Famous FamiliesEvery elite, out-of-touch, sickeningly rich celebrity was once a tiny helpless baby. It had parents, grandparents, maybe siblings, cousins, aunts, uncles, godparents...
Vote up the celebrities with the coolest historical ancestors.
What do Tilda Swinton, Christopher Plummer, and King Princess have in common? They're all celebrities with famous ancestors.
All of the celebs on this list aren't distantly related to notable historical figures - these individuals can actually claim direct descent from at least one historically significant ancestor. Celebrity ancestors include royals, politicians, and artists - in other words, accomplished people who are known outside the context of their famous descendant.
Whether they appeared on a genealogy show - like PBS's Finding Your Roots, African American Lives, or the BBC's Who Do You Think You Are? - or grew up hearing about their famous ancestors, these actors, musicians, and personalities are appreciative of their storied backgrounds.
Helena Bonham Carter can boast that her family tree includes a British prime minister: Her great-grandfather was Herbert Henry Asquith, who headed Parliament from 1908 to 1916.
When Helena Bonham Carter participated in a British genealogy series to find out more about Violet Bonham Carter and her other grandparents, she urged, "I feel every young person should go and interview their grandparents."
Tilda Swinton's family tree stretches back over a millennium in England and Scotland - her noble family roots are anchored in the 800s. As she explained in an interview with The Guardian in 2003, "All families are old. It's just that mine have lived in the same place a long time and happened to write things down."
Actor Rashida Jones claims descent from 20th-century immigrants on her mother Peggy Lipton's side and a line of American and European royalty through her father Quincy Jones. Quincy Jones participated in PBS's African American Lives to learn more about his heritage. He discovered that the majority of his ancestry can be traced to Africa, but some 34% of his DNA comes from Europe.
Actor Edward Norton is known for his award-winning roles in films including Primal Fear, The Incredible Hulk, American History X, Fight Club, Birdman, and Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery. Norton, who has received three Oscar nominations, grew up with a family rumor that he was related to Pocahontas, the daughter of Powhatan, a Native American chief who ruled in the 17th century in the area claimed by colonists near Jamestown, VA. She was captured as a teenager by English settlers, then married farmer John Rolfe, who took her to England. Pocahontas perished in 1617. Many legends have surrounded her role in American history.
In an episode of Finding Your Roots on PBS that aired in January 2023 (the show explores celebrities' ancestors), Norton learned that Pocahontas and Rolfe were indeed his 12th great-grandmother and great-grandfather. Host Henry Louis Gates Jr. told Norton he traced the ancestry via the couple's 1614 marriage certificate. "You have a direct paper trail," Gates said.
“It just makes you realize what a small… piece of the whole human story you are,” Norton said.
Many children dream of living in a castle - but actor Rose Leslie actually got to do it. The Downton Abbey and Game of Thrones star grew up at Lickleyhead Castle, her family's 16th-century Scottish home.
Through both her father - who is the head of Clan Leslie - and mother, Leslie claims significant historical figures as kin. Like her husband Kit Harington, Rose Leslie counts King Charles II as an ancestor.
Charles, a lover of the theater, indirectly enabled Leslie's career: It was during Charles's reign beginning in the 1660s that it became legal for women to professionally act.
Game of Thrones actor Harry Lloyd claims as an ancestor Charles Dickens. Lloyd's mother's surname was Dickens before marriage, and she claims descent from Sir Henry Fielding Dickens, Charles's son and a successful lawyer in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Charles Dickens is revered as one of the best-loved writers of all time. As a celebrity and bestselling author, Dickens used his novels to shed light on poverty and other social conditions in the 19th century.
