With
Ben Affleck behind the camera, and his brother
Casey
delivering a breakthrough performance in the lead,
Gone Baby Gone was one
of 2007’s best reviewed films, and a tribute to the skills of the talented
siblings that made it. But it’s not the first time that family members have
joined forces to create a memorable movie.
The early days of cinema were filled with famous onscreen
relations, including
Lillian and
Dorothy Gish,
Jack and
Mary Pickford,
Charlie
and Syd Chaplin, and various members of the
Buster Keaton‘s clan. It’s a trend
that’s continued to this very day — families like the Bridges (father
Lloyd,
sons Jeff and
Beau), the Voights (father
Jon, daughter
Angelina Jolie), and the
Stallones (Frank,
Sylvester, and Sly’s son
Sage) have all shared the screen
together. (And need we even mention the
Olsen twins?) With the DVD of Gone
Baby Gone hitting the shelves, it’s a good time to delve
into movies that were truly family affairs: flicks in which brothers, sisters,
parents, and offspring teamed up, behind or in front of the camera, to make
movie magic.
Owen, Luke, and Andrew Wilson
Though you’d expect comedic anarchy of Marxist proportions (the brothers,
not the 19th century political radical),
Owen,
Luke, and
Andrew
Wilson find themselves in somber mood when thrown on the same set, creating chill, low-key
movies like The Royal Tenenbaums and
The Wendell Baker Story. Their separate filmographies also suggest the brothers approach film
more seriously than their Frat
Pack brethren. Luke frequently breaks ground in new genres, and Owen co-wrote
Wes Anderson‘s first three features, revealing a rather mad genius underneath
his rascally, split-nosed exterior. And what Andrew (call him the group’s Zeppo)
lacks in screen time, he makes up with fabulous character names, i.e.
Bottle
Rocket‘s Future Man or
Idiocracy‘s Beef Supreme.
Francis Ford, Sofia, Roman Coppola, with
Special Appearances by Jason Schwartzman, Talia Shire, and Nicolas Cage
Nepotism greases a lot of wheels in Hollywood, and no family has gone
farther on that notion than the Coppola empire. In addition to casting sister
Talia Shire
as Connie,
Francis Ford Coppola bypassed baby auditions by casting daughter
Sofia in
The Godfather as an infant
Michael Rizzi. After
graduating from Ridgemont High, Nicolas Cage weathered the 1980s with
The Cotton
Club and
Peggy Sue Got Married, both directed by uncle Francis. And
Jason
Schwartzman got through his rocky post-Rushmore years with a gig in
CQ (directed by cousin
Roman Coppola)
and recently starred in
Marie
Antoinette, directed by other cousin Sofia (whose directorial efforts
have absolved her infamous performance in
The Godfather:
Part III).
Charlie and Martin Sheen and Emilio Estevez
If you’re watching a movie starring a Sheen or an Estevez, chances are
another Sheen or Estevez will show up sooner or later.
Martin Sheen and his
brother Joe Estevez starred in a couple TV movies in the 1970s;
Charlie joined
them in 1998’s No Code of Conduct. Martin played Charlie’s father in
Wall
Street, and made a memorable cameo in
Hot Shots, Part Deux.
Emilio Estevez directed and co-starred with his father Martin in
The
War at Home and
Bobby, and joined forces
with his brother Charlie in
Men at Work,
Young Guns, and, in an inspired bit of stunt casting, playing porn tycoons the
Mitchell brothers in Rated X. And the list goes on.
Alfred and Patricia Hitchcock
Alfred Hitchcock‘s instinct for perfect casting is legendary — as was his
disdain for his players ("Actors should be treated like cattle," he once said).
However, one actress the Master of Suspense smiled upon was his daughter
Patricia, who had key parts in
Strangers on a Train, playing
a partygoer who discovers the depths of
Robert Walker‘s depravity, and in
Psycho as
Janet Leigh‘s chatty office-mate. It’s the underrated
Stage
Fright, though, that was truly a family affair, scripted by
Mrs. Hitchcock, Alma Reville, and featuring Patricia as the close friend of star
Jane Wyman. She also starred in 10 episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents;
at the end of one of them, Hitch said to the camera, "I thought the little
leading lady was rather good, didn’t you?"
Peter, Henry, and Jane Fonda
The three generations of Fondas epitomize their eras.
Henry was the Old
Hollywood everyman,
Peter and
Jane embodied the restless nature of the Move
Brats, and Peter’s daughter
Bridget was a key player in Generation X cinema.
Henry and Peter teamed up for two little known Westerns,
The Rounders and
Wanda Nevada; Jane joined her father in the Oscar winner
On Golden
Pond. Bridget was a child when she and her brother Justin made
cameos in Peter’s Easy Rider; years later, he returned the
favor by appearing in
Bodies, Rest & Motion with her.
However, the most intriguing (and, frankly, creepy) Fonda family collaboration
took place in Metzengerstein, part of the omnibus film
Spirits of the
Dead. Jane plays a spoiled aristocrat who falls for her
neighboring cousin — played by Peter. (She later becomes obsessed with his horse, but that’s another story.)
John and Joan Cusack
The Cusack clan was born ready for show business. Family patriarch
Richard Cusack was a documentary filmmaker and owned a production company. Though all of
his kids have ventured into the thespian trade, it’s
John and
Joan who currently
hog the spotlight. Together, they’ve been featured in ten movies, starting with
1984’s Sixteen Candles, with John as a member of Farmer Ted’s geek squad
and Joan the geeky girl in the neck brace. From there, they collaborated on
projects like Grosse Pointe Blank,
Say Anything…,
High Fidelity, and the
upcoming War, Inc. It’s almost like for every iconic John performance, his
sister is also there working patiently in the wings, tightening the screws for
his machinations to be the ultimate dork heartthrob.
Groucho, Chico, Harpo, and Zeppo Marx
When people think of the Marx brothers, chances are they’re thinking of
their 1930 to 1935 output. It’s a hot streak that includes
Duck Soup and
A Night at the
Opera and remains unparalleled within comedy. The brothers always stuck with
what worked: Groucho was leader and horndog punster,
Chico mixed and matched the
English language to suit his whims, and
Harpo reeled the kids in with his face
contortions and parlor tricks. But praises must be sung for
Zeppo, the
never-flustered straight man. Though he was out by A Night at the Opera, Zeppo
was in each of their previous movies (including 1929’s underrated
The Coconauts)
and his cheerful common sense gave Groucho, Chico, and Harpo the vital tether to
spin their vaudeville antics around.
Keenen Ivory, Kim, Damon, Shawn, and Marlon Wayans
The Wayans clan bursted into the mainstream courtesy of the
Keenen Ivory
Wayans-produced, fond-memory filled In Living Color. A mere five Wayans family
members contributed to that TV series — Keenen Ivory,
Kim,
Damon,
Shawn, and
Marlon — and the show became a proverbial who’s who of rising 1990s comedians
(and future hot moms, what up J-Lo). Before Color, the Blaxploitation spoof
I’m Gonna Git You Sucka and its six Wayans listed in its credits foreshadowed the
family’s cinematic future. The family banded together once again for
Don’t Be a
Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood , produced by Keenen Ivory and featuring Shawn and Marlon as co-stars and writers (sister Kim
had a role as well). Further collaborations include Mo’ Money, Blankman,
Scary
Movie and Scary Movie 2,
White Chicks, and
Little Man, driving home the Chapelle’s Show quote: "There more of them?"
Will, Jaden, and Willow Smith
Although star siblings
Jaden and
Willow Smith haven’t appeared in a movie
together, they both kickstarted their careers acting alongside dad,
Will Smith. Jaden Smith made his debut in as Will Smith’s son in
The Pursuit of Happyness.
The true story about a homeless father and son required the duo to film many
intense scenes together. Smith’s daughter Willow made her debut in
I Am
Legend, playing (who else) Will’s daughter. And who could forget Will’s son,
Trey, in the music video for “Just the Two of Us”? But Jaden and Willow are
branching out beyond Will Smith films — Willow costars in the upcoming
Kit
Kittredge: An American Girl and Jaden is rumored to have a role in
The
Day the Earth Stood Still.
John, Walter, Danny, and Angelica Huston
The first family with three generations of Oscar winners, the Hustons —
most notably Walter,
John, and
Anjelica — embody both old school Hollywood
class and familial cooperation. As a director, John Huston often cast his father
in key roles, most memorably in
The Maltese Falcon and
The Treasure of
the Sierra Madre. Later, he would direct his
daughter Anjelica in in A Walk with Love
and Death, Sinful Davey,
Prizzi’s Honor, and The Dead.
He also performed alongside his son Tony in his only acting credit in
The
List of Adrian Messenger. And Anjelica and her half-brother
Danny Huston
teamed up for the made-for-TV thriller Covert One: The Hades Factor.
Ron and Clint Howard
If Ron is directing it,
Clint is in it, so the list of collaborative efforts
between these brothers is long. It’d be shorter to list the films Ron excluded
Clint from. Clint usually plays unlikable characters, like the referee in
Cinderella
Man, annoying Whobris in
How the Grinch Stole Christmas, or the
unfeeling morgue attendant in
Backdraft. Ron involved Clint all the way
back in the beginning, casting him in his directorial debut Old Paint and
later in Night Shift. Yeah sure, Clint was just a wedding guest in Splash
but his parts did grow. Though Clint once seemed like the sort of character
actor who wouldn’t have a career if he couldn’t ride family coat tails, the MTV
music awards offered him a Lifetime Achievement award and video tribute that
proved his prowess – in or out of prosthetic makeup. Boston’s The Phoenix
magazine listed Ron and Clint Howard as the #21 and 22 unsexiest men in
the world. Unsexy, perhaps, but productive.
The Long Riders
Casey Affleck’s other breakthrough performance was in The
Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. But that’s not the first
time the outlaw’s story has been told on film. In 1980, Walter Hill directed
The
Long Riders, a glorifying Western of James’s exploits and is also the
perfect storm of sibling combinations.
James and
Stacy Keach wrote, produced,
and starred, and the film features three other sets of real life brothers:
Dennis and
Randy Quaid;
David,
Keith, and
Robert Carradine; and in rare serious
role, Christopher Guest plays Charlie Ford, while Guest’s bro
Nicolas portrays
Robert. As far as the fraternities of brotherhood go, this one goes to 11.
And finally, an honorable mention goes out to young actor
Denzel Whitaker, who costarred in
The Great Debaters with no relation to
Denzel
Washington or
Forest Whitaker.
Written by Alex Vo, Tim Ryan, Rachel Sandor, Sara Schieron, David Chung
