Your favorite celebrities are more than just Hollywood icons. Many of them carry extraordinary bloodlines that stretch back centuries. Their family trees hide kings, conquerors, and legends you never expected.
Genealogy research has uncovered shocking ancestral ties for today’s biggest names. These connections span continents and centuries. Once you learn them, you will never see these stars the same way again.
Riley Keough and Elvis Presley
Riley Keough is one of Hollywood’s most celebrated young actresses. She starred in Daisy Jones and the Six and earned an Emmy nomination for her performance. But her most famous connection is one she was simply born into.
She is the eldest grandchild of rock and roll legend Elvis Presley. Her mother was Lisa Marie Presley, Elvis’s only child. Keough carries the legacy of the King of Rock and Roll in her very name.
Benedict Cumberbatch and King Richard III
Benedict Cumberbatch is a globally acclaimed British actor known for Sherlock and The Imitation Game. His ancestral ties are just as dramatic as his on-screen roles. Historians at the University of Leicester confirmed this remarkable connection.
Professor Kevin Schurer traced Cumberbatch’s lineage and confirmed he is a second cousin of King Richard III, sixteen times removed. The link runs through Richard’s mother, Cecily Neville’s grandmother, Joan Beaufort. Cumberbatch even read a poem at Richard III’s reinterment ceremony in 2015.
Brad Pitt and Barack Obama
Brad Pitt is one of the most recognizable actors in the world. His Fight Club and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood roles defined generations. Yet his most surprising link is not to Hollywood but to the White House.
Genealogists at the New England Historic Genealogical Society confirmed that Pitt and former President Barack Obama are ninth cousins. They share a common ancestor named Edwin Hickman, who died in Virginia in 1769. Obama himself acknowledged the connection on live television with a humorous quip.
Beyonce and King Henry II
Beyonce has long been called music royalty. Turns out, that title is more literal than anyone imagined. Her ancestral roots lead directly to medieval English monarchy.
Genealogists confirmed that Beyoncé and the late Queen Elizabeth II are 25th cousins once removed. Both share King Henry II as a common ancestor. The same king who ruled England in the twelfth century also sits in the family tree of today’s biggest pop star.
Robert Pattinson and Vlad the Impaler
Robert Pattinson played a vampire in the Twilight saga, a role that felt almost too perfect. Ancestry.com researchers later revealed why that casting was eerily fitting. His real family tree connects to history’s most feared ruler.
Genealogists at Ancestry.com found Pattinson is distantly related to Vlad III, known as Vlad the Impaler. Vlad was the fifteenth-century Transylvanian ruler who inspired Bram Stoker’s Dracula. The connection runs through Pattinson’s distant cousins, Prince William and Prince Harry.
Tom Hanks and Abraham Lincoln
Tom Hanks is one of the most beloved actors in American cinema. He has two Academy Awards and a reputation for playing deeply human characters. He also has a deeply American bloodline that most fans do not know about.
Researchers confirmed that Hanks is a distant relative of President Abraham Lincoln through his father’s side of the family. The two are third cousins four times removed. It is remarkable that Hanks later narrated the 2013 National Geographic docudrama Killing Lincoln.
Helena Bonham Carter and a British Prime Minister
Helena Bonham Carter is known for playing eccentric and powerful characters on screen. Her real life ancestry is just as powerful and just as dramatic. Her great grandfather shaped British and world history.
Her great grandfather Herbert Henry Asquith served as British Prime Minister from 1908 to 1916. He led Britain during the opening years of World War I. Her grandmother Violet Asquith was also a prominent political figure who fought against fascism in the 1930s.
Hilary Duff and King Edward III
Hilary Duff rose to fame as a teenager playing Lizzie McGuire on Disney Channel. She has since built a long career in acting and music. Behind her girl-next-door image lies one of the most impressive royal bloodlines in Hollywood.
Duff is the 18th cousin of the late Queen Elizabeth II. Both share King Edward III as their common ancestor. Genealogists often cite Duff as having one of the closest royal connections among American celebrities.
Kit Harington and the Gunpowder Plot
Kit Harington is best known for playing Jon Snow in HBO’s Game of Thrones. His story on screen involved conspiracies and betrayal. His real family history involves the most infamous conspiracy in British history.
Harington is a descendant of Robert Catesby, the mastermind behind the 1605 Gunpowder Plot. Catesby planned to blow up the British Parliament and overthrow the monarchy. In a stunning twist, Harington actually portrayed Catesby in the 2017 BBC drama Gunpowder.
George Clooney and Abraham Lincoln
George Clooney is one of Hollywood’s most enduring leading men. He has earned Academy Awards as both an actor and a producer. His roots in Kentucky run deeper than anyone in Tinseltown expected.
Genealogists confirmed that Clooney is a half-first cousin five times removed of Abraham Lincoln. The connection runs through Lucy Hanks, who was Lincoln’s maternal grandmother. This also makes Clooney a distant relative of Tom Hanks, since both trace back to Lincoln’s maternal line.
Featured Image: Photo by Maximilian Bühn on Wikimedia Commons.
