he brought a different dynamic to the screen. I don’t know why Zeppo doesn’t get the respect he deserves. There was an episode of Buffy called “The Zeppo” which perpertuated this awful stereotype. On the one hand, one can only applaud anything which increases Marx awareness in the world. Plus, the outrage felt by Marx fans at the unfair slurs led to the formation of the Zeppo Fan Club, whose members make up in fervor what they lack in numbers. On the other hand, it was unkind, untrue, and unfair. I live in hope that Barbara Sinatra can be convinced to give some interviews about her second husband, and help restore his reputation in the world at large. ---
**Author:** ![Silentgoldfish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@Silentgoldfish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silentgoldfish)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2005, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-acting-by-actors-cast-through-nepotism/308871/59 "2005-06-20T05:41:15Z")
> [@Julius Henry](#): > > Ms Capshaw, unfortunately, doesn’t qualify for this thread. From IMDB: Wow, thanks for sharing! That information is both good to know and new to me! ---
**Author:** ![Tracy\_Lord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@Tracy\_Lord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tracy_Lord)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2005, 7:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-acting-by-actors-cast-through-nepotism/308871/60 "2005-06-20T07:21:11Z")
> [@Julius Henry](#): > > Ms Capshaw, unfortunately, doesn’t qualify for this thread. From IMDB: Says she met him _while_ she was still auditioning – and besides, that doesn’t change the fact that she was absolute crap in that movie. (Through design, I’ve never seen her in any else.) 😉 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-acting-by-actors-cast-through-nepotism/308871.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-acting-by-actors-cast-through-nepotism/308871.md?page=4)