Keeping fame in the family

Fame is a funny thing – you might think that the celebrities of today are a flash in the pan and in a few generations time, will be nothing but a distant memory but sometimes fame stays in the family, like with the people we’ll be talking about today.

You might not think that Meghan Markle has anything other than her husband tying her to the British aristocracy but you’d be wrong.
Did you know that Ozzy Osborne has family connections to Tsar Nicholas II, Grandson of Queen Victoria?  

Read on to find out how some of our modern day celebrities are related to historical figures, it might just change your mind on how fickle fame can be!

As we’ve mentioned him already, let’s examine Ozzy Osborne first.

So according to researchers looking at the family trees of several celebrities, Ozzy Osbourne has some pretty impressive ancestors. Born John Michael Osbourne in Warwickshire in 1948, Ozzy Osbourne is best known for being the lead singer of Black Sabbath and for biting the head off a bat. He gained a new legion of fans by becoming one of the first ever reality TV stars, though all of that was potentially due to the strength of his genes. The research found that Ozzy is descended from American outlaw, Jesse James and Russia’s Tsar Nicholas II.

Tsar Nicholas, a grandson of Queen Victoria was the last monarch of Russia. He, his wife and children were slaughtered by the Bolshevik’s during the Russian revolution.

Another celeb that has connections to royalty is Tilda Swinton. The Oscar winning Scottish actress has been in a host of films, TV programmes and stage productions, including Marvel blockbusters. Researchers looking at her family history found that she is related to Robert the Bruce!

Robert the Bruce was king of Scotland from 1306 to 1329 and freed Scotland from English rule after his troops won the Battle of Bannockburn 1314. The research showed that both Swinton’s parents had a link to Robert II, the grandson of Robert the Bruce.

Meghan Markle is a controversial figure who already has links to the British aristocracy thanks to her marriage to Prince Harry but that isn’t her only connection. According to research, she is the sixth cousin of Winston Churchill and also distantly related to William Shakespeare.

The Churchill connection makes sense, although he was born in Oxfordshire and can trace his lineage through the British aristocracy, his mother was an American socialite.

A funnier historical connection to a modern day celebrity is Robert Pattinson and his relation, Vlad the Impaler. Vlad was the inspiration behind Dracula, who in turn influenced Pattinson’s most famous role, Edward Cullen in the Twilight saga. Yep, a man famous for playing a vampire, is related to the man who inspired the most famous of vampires.

Another case of life imitating art is the link between Kit Harrington and Robert Catesby. Kit Harrington is an actor best known for playing Jon Snow in Game of Throne, one of his post Game of Thrones roles was in a dramatisation of the Gun Powder Plot, in which he played Robert Catesby, the leader of the scheme to blow up parliament. Harrington is a direct descendant of Robert Catesby, his mother’s maiden name was Catesby and even weirder, another of his relatives on his father’s side was in the Houses of Parliament for the opening of parliament and would have been caught up in all the drama!