Name 6 living actors who got to Hollywood w/o the help of nepotism or being a celebrity?

Li’l Bow-Wow, Jane Fonda, Marishka Hargitay, Kate Hudson, Angelina Jolie, and I can’t think of anyone else. I really only guessed at those, so I’m not even certain it’s true.

@TheOnlyNeffie Kate Hudson’s mom is Goldie Hawn, Jane Fonda’s dad is Henry Fonda, Angelina Jolie’s dad is John Voight, and Mariska Hargitay’s parents are Mickey Hargitay and Jayne Mansfield.

Julianne Moore, Jennifer Garner, Kevin Bacon, Halle Berry, Leonardo DiCaprio?

I thought Julia Roberts would definitely count. She doesn’t.

Tori Spelling and Randy Spelling; Rick, David, Tracy, Gunnar and Matthew Nelson

Bill Paxton, Jack Nicholson, Nicole Kidman, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Sarah Michelle Gellar, and Harrison Ford.

I glanced at the IMDb bios of the above actors, and didn’t see anything to indicate that they had any of the connections listed in the OP.

@YARNLADY Tori and Randy Spelling is the children of producer Aaron Spelling, so, that is a scratch.

@Brian1946 Jack was born of a showgirl Frances Nicholson, so it is a near miss of sorts but though she was a performer just not of Hollywood. I don’t think her stage worked helped him at all.

@Hypocrisy_Central

“Jack was born of a showgirl Frances Nicholson, so it is a near miss of sorts but though she was a performer just not of Hollywood. I don’t think her stage worked helped him at all.”

One part that she played was that of his grandmother in real life, and I don’t think that helped him either.

@Brian1946 Considering the mess surounding Jack’s father who was still married to someone else at the time Frances married him I am surprised it didn’t hurt him.

I don’t know for sure, but:

Dakota Fanning.
Charlize Theron.
Jake Gyllenhal. (Or however you spell his last name)
Natalie Portman.
Katie Holmes.
Nicole Kidman.

@Hypocrisy_Central Dakota Fanning was born to a pro tennis player and a minor league ball player but they were not super stars and not in the lime light so to speak, I doubt their careers helped Dakota’s any.

Josh Dumenel
Carol Burnett
Snoop Dogg
Steve Martin
Barbara Streisand
The dude who plays ernest

Johnny Depp
Topher Grace
Tom Cruise
Leonardo di Caprio
Matt Damon
Kirsty Alley
Jacqueline Bisset

Angelica Huston,Sigourney Weaver,Josh Brolin,Nicholas Cage,Angelina Jolie,and the Arquette siblings.

@Likeradar, but Kevin Bacon is related to everybody.

Ed Norton, Brad Pitt, Tom Hanks, Donald Sutherland, Clint Eastwood, Steve Bushemi

@lucillelucillelucille I think Sigourney Weaver’s dad was a TV producer and her mom an actress. Angelina Jolie was already explained above.

William Shatner and Leonard Nemoy.

@jazmina88 Snoop Dog started as a rapper, Steve martain started as a comedian and a writer for the Smothers Brothers, Barbara Steisand was a singer; Snoop and Barbara had careers in place before flopping to acting and Steve was connected to Hollywood.

@lucillelucillelucille Angelina’s dad John Voight, nepostism…... Sigourney Weaver was the child of an English actress (which might have had no clout in Hollywood) and a studio exec father (which I am sure had some clout, more than you or I anyhow).

@filmfann At least Donald Sutherland did it the old fashin way, he actually studies drama and worked his way up!

@lucillelucillelucille Angelica Huston I had to google, because I was not sure, but her dad also was an actor and director.

@Hypocrisy_Central Oh, I had not read your question thoroughly enough. You want actors who have not been in TV or Broadway or singers before Hollywood? You mean before being in a movie? Straight from nothing to the big screen. Is that right?

@JLeslie Acters and Actresses who were not connected or had doors open to them because they were stars in other orbits like Shaq, OJ Simpson, Brandi, M&M, Terry “Hulk” Hogan, George Lopez, etc. Be it TV or movies they worked their way into Hollywook or was discovered by Hollywood but had no connection to it.

Ok. So I stick with my two answsers Shatner and Lemoy. Their parents were immigrants from Europe I think. Not connected to show biz in any way from what I remember.

Anthony Hopkins
Bruce Willis
Alan Rickman
Steve Carrell
Ann Hathaway
Judi Densch

@Likeradar yes, I completely misread the question. I answered it backwards. :) Oops.

@lucillelucillelucille Nic Cage is the nephew of Francis Ford Coppola.

@TheOnlyNeffie :)

@DrasticDreamer Sorry Jake did not snake by this one, he is the kid of director Stephen Gyllenhaal and screenwriter Naomi Foner; nepostism…... Har har har

People you did not think was connected are, I would have to say worse than the NFL or NASCAR.

@Hypocrisy_Central Damn. Ha.

@Hypocrisy_Central why? Why are you asking? Do you think it is almost impossible to break into the business without a familial connection? Is that the point. Many families have family “industries.” Doctors, lawyers, engineers, garment, diamond, etc. Some cultures feel nepotism makes perfect sense; family are people who you know, and usually who you can trust. As long as they are capable, why not favor them? Many of these actors have family in the business, but were not hired directly because the were a son or daughter. Their parents were not the casting directors or the producers in most cases, so I don’t think we can call it nepotism, can we?

@JLeslie Do you think it is almost impossible to break into the business without a familial connection? Not at all. I know there are a great many actors and actresses who got there by other means other than the family name of the family connection. Unlike the mom and pop cleaners or other family industry no one family owns Hollywood or at least should not be able to, back in the day if you wanted to be an actor or actress you had to actually be able to act well. That mean taking drama in high school, going on to major in college, then honing your chops in community theater, off Broadway productions, being the understudy then advancing to the lead. These days you don’t have to worry about actually learning the craft all you have to be is a popular draw by being a pop icon, super star sports figure, reality TV personality or have people in the business who can drop your name to the right people. Martin Sheen and Keifer Sutherland might be well accomplished actors now but they were horrible in their beginning works. As bad as they were the only way they could have got casted is their high profile parents, not off their skill. Many actors and actresses one would not think are connected and might have been mistaken as having got there by their own gumption didn’t, they had help by who they were related to. If it were a independent production company owned by one family sure I would expect the sons, nephews, nieces, and grandkids to have 1st crack at taking over the reigns before some interloper was brought in from some college.

Christopher Walken, Ron Eldard, Chris Noth, Al Pacino, James Dean, Marlon Brando

For the record I think @YARNLADY answered the question backwards as every single person she mentioned has direct Hollywood connections.

Oops! I totally missed the living part! How about I replace James Dean with Willem Dafoe and Marlon Brando with Ben Affleck.

@SuperMouse Yes, you are correct – I completely overlooked the w/o part – sorry.

Jake and Maggie Gyllenhaal’s mother, Naomi Foner, is a still-active screenwriter and producer.
Leonardo DiCaprio’s mother, I believe, is a casting director, as is Christian Slater’s mom.

Here’s a fun fact for those who are old enough to remember the first year of the American kids educational show The Electric Company (1971): The end sketch, “Love Of Chair”, would always have a gag where the announcer would ask, “And what about Naomi?” Jake and Maggie’s mom was who they meant. She was a young associate producer at the time, and the gag was an in-joke for the staff and crew.

@aprilsimnel OMG! Thank you so much for solving this mystery for me. I used to watch that show when I was little and it drove me insane because I had no idea what that meant. I’ve been waiting 40 years for the “other shoe to drop!” It really drove me mad, because I had never heard the name Naomi before and I thought naomi must be some kind of idea or concept that was too old for me to grasp at that young age. I always wondered what naomi was, now the mystery is solved. BEST ANSWER EVER ON FLUTHER!

To answer the question:

Brad Pitt
Harvey Keitel
Angela Bassett
Gene Hackman
Meryl Streep
Laurence Fishburne
Tom Hanks
Samuel L. Jackson

@YARNLADY I understand completely, I totally missed the living part!