Actors who come from mega-money

OP, as Lee Radziwill could testify, you can be very wealthy and without talent, you will not become an actress.

Not having to wait tables can be a key waiting-it-out strategy. When there's no pressure to do things others do "to fall back on," you can last a little bit longer between parts.

But you'd know more about that than I, Julia.

Isn't Glenn Close from a very wealthy New England family? I sometimes wonder if that's what pisses off Meryl, who is just uppity New Jersey trash.

Julia Louis-Dreyfus is one of the best comedy actresses in Hollywood so I don't mind her. She didn't even go to an Ivy, she went to Northwestern.

I guess Rooney Mara is talented, though she seems like a cipher. She's certainly better than KStew, who did not come from wealth.

I don't know why Armie Hammer gets work. He is nice to look at, I guess.

Those in casting just love the "smell" of wealth. Look how many characters are supposed to be wealthy and powerful, rather than poor and struggling. Poor actors also remind them of their own past.

Hammer is tall, handsome and funny. I can see why producers keep trying him in movies. But he was a lot funnier on [italic]Reaper [/italic] than in any movie I've seen him in.

Balthazar Getty

Billy Campbell

[quote]OP, as Lee Radziwill could testify, you can be very wealthy and without talent, you will not become an actress.

And Paris Hilton.

Michael Weatherly's father is wealthy, but Michael was cut off financially when he decided to go into acting.

Dina Merrill

Ed Norton (shopping malls) Spike Jonze (Spiegel catalogue) Robert Wagner (Detroit Steel)

Randolph Scott

r8 there is a 2 word answer to that 'pledge this'

Randolph Scott!

Theodora Greece from The Bold and The Beautiful is an actual princess, HRH Princess Theodora of Greece and Denmark. The exiled Greek royals own a fortune in jewels that the king and queen managed to take, I'm sure there is other shady money too. Even if cash- poor, she's untouchable in terms of social rank.

Not everyone who comes from money and/or fame does...you have to also be good looking (or an extreme character actor who's actually talented) to get coveted roles...which is the not-so-secret goal of all actors pursuing film acting.

Status helps in all industries; there's an undeniable networking aspect to it, and you know how they say "it's a small world."

R11, do you think Wagner still has money. After all, he does those awful commercials hawking reverse mortgages or some other such scam to the elderly.

Frank Morgan's (Wizard of Oz) family owned the company that made Angostura Bitters.

Actually I think Wagner maybe wrote up his own bio and I bought it. His Wiki says he was the son of a traveling salesman and a telephone operator. I can see that.

The soap actor William de Vry, of the deVry University stature. Been off (killed off; character commited suicide, I believe) the show a few years - "The Bold and the Beautiful" - was a decent actor.

Fascinating re Michael Weatherly. I wonder if Barrett Foa, on the sister show NCIS-LA was similarly cut off?

What about Robin Williams?

Carly Simon's father was one of the two founders of Simon and Schuster Publishing.

Brad Pitt's family owned their own construction company, upper middle to wealthy where they were living.

No one comes from a poor place except a few black or latino comedians. Everyone else has money at least in the USA. I think it's possible to be from a working class background in the UK since they actually want talent not trust funders.

Similarly cut off from what, R20?

That is not true r23. There are many working actors who legitimately came from lower middle class and poor backgrounds. If you do a search can you can multiple threads about it I am sure.

I didn't know that Billy Campbell is heir to the Champion spark plug fortune. He's 54, gorgeous, never been married and no kids. Gay, right?

I wish, R26. He was once engaged to Jennifer Connelly (when she was voluptuous), and is supposedly a confirmed bachelor ala George Clooney. He may have dipped and dabbed, and he's played gay roles a couple of times (Dynasty, Tales of the City), but I don't think he's gay.

r26

Billy Campbell had a fling with Jennifer Connelly. That doesn't prove that he is straight, but it does prove that he has very good taste in women.

Robin Williams father was an automotive executive. Well-to-do but not mega-money

Stevie Nicks comes from Greyhound money.

Yummie Hammer is tall, good-looking, great personality and can act so far. The sheen of his progeny is a PR plus. Not every rich kid gets a chance or stays long. Tom Cruise's family was working class poor. It's a lot of producers and directors who are trust fund babies.

Sigourney Weaver

Stockard Channing

This thread is so pointless. What difference does it make? I mean, it's talent that matters in the end.

Stevie's father was an executive at Greyhound and Armour foods, not a founder or owner of either. They were upper-middle class but not rich. Stevie went to public school.

R25, It has appeared to me for about a generation now that it is mostly superannuated rich kids who are successful in most areas of show business.

I've heard he comes from mega-money, R29. And it's Old Money.

Thomas Gibson's family is Old Money, too. In Virginia.

Isn't Paul Giamatti's dad a bigwig?

[quote]Thomas Gibson's family is Old Money, too. In Virginia.

An old friend grew up with him in the same neighborhood in SC.

Giamatti's dad was Dean at a college. I forget which one.

Julia Dreyfus's dad is one of the richest people in the world. She seems pretty down to earth, though.

DL fave Kiernan Shipka's daddy is basically the Trump of Chicago.

Jami Gertz appears on Modern Family, used to be on Seinfeld, and old movies like 16 Candles. She's also worth 2 billion. Of her own money. But I think it's mostly from her husband.

Jami Gertz is known for more than "old movies like 16 Candles", R39. She was in "The Lost Boys", "Less Than Zero", "Square Pegs", "Crossroads", "Quicksilver", and a bunch of other iconic '80s movies and TV shows.

r36 r38

Bart Giamatti was president of Yale University. He was not wealthy.

President of Yale is probably $350k a year.

There aren't many actors, actresses, directors producers etc. who come from working class working poor backgrounds anymore, with a few exceptions. In previous generations, particularly classic old Hollywood, it was the opposite. Most of them came from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Verushuka - Countess Vera von Lerndorff (sp) : although the family estate was lost to the Iron Curtain after 1945. There's a very evocative account of revisting it written by Michel Tournier, author of that nazi gay masterpiece The Erl King, in his memoir.

Probably the grandest actress ever to appear in films was Princess Natasha Paley, cousin of the tsar and daughter of Grand Duke Paul. She preferred homosexual men to marry and, despite her Russian fortune being lost, was rich through her marriage to the courterier Lucien Lelong. If the Revolution hadn't happened she would have been one of the first women in the Russian Empire. She mostly appeared in European films, but had a part in Cukor's Sylvia Scarlett.

[quote]Bart Giamatti was president of Yale University. He was not wealthy.

He was once he was finished being president of Yale. He was also the baseball commissioner--he must have made a packet from those to stints.

Jordana Brewster's family is very wealthy. Her paternal grandfather was the Kingman Brewster who was President of Yale during the tumultuous '60s. Her father is a successful investment banker.

[quote]President of Yale is probably $350k a year.

More like $1.6 million, at least that's what it paid last year, and that's not counting a list of perks that would choke a horse.

That's just for the record, I agree that he hardly qualifies as "mega-money."

Dina Merrill is the daughter of EF Hutton and Marjorie Merriweather Post.

[quote] President of Yale is probably $350k a year.

Bart Giamatti was president of Yale from 1978 to 1986.

In 2010, Yale's president earned $1.6M.

Johnny Depp is poor white trash from Kentucky. His mom, Betty Sue, was a waitress in diners in Florida.

Our favorite star of community theatre fame who acts, sings, saves lives, dances, acts, and mimes comes from a very powerful lawyer family.

Unfortunately, she's most known as Julia Robert's foot double.

Please don't lose touch with what is actually an average family. Being the child of the president of Yale puts someone in this country in the top .5% of incomes.

It is a very elite upbringing by any objective standard.

It surprised me that three of my fave actors are from very affluent backgrounds: JLDreyfus, Sigourney Weaver and TSwinton. I'd say the pleasant lack of desperation (for attention) is a result of that background, but, then again, there's Paris Hilton.

What's this stupid insistence of differentiating financial wealth by the term "megamoney"? It's interesting to read about performers who come from well-off families, period. Robin Williams and Paul Giamatti definitely fall into that category.

R51, Johnny Depp has significant American Indian ancestry which he has mentioned, and it has also been found that he had a distant black ancestor that people found in his family tree. Depp has also balked about being white in the past. You can see it in his features although his facial structure is pretty white looking.

So did Rooney Mara only get a career because she is mega rich? Did her family buy her career for her?

R15, Theodora might call herself a princess of Greece, but there's ain't no such thing anymore.

Johnny Depp is a high school drop out who has his mom's name, Betty Sue tattooed on his arm. Look at interviews about his past. He talks about moving from one apartment to another several times a year.

He says he may be Cherokee, but the Cherokees say that he's not one of them.

Grace Kelly, construction and politics

Producer Robert Evans' family was the Evans in the Evans-Piccone fashion line

My mother was Main Line Philly folks, same as Grace. Only we were real WASPs, please.

Depp has a croatian background. The Indian thing is bullshit.

Kevin Bacon also comes from old Main Line Philly lineage as well. And his wife Kyra is of course of the infamous Sedgwicks, so that's double old family money and status.

Bacon's dad was a big deal Philly city planner. A VERY big deal.

Rooney and her actress sister Kate sang the national anthem at New York Giant football games. Her father's family owns the Giants.

Rooney's first name is Patricia. Her middle name is from there great-grandfather Art Rooney, founder of the Pittsburgh Steelers

If the NFL were a nation-state Kate and Rooney would be royalty.

Hillary Swank came from a low-income single parent home.

Julia and Eric Roberts' parents ran an acting school in Georgia so I can't imagine they were rolling in it.

Bette Nesmith, mother of Mike Nesmith of the Monkees, invented the first successful correction fluid.

Yes she did r68 but she sold out the rights early, Nesmith only inherited several million from her (I believe he was an only child?). The vast majority of his wealth is from the Monkees and his music career, although he's said his inherited money made it much easier for him to get by after the band ended. He hasn't had to jump on board the reunion tours like the others have done.

Maybe not megarich, but Elizabeth Taylor's parents were pretty well-off. Her father was an art dealer. Originally from Kansas, they were residing in London when Liz was born and were friends with nobility. When they moved back at the outbreak of WWII, her parent's connections made it easy for Liz to start her child star career. Then when she was still a teen married rich (into the Hilton fortune).

I tend to prefer actors who actually struggled. For example, Marilyn Monroe, who was given to foster care immediately after birth, never knew her father, spent two years in an orphanage, was abused and neglected, then married off at 16. Then when she began her career in modeling and later acting (before she met agent Johnny Hyde, who would change her fate) she actually went hungry and was desperate enough to pose nude.

Paul Giamatti's dad was president of Yale before becoming baseball commissioner - not mega-rich, but ultra-connected.

Ed Norton came from money, too, didn't he, the putz?

Wasn't Humphrey Bogart's father a Park Avenue pediatrician? And his mother an illustrator?

It seems like it would be easier to list the actors who aren't from money.

This thread would be more interesting if we talked about people who came from modest means, and again, that would mostly be black & latino comedians.

Lucie and Desi Arnaz, Jr.

r61 not true. It's Robert EVANS & EVAN-PICONE - totally DIFFERENT, plus

"Evans was born Robert J. Shapera in New York City, New York, the son of Florence, a housewife who came from a wealthy family, and Archie Shapera, a dentist in Harlem.[1] He grew up on New York City's Upper West Side during the 1930s, where he was better off than most people living during the Great Depression. In his early years, he did promotional work for Evan-Picone, a fashion company founded by his brother Charles, in addition to doing voice work on radio shows."

Dana Delany? Her grandfather invented some toilet valve that's still in se today. Did that make the family rich?

I love that Julia Louis Dreyfus and her sister--Lauren Bowles from True Blood--both seem pretty normal and nice.

r77 it's her half-sister on her mother's side meaning she's not a Dreyfus.

"No one comes from a poor place except a few black or latino comedians. "

Well, there's Depp, who came from white trash, and Mel Gibson whose father was a raving psychotic. They must have been poor, how could a madman like that hold down a job.

Depp & Gibson are the exceptions though. Most now are wealthy & come from wealth. The door still creaked open in the 70's, today? No way.

[quote] Theodora might call herself a princess of Greece, but there's ain't no such thing anymore. by: ...and I am Marie of Roumaniat

That's not how it works Marie dear. Royal families, like aristocrats, even if denied their thrones, countries or estates, go on forever until they die out.

Louis-Dreyfus, R78.

As Julia's maternal half-sister, Lauren Bowles is not a Louis-Dreyfus.

I guess we differ on this, R81. The family might go on, but the throne is gone, abolished by a referendum of the people. Titles of nobility are forbidden by the Greek constitution.

So the "Greek royal family" isn't royal, and given their ancestry, they're not even Greek. It's time for them to hang it up. If the Danes want them, they can have them.

Hilary Swank does look like she comes from low-income household. So does Johnny Depp, somehow that's considered better-looking on a man

Elizabeth Reaser

R76, if that's made up, then Robert Evans made it up. It was in his book. And I'm pretty sure it isn't made up.

[quote]My mother was Main Line Philly folks, same as Grace. Only we were real WASPs, please.

Grace Kelly was [italic]not[/italic] from the Main Line. She comes from money, but relatively newish money and Irish-Catholic at that.

Humphrey Bogart

You're welcome, R88

Humphrey Bogart smiles

Are there any contemporary actors/actresses who came from extremely tough circumstances? Like a modern-day Joan Crawford or Clark Gable? Offhand I can't think of any. Back in the olden days coming from poverty was pretty common in Hollywood.

Brad Renfro, but he died.

Sheesh how many cars do I have to live in before people will acknowledge that my upbringing was poor!

I read somewhere that Humphrey Bogart didn't even go to his father's funeral because the man, who was a doctor, died broke and Bogart had to pay for it.

Ok, so someone please start a thread about actors who came from nothing?

"Wasn't Humphrey Bogart's father a Park Avenue pediatrician? And his mother an illustrator?"

Wasn't she an abortionist?

Wasn't Katherine Hepburn from a rich family?

I agree with you, r66.

Vincent Price's grandfather invented baking powder among other things, and his father was a founder and vice president of the National Candy Company. Vinnie came from money.

Did Philip Seymour Hoffman come from a rich family? He played rich dickheads very well. But he played most roles well.

R23 not true. I acted and modeled when I was a child/teen and I was one of the few who was not doing it to support their parents. Most of them were the epitome of white trash. Amy Locane anyone?

Although I think it has become more common in say the last 15 years or so for actors to have come from money and/or connections, but if anything it used to be just the opposite. That's why so many of them, no matter how rich they get, still have no idea how to dress themselves without a stylist or how to tastefully decorate a home.

Johnny Depp seems like an uneducated hick. His artistic shtick is just for PR, he seems painfully dumb and unsophisticated.

[quote] It has appeared to me for about a generation now that it is mostly superannuated rich kids...

Do you know what that word means? "Superannuated" means "old". So they are old rich kids?

R103 and even so it's more for the "super connected" then the rich. My daddy could be a gazillionaire hedge funder and that's likely not gonna do shit for me in terms of getting parts. Whereas, I could come from a fairly modest background, and if my mom happened to be a casting agent, that would give me a really good start.

You seem to be befuddled as well, r104.

Christian Slater's mother is quite a piece of work.

Your point, r105? Point is his mother WAS a pretty major casting director and did help him get his start. But they weren't rich.

Hume Cronyn, Mr Jessica Tandy, was a member of one of Canada's richest families.

Didn't Anne Baxter and Gene Tierney come from money?

Nicola Peltz. Her father is a billionaire.

Anne Baxter was Frank Lloyd Wright's granddaughter.

Was my family rich?

Bob Babalan's father ran Paramount. So rich, and industry connected.

Nick Kroll's dad is a billionaire

[quote] [R15], Theodora might call herself a princess of Greece, but there's ain't no such thing anymore.

The category is, actors who come from mega-money, and she absolutely qualifies.

Ed Norton. His grandfather started the first modern shopping mall, Southdale in Minneapolis. His family is loaded.

Glenn Closes father was a doctor but he joined some religious cult so I don't know how rich her lifestyle was. Meryl came from Nj but was hardly trash. She grew up in Sumet. A really affluent suburb.

M is upper middle class, but she didn't come from serious money, and didn't have industry connections.

Brooke Shields father was pretty rich, but her mom was a nightmare so I don't know if she got any money in the divorce. His mother was an Italian princess, whose family wealth came from Vatican connections.

Chevy Chase is a Vanderbilt/Crane on his mother's side.

Carly Simon's (singer, I know) father founded Simon & Schuster.

Rashida Jones' father is, of course, Quincy.

A friend of a friend went to Northwestern with Dreyfuss's husband.

Yes she is as nice as they say and always has been.

But then she could work very hard focusing on her career and not worry about paying bills. And she had a great look and personality for TV.

The stars aligned perfectly for her.

Dreyfuss never had a chance to enter the working world. She was twenty when she got SNL and left college to do that and has worked ever siñce.

In an interview a few years ago about the multi millions paid to today's stars, Lauren Bacall said her late husband Bogart was worth about $500,000 when he died. Maybe 4 million in today's money.

It seems either you have to get in as a teenager or younger if you don't have the connections and/or wealth. It's almost impossible these days to have a career in showbiz without one of those three aspects in place.

Ellie Kemper, comes from, a wealthy banking family, in Missouri.

[quote] It seems either you have to get in as a teenager or younger if you don't have the connections and/or wealth. It's almost impossible these days to have a career in showbiz without one of those three aspects in place.

That's pretty much the life stories of Ariana Grande and Taylor Swift.

[quote]Wasn't she an abortionist?

You might be thinking of Frank Sinatra's mother, Dolly. Apparently she was an abortionist.

Julia Louis Dreyfus is the queen of comedy I would die for her

At least, Julia Louis Dreyfus has talent. Fugly Nick Kroll has no talent and everyone knows Daddy Jules, does whatever he can for Nick and his lame comedy posse.

As far as I know Balthazar Gettty's grandfather left Balthazar's dad, no money.

I thought Brad Renfro was from a poor family.

R127 The poor thing. I kind of know how that feels, my daddy only left me $200 in his will.

Yeah, Renfro came from nothing and seriously regretted his heroin addiction. As a kid he was discovered by Joel Shoemaker.

Not an actor, but Lana Del Rey's Dad bought her career.

Darren Criss comes from money

[quote]Not an actor, but Lana Del Rey's Dad bought her career.

My daddy did the same thing too, with a little bit of help, from his mob buddies.

Troian Bellisario, is the daughter of wealthy TV producer/writer Donald Bellisario.

Gary Cooper

Frank James Cooper was born on May 7, 1901, at 730 Eleventh Avenue in Helena, Montana[1][Note 1] to English immigrants Alice (née Brazier, 1873–1967)[4] and Charles Henry Cooper (1865–1946).[5] His father emigrated to Montana from Houghton Regis, Bedfordshire[6] and became a prominent lawyer, rancher, and eventually a Montana Supreme Court justice.[7] His mother emigrated from Gillingham, Kent and married Charles in Montana.[8] In 1906, Charles purchased the 600-acre (240 ha) Seven-Bar-Nine[9][10] cattle ranch about fifty miles (eighty kilometers) north of Helena near the town of Craig on the Missouri River.[11] Frank and his older brother Arthur spent their summers there and learned to ride horses, hunt, and fish.[12][13] In April 1908, the Hauser Dam failed and flooded the Missouri River valley along portions of the Cooper property, but Cooper and his family were able to evacuate in time.[14] Cooper attended Central Grade School in Helena.[2]

In the summer of 1909, Alice, wanting her sons to have an English education, accompanied them to England and enrolled them in Dunstable Grammar School in Bedfordshire, where Cooper was educated from 1910 to 1912.[15][16][Note 2] At Dunstable, Cooper studied Latin and French, and took several courses in English history.[17] While he managed to adapt to the discipline of an English school and learned the requisite social graces, he never adjusted to the rigid class structure and formal Eton collars he was forced to wear.[18] After completing confirmation classes, Cooper was baptized into the Anglican Church on December 3, 1911, at the Church of All Saints in Houghton Regis.[19][20] Cooper's mother accompanied her sons back to the United States in August 1912, and Cooper resumed his education at Johnson Grammar School in Helena.[2]

[quote] M is upper middle class, but she didn't come from serious money, and didn't have industry connections.

There are other actors in that category. Jennifer Lawrence is like that. Actors from upper middle class backgrounds always have a bit of advantage over actors from middle class or lower income backgrounds. Lawrence and her mother moved to LA for her career and they probably didn't have too much of a hard time. Hilary Swank and her mother squatted in a house and lived in their car when they moved to LA.

Reese Witherspoon came from an upper middle class family in Tennessee. Her father was a surgeon, who had patients in the country music and entertainment business. One of his patients helped Reese get auditions through other connections.

It makes it easier to get an "in." Believe it or not, until the mid 1960s, there were songwriters that would hit the pavement of the Tin Pan Alley offices and unsolicited get in and sell their songs. That would never happen now.

Glen and Les Charles wrote unsolicited scripts and sent the to MTM and eventually got a contract. Charlotte Brown was another writer who made it to MTM (Mostly Rhoda) with unsolicited scripts.

But if you come from wealthy or known people, you skip that big step, getting in the front door, which is tightly locked now.

Lea Seydoux, from Blue Is the Warmest Color, comes fromserious money

So does JLDreyf share her wealth with Lauren? Princess Theo is a recognised Princess of Denmark.

I like her, r134. Sad to think she might not have gotten a chance to act if her father hadn't been a television poobah. She's pretty, but not really "actor pretty." She's my favorite pretty little liar, though.

so thats while Selma ( I cone from a wealthy fanily too, Im nlt trash ) Hayek dated Ed Norton...

I think it's depressing that meritocracy does not seem to exist anymore in the popular arts. Just think of all the great art that's currently gathering dust. Even today's alt-rock musicians seem to be (closet) trust-fund babies; working-class bands like The Beatles or The Who wouldn't have stood a chance in today's climate. All because talentless rich kids need to be a play 'artiste', because they're too lazy and entitled to get a regular job. Someone should tell them that kindergarten is over.

^need to play

The Strokes lead is a Casablanca and all the band members were boarding school buddies

"Daddy's Money" bands were previously a joke, but not now.

Some rich kids were awesome -- Steely Dan comes to mind, as does the MCA CEO's son who heard Tracy Chapman singing and playing her guitar down the hall in their college dorm and called his Dad -- but most just take up air.

R140 I also like Troian. She is the best actress on Pretty Little Liars. She was a bit odd looking as a child and she has gotten pretty over the past couple of years. Her father's status did help her bit. But Troian seems not to heavily rely on her father's status. She doesn't push herself onto magazine covers and other PR events. She is trying to work her way up and she does side projects like short films on her own.

Tracee Ellis Ross, spawn of Diana, is known to constantly user her mom's status and money. There is gossip that Tracee has paid her way to get into that Hollywood Reporter comedy actress panel, a couple of months back. I believe that, mostly, because the other actresses on that panel, are younger than her and have more critical acclaim than Tracee. Tracee's show Blackish received praises from the critics, but she isn't funny and most people focus on Anthony Anderson's role on that show.

R142 that's true, and I wonder if in part the trend toward British artists reflects the lack of true talent evidenced by the American upper classes. I would think at some point someone is going to start looking for organic talent again.

[quote] So does JLDreyf share her wealth with Lauren?

Lauren's father is a surgeon. He isn't as rich as JLDrey's father. But Lauren had some privilege and having a well known half sister has helped her get acting gigs.

Sophia Bush's father, is a well known and highly paid, LA photographer, with tons of connections.

I was poor white trash

I know Sophia's bush

R67. He got Julia's foot in the door (and then some), because he was already a successful and critically acclaimed young actor, giving her a shot that many more talented young actresses would never get, and she shat all over him once she made it, just like she did her late half sister. She's only decent to her mother and her mousy sister, Lisa, because they kiss her ass and don't challenge her or call her out on anything.

William Hurt's stepfather was Henry Luce III. I don't know if any of the money went to him, but he certainly comes from a privileged background.

[quote]I wonder if in part the trend toward British artists reflects the lack of true talent evidenced by the American upper classes

Most British actors come from connections and wealth, as well. Some of the older generation of actors have recently bemoaned that you need to come from a posh school and serious money to get in the front door of acting school. Benedict Cumberbatch, Eddie Redmayne, Tom Hiddleston, Dominic west, Kiera Knightly, Damian Lewis all come from upper class backgrounds (most went to Eton) or have serious industry connections.

I'm an unfortunate British actress, whose family filed for bankruptcy.

Who is the poster in this thread with the comma problem? Slow down with the commas, fella.

I used to come from mega money.

r149 With all those connections, she still doesn't have much of a career.

[quote] Benedict Cumberbatch, Eddie Redmayne, Tom Hiddleston, Dominic west, Kiera Knightly, Damian Lewis all come from upper class backgrounds

Rosamund Pike, Henry Cavill, Matthew Goode, Dan Stevens, Kate Beckinsale, Emilia Clarke, Emily Blunt, Tom Hardy......

Susan St James and her husband Dick Ebersol are from wealthy families. Christine Ebersole -- no relation -- was also from a wealthy family. Not mega wealth, though

Did Kate Winslet come from money?

Upper class is NOT mega money. We don't need to name every toff. Mega money usually implies some kind mogul, a family with billions, and/or some kind of legacy ie the Mara sisters

I still can't get over the fact that supposedly, Taylor Swift's (singer, I know) father pays people to write her songs and she can't sing that well, yet she's a superstar. I guess the kids either don't care or don't believe that story. They probably don't care since her concerts are entertaining and give them something to do.

[quote] We don't need to name every toff.

We can do whatever the fuck we want, Cheryl.

Oh --- and your pussy stinks.

I worked with Christine Ebersole's brother, Tony, R160. I would describe them more as upper middle class.

Jenna Bush Hager- In a movie called Vicious Circle- Not an actress really, but wanted add her after last week filling in for Hoda..AWKWARD!

"I still can't get over the fact that supposedly, Taylor Swift's (singer, I know) father pays people to write her songs and she can't sing that well, yet she's a superstar."

Why would her father have to pay songwriters? Can't she pay them herself? It's not like she doesn't have the money

R164 Pleazzze. Cheryl is American

I should have written "paid" people, meaning he paid them to write the songs at the beginning of her career before she became wealthy R167.

Taylor Swifts's mother was in finance and father an investment banker. The whole "Taylor grew up in a Christmas tree farm" is true, but daddy just bought the tree farm from a client, just like he bought the record company after no one would sign Taylor upon hearing her demos. And yes, daddy paid writers to remove their names from songwriting credits.

Marilyn Monroe came from an orphanage.

Ansel Elgort's daddy is a famous fashion photographer Arthur Elgort and his mum Grethe Barrett Holby is an influential artistic opera director.

Taylor Swift's daddy enslaves Scott Borchetta.

Did we mention Lena Dunham? Her parents are faux Boho. Taint-paint dad went to Andover

Lens was mentioned earlier in the thread.

Chord Overstreet doesn't come from mega money. His father is a well known Nashville songwriter and has connections.

Nick Kroll, the baby of a billionaire

Will Nick Kroll eventually use his daddy's money for plastic surgery?

Fuck these born into wealth celebrities

Leelee Sobieski

Didn't Leelee divorce her parents?

Armie Hammer came from vast wealth, but his parents cut him off when he took up acting.

Michelle Williams.

Claire Danes

[quote]Armie Hammer came from vast wealth, but his parents cut him off when he took up acting.

Is that what he's telling talkshow hosts now?

Dad was Arm and Hammer. Get it... Armand Hammer.

Hammer is lying about being cut off. There is a long ass thread, on reddit about Ellie Kemper, and other actors from money are mentioned. One poster talks about how he went to acting school with a guy whose family owned an oil company and that the classmate starred in a couple of big movies later on. The poster didn't give the name of the classmate, but a couple of other posters guessed it as Hammer.

[quote] mechanicalholes 75 points 11 months ago Yeah...I went to a good acting school and there was a guy that was really ambitious and pretty cool. We got to talking one day about our lives, and he just kinda said matter of factly, "if I fail at this, I have to run my father's oil company." He was able to take five classes a week and constantly audition with no pressure to succeed. Meanwhile, I missed half my auditions because I couldn't get out of work and was living out of my car until I had to finally quit class when my credit card maxed out. He ended up starring in a couple big movies in the past few years, so it looks like all that (no pressure, stress free) hard work paid off. Nice guy, and I couldn't be mad. He just didn't quite have the same struggle as some of the rest of us.

Wealthy parents can support their young artist kids so that they don't become burnt out by age 28 trying to support themselves in a big unforgiving city while they figure out how to "make it", even if making it is just earning a partial living from artistic endeavors.

Well off parents can also impart the knowledge of successful networking skills and ideas which are invaluable.

I thought it was Thora Birch who divorced her parents.

The awful Megan Boone from The Blacklist

Rooney Mara isn't horribly untalented, but there's something inherently obnoxious and unlikeable about her. I was watching House of Cards with friends and when her character got killed, we all cheered and applauded.

Uh you mean Kate R190

Of course I did, R191. Thanks. Rooney is more likeable.

I like Rooney Mara. Said on another thread that she reminds me of Isabelle Huppert. Not afraid of being unlike able in her movies, which is rare for an American actress.

For the poster who mentioned Jennifer Lawrence, she is in the category of having gotten her foot in the door as a kid. Wealth, connections, and/or starting as a kid. Those are the three best and easiest ways to have an actual career. I don't assume there was money there but there could have been.

What connections did Jennifer Lawrence have in the biz?

Who said she did, R195? I said she started when she was a kid which is one of the three ways to get in. I have no idea if she had money/connections.

Jennifer Lawrence's family was upper middle class. Her family owned a construction company and some kind of summer camp. She wasn't a poor Kentucky girl. I don't think her family had industry connections. Like a previous poster said, she started off when she was quite young and that helped. I was watching Cold Case reruns sometime back and I saw her one of them. The episode was from 2007. She was on that failed Bill Engvall sitcom on TBS. She just kept taking roles in indie type stuff until she lucked out with Winter's Bone and that led to the Hunger Games movies and Silver Lining's Playbook, etc.

I'm adding myself to this list and please watch Scream Queens.

^^ Ditto!

Scream Queens also has Billie Lourd and Emma Roberts....

Don't forget about me. My mommy is rich actress too.

Does Ryan Murphy just cast rich nepotism brats with no talent?

R202 I have talent. My mommy Jill was the best. Grace Gummer didn't inherit her mommy M's talent.

Agreed, Lily.

If Armie Hammer's movie career has more flops. Expect him to end up on Ryan Murphy show. Murphy also had Kate Mara on the first season of AHS.

Damian Lewis freely admits his family are wealthy, not posh...

[quote]Does Ryan Murphy just cast rich nepotism brats with no talent?

He might have owed favors to some people.

It never helped nairy a one of us

I hate people who use relatives to get somewhere

[quote]Damian Lewis freely admits his family are wealthy, not posh...

Admitting to having a wealthy or upper middle class family is fine. Ben Affleck pretended that both his parents came from blue collar backgrounds. It was revealed that both his parents came from upper middle class backgrounds.

Almost pre-history but Raymond Massey (Massey Ferguson tractors).

[quote]I like Rooney Mara. Said on another thread that she reminds me of Isabelle Huppert. Not afraid of being unlike able in her movies, which is rare for an American actress.

That's what I like about MIles Teller.

[quote]Does Ryan Murphy just cast rich nepotism brats with no talent?

He does. Please watch my son Lyric tonight on American Horror Story.

[quote]Does Ryan Murphy just cast rich nepotism brats with no talent?

Will he hire me in the future?

Fincher is the worst offender of casting rich kids and making them famous. Armie, Rooney, Goopy all got their launch in Fincher movies. He's been pushing Kate Mara on us really hard too. I wonder if he collects a "make your baby a star" fee from their families or he genuinely has a fetish of mega-privilege.

Kate Mara is desperate. She knows little sis Rooney has move love from the critics. There have been rumors that the sisters aren't getting along these days.

It's so sad people aren't watching Scream Queens. We need acting jobs even though we are already rich.

We come from mega money and please boycott the Oscars.

[quote]Marilyn Monroe came from an orphanage.

And foster homes and an arranged marriage at 16. She also worked in a munitions factory to make ends meet. Then the lean years, when she literally pounded the pavements looking for acting/modeling jobs. That's one thing I admire about her. She actually worked hard to get to where she was. So what if later she had to utilize the casting couch? Mommy (who was insane and institutionalized) and daddy (unknown) weren't going to support her and pay her bills until she hit it big.

I always think of Rooney Mara as being an inferior American version of Noomi Rapace, much like the movies they starred in as the same character.

Julia Louis-Dreyfus is fabulous OP. Don't even start

You know that Patricia (Rooney) Mara has publicists working overtime to keep everyone from remembering that just a few months ago, she portrayed another race in PAN. All this talk about a lack of diversity in big movies, and there she is, trust fund bitch who doesn't even need the money, taking cash for doing brownface. That plus her outrageous category fraud (she's in CAROL for 71 minutes, more than Cate Blanchett) should prevent her from winning.

R220 funny you should say that, because I think she got the character much better than Noomi.

Noomi's movies didn't bomb and all three actually got made. Pity that Patsy can't say the same for hers.

[quote]Julia Louis-Dreyfus is fabulous OP. Don't even start

She seems like an ok person. Years ago, in one of those Lifetime Intimate Portrait episodes she said that she didn't live with her billionaire father and didn't have deep insight into his lifestyle. Her childhood was more of an upper middle class situation. She lived with her mother who worked with disabled children and her stepfather was a well known Baltimore surgeon. JLD never used her father's wealth to get ahead in the business. Nick Kroll has used his daddy's money and connections quite a bit. Also Kroll was involved in that bitch Tig Notaro's cancer scam.

I think it's crazy and naive to say that Louis-Dreyfus never used her father's wealth. Just by being his daughter she had endless opportunities and received the best education. She was able to pursue a career in an unstable industry because she never needed to worry about money.

I like Armie Hammer. He was decent enough in the couple of things I've seen him in, plus he's easy to look at.

Kate Hudson (Goldie Hawn) keeps getting roles and photos on magazines,high end retail posters and now a sports wear line. Did I forget to mention make-up too?

r224 you know as well as I do that this is because of Amy Pascal's feelings more than anything else. It's not a fair comparison.

George Clooney & Marlo Thomas.

Wealthy, but not uber rich, families. Obviously, big time industry connections.

.[quote]Nick Kroll has used his daddy's money and connections quite a bit. Also Kroll was involved in that bitch Tig Notaro's cancer scam.

What cancer scam? Notaro really did have breast cancer and a double mastectomy.

R226 yeah, even if she didn't throw his name around ("Do you know who my father is?"0, she did benefit from his (and her stepfather's) wealth and connections.

actors who come on mega money"

My family was rich at one point.

I'm self made.

Lea Seydoux , her mother was a Schlumburger.

R217

Is Emma Roberts rich? Her father abandoned her and I remember years ago Aunt Julia bought them a house because the mother was having trouble supporting herself and Emma.

I'm watching this Manson Lost Girls or whatever it's called on Lifetime right now and two of the lead girls are played by Josh Brolin's daughter and one of Kelsey Grammer's dozens of spawn.

*Manson's

[quote]two of the lead girls are played by Josh Brolin's daughter

The Brolins have no money. I give them 20 dollar gift certificates at my mall once in a while but that is it.

Jim was living in an apartment in Santa Monica when we met. It was very sad. Marcus Welby residuals aren't that lucrative.

Lea Seydoux, the whole family owns/rules Gaumont and Pathé, two of the largest studios/distributors in France and Europe.

Ellie Kemper was also queen of the infamous rich white supremacist Veiled Prophet Ball of St. Louis.

Michael Madsen's son is also in this Manson movie.

Missouri is just a weird place.

Kelsey Grammer's daughters have been acting for awhile. I wouldn't be surprised if they hit up Ryan Murphy for acting gigs later on.

The rich get richer.

And everybody knows...

Arianna Grande Latte and her brother DL FAV Franke Grande come from a billionaire family.

Michael Madsen isn't rich. He had huge IRS issues. He owed like 600,000 in back taxes.

BTW what is this new Manson movie people are discussing?

He may not be rich but he is a very successful movie actor. The son had all the connections he needed to have his own career happen.

The movie is on Lifetime. Just ended, actually.

Drew Barrimore came from an old Hollywood family, though I don't know how wealthy her parents were.

[quote]He may not be rich but he is a very successful movie actor.

Very successful?

No nominations is not "very successful"

Didn't Drew Barrymore's parents blow a lot of their money on drugs?

R253 her father was a huge alcoholic and her mother was crazy and lived off Drew's income.

Yes r137 the wealthy and powerful want to keep all things locked up among their own kind. You have to have connections now, know someone in the club or be related to them. Outsiders can only get in if they are lucky enough to marry someone that gets them entry.

For the combination of breeding & wealth, DINA MERRILL is about tops:

Merrill was born Nedenia Marjorie Hutton in New York City on December 29, 1923, although for many years her year of birth was given as 1925. She is the only child of Post Cereals heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post and her second husband, the Wall Street stockbroker Edward Francis Hutton.

Merrill had two older half-sisters, Adelaide Breevort Close, later Adelaide Breevort Hutton (July 26, 1908 – December 31, 1998) and Eleanor Post Close, later Eleanor Post Hutton (December 3, 1909 – November 27, 2006), by her mother's first marriage, to Edward Bennett Close (grandfather of actress Glenn Close).

She was educated at Miss Porter's School and she studied at the George Washington University but dropped out after a year and enrolled at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. She made her debut in to society at age sixteen. In April 2005, she received a lifetime achievement award from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts.

R249

Aren't all 4 leads in Girls the daughters of famous/wealthy people?

Lens: parents are bougie artists Allison Williams: daughter of Brian Williams Zosia Mamet: David Mamet's daughter Jemima Kirke: Drummer for Bad company/Mother owns Geminola in Manhattan

What is the difference between old money and new money? Is the color or shape different? Do they smell different? Do they have different values? Does new money get old? If so, can it be returned for new money? Do you have to have the receipt? Are there stores that only accept old money? If I go there with new money, will they laugh me out of the place?

OP, shut up and flip your hamburgers.

Isadora Burnwood. From the Burnwood cow chip family.

Armie Hammer's father has not been employed by Occidental Petroleum since 1991, so I find it hard to believe that Armie would say that if he failed at acting, he would have to go to work at his father's oil company. The story sounds like something a jealous classmate would make up, based on the family's history.

William Holden

Add me to this list.

Add me to the list.

When Barrymore's 2nd autobiography came out, she interviewed and confessed that she still supports her mother, Jaid, and always has. They really don't talk though.

I'm waiting for Iris Apatow to be handed her own Girls ripoff series.

Yeah, Michael Madsen filed for bankruptcy a while back. he disclosed that he owed Quinten Trantino millions of dollars! I don't remember the amount but it was around 4 or 5 million. And QT still cast madsen in his lastest flick.

The Brits aren't really much better than the Americans at this- tons of the current generation of actors go down the identical Eton-Oxbridge-RADA path. James McAvoy was on Colbert not too long ago talking about how working class talent is being squeezed out by the lack of investment into the arts. Judi Dench has said similar I think. Someone asked about Kate Winslet upthread- her family aren't wealthy at all, I know the area of Reading where she grew up and it's dingy. But she didn't train and got her break as a teenager, which seems to be the way you have to do it if you don't have connections.