5 Classic TV and Movie Actors You Might Not Have Known Were “Nepo Babies”
It’s not a new thing
Supposedly, there’s a big controversy about Hollywood celebrities who were born into Hollywood families. The term “nepo baby” is being used as some kind of an accusation that such stars have an easier time of it than their peers who had to scratch and claw their way to the top of the Hollywood game.
Whatever.
Though I’m the first one to complain that movie and TV stars make way too much money, I also appreciate talent. And I think this whole nepo baby thing is unfair.
Nepotism exists in every industry. But it’s not nepotism just because somebody goes into the same business their parent or other relative is in.
But I’m not here to define nepotism or debate it. I’m here to do a pop culture listicle to demonstrate that so-called nepo babies in show business aren’t new. They’ve always been around, and these five examples got their starts decades ago.
1. Elizabeth Montgomery — When Elizabeth Montgomery died in 1995 at the age of 62, she was one of the most famous actresses in America. Her biggest claim to fame was, of course, Bewitched, the sitcom she created with her husband, William Asher in the 1960s. After that, she was frequently on TV screens not only in reruns but in the numerous TV movies she starred in.
Prior to Bewitched, Liz showed up in shows like The Twilight Zone and Alfred Hitchcock Presents. But one of her earliest TV roles was on the series Robert Montgomery Presents — which was hosted and produced by her father.
2. Ron Howard — Oscar-winning director Ron Howard has had quite a career in Hollywood as an actor first, and then a director.
His daughter Bryce Dallas Howard has become a well-known actress herself, and she’s also a director.
But Bryce isn't a first-generation nepo baby. Her dad was one too.
Ron’s father Rance Howard was an actor. He landed a role in a touring company production of Mister Roberts in the late 1940s and then went on to Hollywood. Rance and two-year-old son Ronny both made their movie debuts in the film Frontier Woman in 1956.
When little Ronny landed the plum role of Opie Taylor on The Andy Griffith Show in 1960, he was on his way to becoming a much bigger star than his father ever would be.
The irony is that Rance, who died in 2017, could have wound up being accused of being a “nepo dad.” He had 284 acting credits in his career according to IMDb, and a lot of them were in movies directed by Ron.
3. Mia Farrow — Golden Globe winner Mia Farrow first gained fame as a cast member on the primetime soap Peyton Place in the 1950s. After losing out on a role in The Sound of Music in 1965, she got the lead role in Rosemary’s Baby a few years later, cementing her Hollywood stardom.
But Mia didn't come from modest beginnings. Her father John Farrow was a movie director, and her mother was Maureen O’Sullivan — known to 1930s moviegoers best as “You, Jane.”
Even Mia’s Godparents were big shots: Director George Cukor and columnist Louella Parsons.
2. Meredith Baxter — Best known to Gen Xers as Elyse Keaton on Family Ties, Meredith Baxter was a 70s TV star too. She co-starred with her then-spouse David Birney on the short-lived sitcom Bridget Loves Birney, and then she played the eldest daughter on the drama series Family.
The confusion of names that start with the letter B didn’t originate for Meredith in the 70s. Her mother was Whitney Blake, an actress who played a woman named Baxter on TV.
Whitney Blake starred in the 1960s sitcom Hazel with Shirley Boothe in the title role, and Don DeFore as Blake’s husband, George Baxter.
In her memoir Untied: A Memoir of Family, Fame and Floundering, Meredith Baxter says her mother wanted nothing more than to be an actress. Yet one of her biggest contributions to television came from behind the scenes. Whitney Blake, along with Norman Lear and Allan Mannings, created the original sitcom One Day at a Time.
5. Kurt Russell — Teenage Disney star Kurt Russell could have been accused of being a nepo baby when he played minor league baseball in the early 1970s. He played second base for the Portland Mavericks, a team that was owned by his father.
An injury ended Kurt’s baseball career, so he returned his focus to acting. Today he is one of the most prolific and famous actors in Hollywood.
And his baseball team-owning dad was also an actor.
Bing Russell never achieved the level of fame as an actor that his son would. He was a character actor, probably best known for his role as the local deputy on Bonanza. He racked up 180 acting credits in his career, according to IMDb.
