Actors and actresses with famous fathers

People often wonder how “Friends” actress Jennifer Aniston, who just turned 51, manages to still look so young. Those people must not be familiar with her father, actor John Aniston. John might not be the picture of youth, but he still looks quite good after 86 years. If you don’t believe us, tune into the soap opera “Days of Our Lives."  Aniston has been playing Victor Kiriakis on that show since 1985 — amassing more than 3,000 episodes.

The late Lloyd Bridges accumulated more than 200 credits in his 62-year acting career —everything from the TV show “Sea Hunt,” the classic films “Sahara” (1943) and “Little Big Horn” (1951), and the comedies “Airplane!” (1980) and “Hot Shots!” (1992). However, his sons are no slouches either. Well, one of them, Jeff, played the ultimate slouch: the Dude from “The Big Lebowski” (1998). But he also won an Oscar and starred in the classic and/or acclaimed films “Tron” (1982), “The Fisher King” (1991), “Seabiscuit” (2003), “Crazy Heart” (2009), “True Grit” (2010) and “Hell or High Water” (2016). His brother Beau has earned three Emmys, two Golden Globes and a Grammy in a career dating back to 1948, when he was just 7 years old.

Josh Brolin has appeared in acclaimed films like “The Goonies” (1985), “No Country for Old Men” (2007), “Milk” (2008) and the Marvel films “Guardians of the Galaxy” (2014), “Avengers: Age of Ultron” (2015), “Avengers: Infinity War” (2018) and “Avengers: Endgame” (2019). His father, James, has been acting since 1961 and is known for the shows “Marcus Welby, M.D.” (which earned him both an Emmy and two Golden Globes), “Hotel,” “Pensacola: Wings of Gold” and “The Reagans;” the films “Westworld” (1973), “The Amityville Horror” (1979) and “Traffic” (2000); and marrying Barbra Streisand.

Jamie Lee Curtis comes from Hollywood royalty. Her father is legendary actor Tony Curtis, who appeared in nearly 130 roles — including more than 100 films, most notably “Houdini” (1953), “The Defiant Ones” (1958) and the comedies “Some Like It Hot” (1959) and “Operation Petticoat” (1959). He won a Best Actor Oscar for “The Defiant Ones,” and in “Houdini” he starred alongside his wife Janet Leigh. Leigh is best known for her Oscar-nominated and Golden Globe-winning role in the 1960 Alfred Hitchcock classic “Psycho”—part of a career spanning some 60 years. Following in her late mother’s footsteps, Jamie Lee's most notorious role was in the “Halloween” horror franchise, among other films that earned her two Golden Globes (for 1989’s “Anything But Love” and 1994’s “True Lies”). 

When Billy Ray Cyrus’ “Achy Breaky Heart” topped the country charts, hit No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 and caused his debut album to go 9x Platinum, we’ll bet nobody thought he would one day have a daughter who would have three No. 1 albums, sell more 20 million records, win dozens of awards and earn a Golden Globe nomination — and that’s after a successful acting career on one of the most popular shows in Disney history. Then again, given her father’s success both back in the ‘90s and more recently (he was featured on Lil Nas X’s wildly popular No. 1 song “Old Town Road” just last year), maybe it’s not so unexpected.

Michael Douglas owns two Oscar wins (Best Picture for producing 1975’s “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” and Best Actor for starring in 1987’s “Wall Street”), four Golden Globes and an Emmy. But Golden Globes don’t matter when you were a star of the Golden Age of Hollywood like Michael’s late father, actor Kirk Douglas. Kirk had a career resume dating back to 1946 — including starring roles in “Paths of Glory” (1957), “Spartacus” (1960) and “Seven Days in May” (2014) — and just recently passed away at the age of 103. Michael’s mother, Diana Douglas, was also an accomplished actress, and his son Cameron is also in the business, although he only has a handful of credits to his name.

Actors Emilio Estevez and Charlie Sheen have had plenty of success both in front of and behind the camera over the years, but they’re not the only acting Estevez siblings. Ramon Estevez amassed some 21 acting credits dating back to 1982, and the fourth sibling, sister Renée Estevez, has twice as many. Still, none of the four children has earned the level of respect commanded by their father, 79-year-old Martin Sheen (born Ramón Gerardo Antonio Estévez), who is best known for the films “Apocalypse Now” (1979) and “The Departed” (2006), among many others, as well as his stint as President Bartlet on the NBC drama “The West Wing” from 1999-2006.

A WWE wrestler is part athlete and part actor — and many are second- or third-generation performers — which is why we wanted to include at least one on this list. For our pick, we’re going with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. After all, not only has Johnson won some 17 titles in the sports entertainment realm, but he’s also currently one of the highest-paid actors in the world after starring in films like “The Mummy” franchise, the “Fast & the Furious” franchise, the new "Jumanji" franchise and “Fighting with My Family” (2019). His father, the late Rocky Johnson, who just passed away at age 75 earlier this year, was a longtime wrestler for numerous promotions and part of the first black tag team to win a belt in the World Wrestling Federation.

Two-time Academy Award-winner, four-time Golden Globe-winner and one-time Emmy-winner Jane Fonda also had a brother, the late Peter Fonda, who won two Golden Globes and notched two Oscar nods (for 1969’s “Easy Rider” and 1997’s “Ulee’s Gold”) before passing away in 2019. However, the siblings’ father, Henry Fonda, was one of the most famous actors in Hollywood history. He appeared in classics like “The Grapes of Wrath” (1940), “12 Angry Men” (1957), “Once Upon a Time in the West” (1968) and “On Golden Pond” (1981), with the last one finally earning him a long-deserved Best Actor Academy Award.

For being the spitting image of a young Tom Hanks, actor Colin Hanks has managed to successfully break out of his father’s shadow over the years. After a stint on “Roswell” and a breakout role in the star-studded Jack Black comedy “Orange County” (2002), Colin landed recurring roles on the shows “Mad Men,” “The Good Guys,” “Dexter,” “Fargo” and “Life in Pieces,” among many other TV and film credits. Given the already impressive career resume of Colin, now 42, we’re sure Tom is a proud papa.

In addition to starring on “The Andy Griffith Show” as a child actor, in the film “American Graffiti” (1973) and on the sitcom “Happy Days” as a young man, and later directing the films “Cocoon” (1985), “Apollo 13” (1995), “A Beautiful Mind (2001),” “Frost/Nixon” (1998) and “Solo: A Star Wars Story” (2018), Ron Howard is also the father of actress Bryce Dallas Howard. After first appearing in small roles in her father’s films, Bryce earned further notoriety in the M. Night Shyamalan films “The Village” (2004)” and “Lady in the Water” (2006), as well as “As You Like It” (2006), “The Twilight Saga: Eclipse” (2010) and both “Jurassic World” (2015) and “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom” (2018).

Film star Anjelica Huston won a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award for “Prizzi’s Honor” (1985), two additional nominations for “Enemies: A Love Story” (1989) and “The Grifters” (1990), a Golden Globe win for “Iron Jawed Angels” (2004) and six additional nods —including two for our personal favorite Huston films: “The Addams Family” (1991) and “Addams Family Values” (1993). Her father, John Huston, directed and/or wrote the classics “The Maltese Falcon” (1941), “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre” (1948), “The African Queen” (1951), “Fat City” (1972) and “The Man Who Would Be King” (1975) among numerous other films, many of which he also appeared in. John won Best Director and Best Writing Academy Awards for “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre,” and he could also appear on this list himself, as his father, Walter, was a successful actor who won an Oscar for his supporting role in his son’s film “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre.”

Dakota Johnson is probably most famous for wearing a blindfold in the “Fifty Shades” film franchise, but her father may be even more famous for wearing a white blazer on “Miami Vice.” That’s right: Dakota’s dad is none other than actor Don Johnson, who also later starred on “Nash Bridges.” As if that’s not enough, Dakota’s mom is Oscar-nominated actress Melanie Griffith, and her grandmother is Golden Globe-winning actress Tippi Hedren.

Angelina Jolie was actually born Angelina Jolie Voight because she’s the daughter of veteran actor Jon Voight (and late actress Marcheline Bertrand). The Voight patriarch apparently wasn’t a big part of Jolie’s upbringing, and they’ve often had a tense relationship, which is one of the reasons why the actress had her name legally changed to Angelina Jolie. The two appear to have grown closer in recent years, especially after the arrival of Jolie’s six kids (both adopted and biological).

Rashida Jones is best known for her roles on “The Office,” “Parks & Recreation” and “Angie Tribeca,” as well as the films “I Love You, Man” (2009) and “Celeste & Jesse Forever” (2012), but her father, Quincy, is even more accomplished. How accomplished? Try 28 Grammy Award wins and 80 Grammy nominations — both of which are records. Quincy is best known for his work with Michael Jackson — having produced “Off the Wall” (1979), “Thriller” (1982) and “Bad” (1987) — in addition to producing for the likes of Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Ella Fitzgerald, Aretha Franklin, Little Richard, Andy Williams and Donna Summer.

You might know Zoë Kravitz from her role as Angel Salvadore in 2011’s “X-Men: First Class” or maybe from 2015’s “Mad Max: Fury Road,” 2016’s “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them,” 2017’s “The Lego Batman Movie” or 2018’s “Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald.” Or maybe her stints on “Californication” and “Big Little Lies.” Perhaps you also know her as the daughter of actress Lisa Bonet and rocker Lenny Kravitz, the latter of whom is also the son of actress Roxie Roker and producer Sy Kravitz.

Since directing “Spinal Tap” (1984), “Stand By Me” (1986) and “A Few Good Men” (1992), you’re more likely to find Rob Reiner behind a camera — although his notable acting appearances of late include “The Wolf of Wall Street” (2013) and a recurring role on “New Girl.” However, Reiner of course broke out as Michael Stivic on “All in the Family” back in the ‘70s, among numerous smaller roles on various TV shows. His father is legendary comedian Carl Reiner, the creator and writer of “The Dick Van Dyke Show” and the former comedy partner of Mel Brooks. While Rob won two Emmys and earned an Oscar nod, the elder Reiner won nine Emmys and a Grammy — and is still acting at age 98!

Ben Stiller made a name for himself acting in films like “There’s Something About Mary” (1998), “Meet the Parents” (2000), “Zoolander” (2001), “Dodgeball” (2004) and “Tropic Thunder” (2008), as well as more recent work behind the camera. His father, who just passed away at 92 earlier this year, started in the ‘70s and compiled more than 100 film and TV appearances — including regular roles on “Seinfeld” and “The King of Queens.” Even before that, Jerry Stiller was in a famous comedy team with his wife, the late Anne Meara, who started splitting sides together back in the ‘60s.

Clearly the acting gene is hereditary in the Sutherland family. Before actor Kiefer Sutherland was making Agent Jack Bauer into a household name on “24,” his father, Donald, was making a name for himself. And the elder Sutherland, now 84, hasn’t just acted in a lot of films, but he’s also acted in a lot of our favorite films, including “M*A*S*H” (1970), “Animal House” (1978), “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” (1978), “JFK” (1991), “Cold Mountain” (2003)” and “The Hunger Games” franchise. Donald’s sons from a different marriage, Rossif and Angus, are also actors.

Liv Tyler broke out with roles in the films “Empire Records” (1995), “That Thing You Do!” (1996) and “Armageddon” (1998), and more recently starred on the shows “The Leftovers,” “Gunpowder” and “Harlots.” Her dad, on the other hand, is Steven Tyler, who is best known for singing songs like “Dream On,” “Sweet Emotion,” “Walk This Way,” “(Dude) Looks Like a Lady” and “Livin’ on the Edge” as the frontman for Aerosmith.