Occupational Inheritance in Acting Profession
Occupational inheritance refers to the phenomenon where sons and daughters follow in the career paths of their parents.
This trend has been documented in the professions of engineering, medicine, military, and education.
Over the past 92 years of the Academy Awards (first given in 1929), 83 men have won the Best Actor Oscar (some more than once).
BEST ACTOR WINNERS: 83 (Last Name, A to Z)
Abraham, Murray F.: working class; father auto mechanic; mother housewife
Affleck, Casey: working-middle class; mother teacher; father janitor; child actor; brother, Ben Affleck
Arliss, George: (UK) middle class; worked in publishing office of his father, but left at age 18 to go on the stage.
Barrymore, Lionel: occup. inheritance; siblings actors
Baxter, Warner: working class, father owner of cigar stand, Columbus, Ohio
Beery, Wallace: middle class, father police officer; brother actor; son actor
Benigni, Robert: Italian; working class; mother fabric maker, father bricklayer, carpenter, and farmer
Bogart, Humphrey: upper middle; father surgeon; mother commercial illustrator
Borgnine, Ernest: working class, son of Italian immigrants; factory work
Brando, Marlon: occup. inheritance; mother actress and theater administrator; father pesticide and chemical feed manufacturer; sister actress
Bridges, Jeff: occup. inheritance; father actor, brother actor
Brody, Adrien: upper-middle; mother photographer, father, retired history professor and painter
Brynner, Yul: father mining engineer and inventor
Cage, Nicolas: upper-middle; father prof. of literature (uncle Coppola)
Cagney, James: working class; father bartender and amateur boxer
Carney, Art: middle class; father newspaper man and publicist
Colman, Ronald: (UK) middle class; father, silk merchant
Cooper, Gary: upper middle; father prominent lawyer, rancher, Montana Supreme Court justice
Crawford, Broderick:
Crowe, Russell:
Crosby, Bing:
Day-Lewis, Daniel: UK; father poet laureate
De Niro, Robert: father painter
DiCaprio, Leonardo:
Donat, Robert: UK
Douglas, Michael: occup. inheritance; father actor
Dreyfuss, Richard:
Dujardin, Jean: (French)
Duvall, Robert
Ferrer, Jose:
Finch, Peter
Firth, Colin (UK)
Fonda, Henry
Foxx, Jamie
Gable, Clark
Guinness, Alec (UK)
Hackman, Gene
Hanks, Tom
Harrison, Rex (UK)
40. Heston, Charlton
Hoffman, Dustin
Hoffman, Philip Seymour
Holden, William
Hopkins, Anthony (UK)
Hurt, William
Irons, Jeremy (UK)
Jannings, Emil
Kingsley, Ben (UK)
Lancaster, Burt
50. Laughton, Charles (UK)
Lemmon, Jack
Lukas, Paul
McCaunoghey, Matthew
McLaglen, Victor
Malek, Rami
March, Fredric
Marvin, Lee
Milland, Ray
Muni, Paul
60. Newman, Paul
Nicholson, Jack
Niven, David (UK)
Oldman, Gary (UK)
Olivier, Laurence (UK)
Pacino, Al
Peck, Gregory
Penn, Sean: occup. inheritance; father actor
Phoenix, Joaquin
Poitier, Sidney
70.Redmayne, Eddie (UK)
Robertson, Cliff
Rush, Geoffrey
Schell, Maximillian
Scofield, Paul (UK)
Scott, George C.
Spacey, Kevin
Steiger, Rod
Stewart, Jimmy
Tracy, Spencer
80. Voight, Jon
Washington, Denzel
Wayne, John
Whitaker, Forest
Best Actors (UK): 16 of the 83 (about 20 percent)