Hollywood Royalty Icons Have British Blood

24-02-2007 13:38

Brits have been winning Oscars as Hollywood heavyweights since dawn of the silver screen

Over one and a half million Brits who have researched their family tree admit they primarily looked into their family history to discover if they are related to somebody famous*. And, as the nation turns its thoughts to Hollywood and the Oscars, the chances of being related to a Hollywood great might be better than you think, reveals research by www.findmypast.com, the family history website.

British actors and actresses might be set to sweep the board with record nominations this year, but 35 of the 158 past Best Actor and Actress Academy Award winners 22% - have been British over the past 79 years. Not only have such a high ratio of Brits won an Oscar, but it turns out that several of the all-American acting dynasties and Hollywood greats are of British descent and heritage.

Meryl Streep the only American actress nominated for a Best Actress gong at the 2007 Oscars alongside three British actresses, Streep has British ancestors on her mother’s side of the family as her mother, Mary, was a commercial artist of English and Irish descent.

Drew, Lionel and Ethel Barrymore Englishman Maurice Barrymore (born Herbert Arthur Chamberlayne Blyth in 1849) was the patriarch of the Barrymore Hollywood acting dynasty. He is Drew Barrymore’s great-grandfather and father of Academy Award-winning actors Lionel and Ethel Barrymore.

Bette Davis born Ruth Elizabeth Davis in 1908, double Academy Award-winning actress and screen legend Bette Davis’ family were of English, Welsh and French descent.

Ginger Rogers infamous as Fred Astaire’s dancing partner, Ginger Rogers was born in Missouri and was daughter to a Scottish father and Welsh mother.

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