50 Hollywood Mothers And Their Children, From Childhood Photos To Today

This collection takes a longer view than the usual side-by-side, tracing famous mothers and their children across the full span - the childhood photographs that ran in magazines at the time, and the adults those children became.

The Early Photographs In This Collection Carry Real Discomfort Now

The earlier material in this collection carries a discomfort that is worth naming. A great many of these children were photographed continuously before they were old enough to have any say in it, in an era when the industry gave that essentially no thought.

Several have spoken since about how strange it was to grow up with a public record of their childhood, and attitudes have shifted considerably as a result. Most famous parents today go to significant lengths to keep their children out of frame.

Where Those Children Actually Ended Up As Adults

The adults in the second half of each comparison took every possible route:

• Into the industry. Acting, directing or producing, with all the comparison that invites.
• Deliberately elsewhere. Careers chosen specifically to be as far from a camera as possible.
• Out of view entirely. For a few, the most recent available photograph is fifteen years old - which, given the alternative, reads as a successful outcome.

The Quiet Ones Are the Point

It is easy to treat a disappearance as a sad ending. In this particular context it is usually the opposite: evidence that somebody managed to build an ordinary life out of a childhood that was anything but.

Sometimes Disappearing From View Is The Successful Outcome

Fifty mothers and children, childhood to adulthood. The full set is in the Hollywood Families section.

Frequently Asked Questions

The Bottom Line

Fifty families, and a reminder of how much the rules around celebrity children have changed. Watch above, then browse the rest of the Hollywood Families section.