Occupational Inheritance in the 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 97 years of the Academy Awards (first given in 1929), 86 men have won the Best Actor Oscar (some more than once).
My Oscar Book:
BEST ACTOR WINNERS: 86 (Last Name, A to Z)
OIccup Inheritance: Best Actors, 16 of the 86 (18 percent)
Abraham, Murray F.: No. working class; father auto mechanic; mother housewife
Affleck, Casey: No. working-middle class; mother teacher; father janitor; child actor; brother, Ben Affleck
Arliss, George: (UK) No middle class; worked in publishing office of his father, but left at age 18 to go on the stage.
Barrymore, Lionel: Yes occup. inheritance; siblings actors
Baxter, Warner: No working class, father owner of cigar stand, Columbus, Ohio
Beery, Wallace: No middle class, father police officer; brother actor; son actor
Benigni, Robert: No Italian; working class; mother fabric maker, father bricklayer, carpenter, and farmer
Bogart, Humphrey: No upper middle; father surgeon; mother commercial illustrator
Borgnine, Ernest: No working class, son of Italian immigrants; factory work
Brando, Marlon: Yes occup. inheritance; mother actress and theater administrator; father pesticide and chemical feed manufacturer; sister actress
Bridges, Jeff: Yes occup. inheritance; father actor, brother actor
Brody, Adrien: No upper-middle; mother photographer, father, retired history professor and painter
Brynner, Yul: No father mining engineer and inventor
Cage, Nicolas: No upper-middle; father prof. of literature (uncle Coppola)
Cagney, James: No working class; father bartender and amateur boxer
Carney, Art: No middle class; father newspaper man and publicist
Colman, Ronald: (UK) No middle class; father, silk merchant
Cooper, Gary: No upper middle; father prominent lawyer, rancher, Montana Supreme Court justice
Crawford, Broderick: Yes
Crowe, Russell: No. Middle class
Parents film set caterers Jocelyn Yvonne (née Wemyss) and John Alexander Crowe; his father also managed a hotel.
Crosby, Bing:
Day-Lewis, Daniel: UK; No. father poet laureate
De Niro, Robert: No father painter
DiCaprio, Leonardo: No
Donat, Robert: UK
Douglas, Michael: Yes occup. inheritance; father actor
Dreyfuss, Richard:
Dujardin, Jean: (French)
Duvall, Robert
Ferrer, Jose:
Finch, Peter
Firth, Colin (UK)
Fonda, Henry
Foxx, Jamie
Gable, Clark: No
Guinness, Alec (UK)
Hackman, Gene. No
Hanks, Tom
Harrison, Rex (UK)
Heston, Charlton
Hoffman, Dustin
Hoffman, Philip Seymour
Holden, William
Hopkins, Anthony (UK). No
Hurt, William
Irons, Jeremy (UK)
Jannings, Emil
Kingsley, Ben (UK)
Lancaster, Burt
Laughton, Charles (UK)
Lemmon, Jack
Lukas, Paul
McCaunoghey, Matthew
McLaglen, Victor
Malek, Rami. No
March, Fredric: No
Cora Brown Marcher, schoolteacher from England and John F. Bickel, devout Presbyterian Church elder, worked in wholesale hardware business.
Marvin, Lee
Milland, Ray
Muni, Paul
Murphy, Cillian
Newman, Paul
Nicholson, Jack
Niven, David (UK)
Oldman, Gary (UK)
Olivier, Laurence (UK)
Pacino, Al: No
Peck, Gregory: No
Penn, Sean: Yes. occup. inheritance; father actor
Phoenix, Joaquin
Poitier, Sidney: No
Redmayne, Eddie (UK)
Robertson, Cliff
Rush, Geoffrey
Schell, Maximillian
Scofield, Paul (UK)
Scott, George C.
Spacey, Kevin
Steiger, Rod
Stewart, Jimmy. No
Tracy, Spencer. No
Voight, Jon. N0
Washington, Denzel. No
Wayne, John, No
Whitaker, Forest, No
