19 Parents Of Famous Names Who Had More Interesting Lives Than Their Kids

8. Paul Giamatti

Paul Giamatti is an Academy Award-winning character actor who has appeared in Saving Private Ryan and Cinderella Man.

Paul’s father, A. Bartlett Giamatti, was once the president of Yale University. He maintained a lifelong interest in baseball and published numerous papers on the sport. From this, he eventually became the MLB’s National League president in 1986. Bartlett was selected as commissioner of the entire league in 1988, where he handled the Dowd report which revealed Pete Rose’s betting on baseball.

9. Rashida Jones

Rashida Jones is an American actress who is best known for her role as Ann Perkins on the popular TV show Parks and Recreation.

Though she has made no effort to hide her last name, few realize that Jones’ father is legendary record producer Quincy Jones. Quincy has won 28 Grammy’s for his work with Michael Jackson, Miles Davis, James Ingram, and more.

10. Paul Reubens

Paul Reubens is an actor best known for his children’s character Pee-Wee Herman, who has appeared in two TV shows and a popular film.

Pee-Wee Herman’s father, Milton Rubenfeld, was a WWII pilot who was one of the five founding members of the Israeli Air Force. Rubenfeld, an American Jew, entered WWII before the Americans, joining the British RAF in 1939 to fight the Nazis. In 1941, when the Americans joined the war, Rubenfeld became an American Air Force pilot. When Israel declared independence in 1948, they knew they had to fight against six larger nations, and did not yet even have an air force. They put a call out for Jewish pilots and Rubenfeld, along with four others, joined up and fought as the entire Israeli Air Force. His contributions are seen as integral to Israel’s ability to survive the Independence War.

11. Hugh Laurie

Hugh Laurie is a renowned British comedian, famous for his hit comedic series A Bit of Fry & Laurie who became an American TV star with his dramatic role as Dr. House in the eponymous TV series House.

Hugh’s father, Ran Laurie, was a rower at Cambridge who competed on Great Britain’s eight-man rowing team in the 1936 Olympics, where they came 4th. The war then interrupted Ran’s budding rowing career as he was deployed to Sudan with his rowing partner Jack Wilson. The two of them returned to the UK after the war, where they competed together in the 1948 Olympic Games in London and won gold.

12. Katharine Hepburn

Katharine Hepburn is one of the most iconic actresses of all time, having won four Academy Awards, the most of any actor.

Her mother, though, contributed to a much different institution. Katharine Martha Houghton Hepburn was an American suffragette during the turn of the century and campaigned for the 19th Amendment that extended the vote to women. In the 1920s, Hepburn co-founded the reproductive health care organization Planned Parenthood with birth control activist Margaret Sanger.

13. Stewart Copeland

Stewart Copeland was the drummer for the seminal British band The Police and is regarded as one of the greatest drummers of all time.

Copeland’s parents met while they were both working as spies in the UK during WWII. Miles Copeland Jr. was with the Counterintelligence Corps, a precursor to the CIA. Lorraine Adie worked with the wartime Special Operations Executive department. Miles was involved in talks directly related to the Allied invasion of Normandy Beach. After the war, the couple moved throughout the Middle East, where Miles acted as a CIA operative, working to overthrow governments the US didn’t approve of, and Lorraine followed her passion for archeology and became one of the foremost experts in the Paleolithic era of the Middle East.