60 Hollywood Actors And The Sons Who Followed Them Into The Business

Every profession has dynasties, but few make them as visible as this one. When a doctor's child becomes a doctor, nobody notices. When an actor's child becomes an actor, the resemblance is projected forty feet high and the entire audience does the arithmetic at once.

There Are Three Very Different Ways To Enter The Family Business

The sons in this collection took markedly different paths, and the route usually shows in the work.

• Straight in. A major film at twenty-two, carried by a surname that opened every door.
• The long way round. A decade of theatre and small television parts, specifically to avoid the comparison, before taking anything high-profile.
• Past the father entirely. A few ended up more famous than the parent, which brings its own complications to family dinners.

The Advantage Nobody In Hollywood Likes To Talk About Openly

Access matters enormously in this industry. Knowing which agent to call, understanding how a set actually works, having somebody at home who can explain what a bad review really means - none of that guarantees a career, but it removes the ten years most actors spend simply learning the rules.

The counter-argument is equally real: being introduced for twenty years as somebody's son is a hard thing to work through, and the ones who came out the other side generally did it by being visibly good at the job.

What Actually Gets Inherited

Watch the footage rather than the stills and something less obvious comes through. Voices travel almost intact. So does timing - the ability to hold a moment half a second longer than is comfortable. That is less a genetic trait than something absorbed from watching a parent do it at close range for eighteen years.

Voice And Timing Travel Between Generations Better Than Faces Do

Sixty pairings, with the resemblance doing most of the talking. More of the same in the Hollywood Families section.

Frequently Asked Questions

The Bottom Line

Sixty families, three very different strategies for handling a famous surname. Watch above, then compare with the mother-and-son collection, where the connections are far less widely known.