Wait, they AREN'T related?! Welcome to MsMojo, and today we’re looking at stars whose mutual surnames led to false assumptions of a family connection.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Hey beauties, I just wanted to clarify something because I've been getting a number of messages.
00:07Welcome to Ms. Mojo, and today we're looking at stars whose mutual surnames led to
00:11false assumptions of a family connection.
00:14I'm Eleanor, who might have been your mother.
00:18Number 10. James and Jason Marsden.
00:20Gee, that was the end of a very good story. Perhaps you'd like to tell me the rest?
00:25Actors James and Jason Marsden almost simultaneously grew from teen TV idols
00:30to versatile genre stars. Their brunette, boyish good looks didn't exactly hurt.
00:34It's hard to believe that there's no blood relation between X-Men's Cyclops
00:38and the voice of several animated superheroes.
00:40Well, I think we found our unknown energy impulse.
00:43Impulse? That's so crass! Catchy, dramatic, one word.
00:47Like Nightwing, and Robin, and Beast Boy. Except that's two words.
00:50Blue Beetle's two words. Hey, is he here too?
00:52James actually hails from Oklahoma, and Jason all the way from Rhode Island.
00:57But there is a popular rumor that the two Marsdens are good friends.
01:01It's even been said that their respective ex-wives grew up together in Nashville.
01:04While we can't be entirely sure that James and Jason Marsden are bros,
01:08there's nothing to the rumor that they're biological ones.
01:11Tell me something people don't know about you.
01:14It's kind of all out there now.
01:15Number 9. Rhea and Ron Perlman.
01:18The diagnosis is I'm your brother, and I'm your father.
01:25The name Perlman is feared by many, albeit in a lighthearted way.
01:29Rhea Perlman is a comedy icon known for playing lovable cranks
01:32like Carla Tortelli on Cheers.
01:33You home sick for the Bronx?
01:35Yeah.
01:36Here.
01:39Fellow New Yorker Ron Perlman has himself built a sterling career
01:43on intimidating roles in dramas and thrillers.
01:45But despite these similar profiles and even similarities
01:48in their unique bone structures, they are not related.
01:51The Peacock series Poker Face actually spoofed this coincidence
01:54by having the Perlmans play rival gangsters.
01:57Even then, they didn't share a scene.
01:58There is no corner of the country deep enough to hide from us.
02:01We're gonna find you.
02:03Whether Rhea and Ron crossed paths growing up in the Big Apple or since leaving,
02:06they've left equally chilling marks on different genres.
02:10Number 8. John and Kristen Ritter.
02:12Hey John, look at this crowd. You can almost smell the money.
02:16At least one Ritter family has deep roots in the entertainment industry.
02:19Seminole country singer Tex Ritter's son John was a beloved actor,
02:23so too are his own sons Jason and Tyler.
02:26It's easy to assume that actress Kristen Ritter fits somewhere in this proud dynasty,
02:30until you look more closely.
02:32I remember when you first moved here.
02:34You told me your name was Simone and you sold me a condo.
02:37And then the owners came back from vacation.
02:38They were really angry.
02:39The Pennsylvania native's appearance and mannerisms are starkly different
02:43from those of the high-profile California clan.
02:45Never mind that her work tends to be much heavier than the sitcom Three's company.
02:49Nonetheless, there's a surprising amount of public confusion
02:52over who exactly is carrying on John Ritter's legacy.
02:55Hey, there is worse company for Kristen to be associated with.
02:58On the way out as I'm making my dramatic exit,
03:00I walk right into the glass door like smack.
03:02No, ouch.
03:04So the next semester he keeps hounding me about how I'd be perfect
03:07for his production of California Sweet because I have such a gift for physical comedy.
03:14High praise followed Christopher Plummer throughout his long acting career,
03:18and his only child Amanda has lived up to that reputation.
03:21But she does not have children,
03:23despite what you may think when you see the young phenom Charlie Plummer.
03:26So you look like you could use some friends.
03:29You guys want to be friends?
03:31We don't want you falling into the wrong crowd.
03:33Yeah, you're cooler than those other losers.
03:35Audiences were further misled when he starred in All the Money in the World
03:38as the grandson of J. Paul Getty, played by Christopher.
03:42The fired Kevin Spacey scenes were reshot suspiciously quickly.
03:46Everything has a price.
03:48The great struggle in life is coming to grips with what that price is.
03:55Christopher's casting may not have been a coincidence,
03:57but the mutual surname was.
03:59Charlie does admittedly owe his head for show business
04:02to a writer-producer father and actress mother.
04:05They just don't go as far back as the other Plummer family.
04:19There isn't just a misconception that Oscar-winning actors
04:22Diane and Michael Keaton are related.
04:24Neither of them is a Keaton.
04:35Diane adopted her mother's maiden name because there was already a Diane Hall
04:41when she joined the Actors' Equity Association.
04:43Woody Allen referenced her real surname when writing the title role of Annie Hall.
04:47Meanwhile, Michael Douglas had to distinguish himself
04:50from both a movie star and a veteran entertainer.
04:52He asserts that he chose the name Keaton at random,
04:55with no intention of riding the contemporary actress's stardom.
05:05False familial impressions likely didn't factor into the success of these great talents.
05:14Michael's songwriter son Sean is certainly making a name for himself by remaining a Douglas.
05:35The Oscar-winning Ned and Warren Beatty were major movie stars around the same time.
05:40In fact, they were born in the same year.
05:42If you're familiar with that hole in the brother theory,
05:45you may know the truth about Warren's surname.
05:47So many facts, interesting facts that we don't examine have been thrown out.
05:52So I know you don't like talking about this, you don't like...
05:54So I'm just going to read them out, and we'll just try and read your expression
05:59to see if you're confirming or denying them.
06:01It's actually Beatty with one T, repeated to help the public with proper pronunciation.
06:06They may also be interested to know that his big sister is Shirley MacLaine,
06:10who dropped the Beatty altogether.
06:12But the late great Ned did embrace the confusion by regularly joking that he was
06:16Warren's quote, illegitimate uncle.
06:24At least he did his legal family name justice.
06:26Contrary to popular belief, Warren doesn't even share it.
06:30The answer to your question is no.
06:31Okay, I like that you thought it through.
06:33Is that possible?
06:34No, it's not.
06:35Number four, Heather and Gaten Matarazzo.
06:38From Welcome to the Dollhouse and Now and Again,
06:40actress Heather Matarazzo mastered subversive genre fare in her teens.
06:44Never mind the nostalgic points in playing Lily in the Princess Diaries movies.
06:56Gaten Matarazzo followed such a path when he broke out
06:58on Netflix's Stranger Things a generation later.
07:01Many figured it was a case of like mother, like son.
07:04But despite their obscure surname, tastes, and even eye shape,
07:08these former teen idols are not related.
07:14I think he is brilliant.
07:16I think he is wonderful.
07:19But I cannot claim him as my son.
07:22They both had to publicly clear up this confusion as it went viral.
07:25After all, cursory research would not offer much clarification.
07:29Gaten's mother is also named Heather.
07:32Things don't get much stranger than these coincidences.
07:35Seriously, how many times do I have to be right on the money before you guys just trust me?
07:40Number three, Danny and Donald Glover.
07:43Actor Danny Glover has long been a force across all genres and in greater pop culture.
07:48Donald Glover later found humble beginnings as a comedian known for his pop culture savviness.
07:52Still, some suggested that the Georgia native's underdog story was really nepotism.
07:57This is unbelievable.
07:58I'm definitely gonna have some words with someone about this.
08:01Both Glovers have been quiet about these false rumors through the years.
08:04However, Donald did humorously allude to them when he hosted Saturday Night Live in 2018.
08:09Really excited to be hosting Saturday Night Live and the
08:13answer to the question everyone's asking is, yes, I am Danny Glover's father.
08:19He has clearly achieved his own genre-bending stardom,
08:23along with his screenwriter brother Stephen.
08:25More importantly, they did it without even
08:27humoring the notion that Danny directly helped in any way.
08:31Here go your key.
08:35I've been looking all day for this.
08:37Number two, Robert and Shelley Duvall.
08:39Robert and Shelley Duvall were both revered actors,
08:42with long careers separated by almost two decades.
08:45The former would have had to have been young for the latter to be his child, had he any at all.
08:49One, I don't know what kind of man I am.
08:51I was always restless, thought I'd see the world.
08:55At first glance of that and appearance,
08:57one can reasonably assume that the shared surname is just a coincidence.
09:01Still, the rumor that the two Duvalls are related has only gained momentum through the years.
09:06Power of the press.
09:07There's a greatest power in them all.
09:11I tell the city how to think.
09:13I tell the city how to vote.
09:16I shape its future.
09:18Public interest saw a particular resurgence following Shelley's death in 2024.
09:23It's a testament to how rumors about celebrities can sustain or even expand through the years.
09:28Robert and Shelley may be synonymous with the name Duvall, but not a mutual family.
09:33Do you think they know which one they are?
09:36I'm sure they do.
09:38They'd have to, wouldn't they?
09:40Before we continue, be sure to subscribe to our channel
09:43and ring the bell to get notified about our latest videos.
09:46You have the option to be notified for occasional videos or all of them.
09:50If you're on your phone, make sure you go into your settings and switch on notifications.
09:59Catherine and Audrey Hepburn are two of the biggest icons in Hollywood history,
10:03though their careers were very different.
10:05There was a drastic separation in brand, appearance and age.
10:09Never mind that Catherine was American and Audrey was British.
10:12I lived at 133 Hawthorne Street.
10:15The house has gone.
10:16It was a charming American Gothic house with black lace trimming, three peaks.
10:22And yet even at the time, some mistook them for sisters.
10:26In fact, Audrey's aristocratic surname was Hepburn-Rustin,
10:29as her father made his own false family connection to Scottish nobleman James Hepburn.
10:34She is a princess.
10:36Her blood, he said, is bluer than the Danube is or ever was.
10:40Royalty is absolutely written on her face.
10:43The actresses admittedly carried themselves similarly as social elites
10:47and uniquely strong-willed leading ladies.
10:49There weren't many allowed in old Hollywood, let alone two with the same name.
10:53The Hepburns may not have shared blood, but they share a towering legacy in their industry.
10:58I suppose you think I'm very brazen or very fool or something.
11:02I don't think you're any fooler than anybody else.
11:04Yes, you do, everybody does, and I don't mind.
11:07It's useful being top banana in the shock department.
11:09What are your favorite celebrity bonds, familial or coincidental?
11:13Connect with us in the comments.
11:14I know you're gaining a different father and a brother.
11:18People have been looking at these photos and going,
11:20yeah, I'll buy it.
11:21I'll buy half-brother.
11:23Do you agree with our picks?
11:24Check out this other recent clip from Ms. Mojo.
11:26And be sure to subscribe and ring the bell to be notified about our latest videos.