More than 400 years after the Mayflower arrived in New England, the passengers who survived and started families have millions of descendants scattered around the world. Some of those family lines eventually produced an unusually recognizable collection of actors, musicians, writers, athletes, and artists. The connections can also make for some unexpected distant relatives. Humphrey Bogart and Alec Baldwin share Mayflower ancestors, while Marilyn Monroe and Orson Welles trace branches of their families back to John Alden. Based on published genealogical research, here are 29 famous people with reported Mayflower ancestry.
Alec Baldwin — John Howland and Elizabeth Tilley
Alec Baldwin traces part of his family tree to John Howland and Elizabeth Tilley, two of the best-known figures associated with the Mayflower. Howland famously survived falling overboard during the Atlantic crossing before eventually marrying Tilley and raising a large family in Plymouth Colony.
Humphrey Bogart — John Howland and Elizabeth Tilley
The Casablanca star shares some surprisingly deep family history with Baldwin. Bogart is also reported to descend from John Howland and Elizabeth Tilley, making the two actors extremely distant cousins through their colonial ancestry.
Jordana Brewster — Multiple Mayflower Passengers
Jordana Brewster has one of the most extensive Mayflower family trees on this list. Her reported ancestors include John Howland, Elizabeth Tilley, Thomas Rogers, Richard Warren, William Brewster, Edward Doty, James and Mary Chilton, and members of the White family.
John Cena — Edward Winslow and Richard Warren
John Cena can reportedly trace his family back to both Edward Winslow and Richard Warren. Winslow became an important leader of Plymouth Colony, while Warren was among the passengers who explored the Massachusetts coast during the settlement’s earliest days.
Benedict Cumberbatch — John Alden and Priscilla Mullins
Benedict Cumberbatch’s ancestry connects him to one of the Mayflower’s most famous couples: John Alden and Priscilla Mullins. Alden had traveled aboard the ship as a cooper and remained in Plymouth, where he and Priscilla eventually built one of the colony’s largest surviving family lines.
Matt Damon — Richard Warren
Matt Damon’s Mayflower connection comes through Richard Warren. Warren initially made the voyage without his wife and five daughters, who later joined him in Plymouth after the colony had become established.
Ellen DeGeneres — John Alden and William Brewster
Ellen DeGeneres reportedly has several Mayflower lines in her family tree. Her ancestors include John Alden and Priscilla Mullins as well as William Brewster, the prominent religious elder who became one of Plymouth Colony’s leading figures.
Clint Eastwood — William Bradford
Clint Eastwood is a descendant of William Bradford, one of the most important names in Plymouth history. Bradford served for decades as governor of the colony and left behind a detailed written account that became a major record of its early years.
Zac Efron — John Alden and Thomas Rogers
Zac Efron’s family tree reportedly includes John Alden, Priscilla Mullins, and Thomas Rogers. That puts the actor in the enormous group of modern descendants produced by several of the families who survived Plymouth Colony’s difficult first years.
Jodie Foster — John Alden and Priscilla Mullins
Jodie Foster’s Mayflower ancestry comes through her paternal family. She is reported to descend from John Alden and Priscilla Mullins, the same colonial couple found in the family trees of several other Hollywood stars.
Richard Gere — Multiple Mayflower Passengers
Richard Gere may have the most crowded Mayflower family tree of anyone here. Sources connect him to passengers including Samuel Fuller, Francis Eaton, Francis Cooke, George Soule, Degory Priest, Richard Warren, Stephen Hopkins, William Brewster, and members of the Billington family.
James Spader — Richard Warren
Boston-born James Spader has New England roots stretching all the way back to the Plymouth settlers. His reported Mayflower ancestor is Richard Warren, which also gives him a distant genealogical connection to stars including Matt Damon and Richard Gere.
Taylor Swift — Richard Warren and Stephen Hopkins
Taylor Swift’s family tree reportedly reaches several different Mayflower families. Among her ancestors are Richard Warren, Stephen Hopkins, Hopkins’ daughter Constance, and John and Francis Billington.
Marilyn Monroe — John Alden and Priscilla Mullins
Marilyn Monroe’s difficult childhood hardly fits the stereotypical image of an old New England dynasty, yet her ancestry reportedly reaches directly back to Plymouth. Through her paternal line, Monroe descended from John Alden and Priscilla Mullins, as well as Francis Cooke.
Christopher Lloyd — John Howland and Richard Warren
Christopher Lloyd’s New England roots run particularly deep. Genealogical sources connect the Back to the Future star to John Howland, Elizabeth Tilley, Richard Warren, James Chilton, Mary Chilton, and other members of the Tilley family.
Avril Lavigne — Stephen and Giles Hopkins
Canadian singer Avril Lavigne may seem like an unexpected name on a list of Mayflower descendants. Her reported family line leads back to Stephen Hopkins and his son Giles, both of whom traveled aboard the ship in 1620.
Sally Field — William Bradford
Sally Field discovered more about her colonial ancestry through Finding Your Roots. The actress is a descendant of William Bradford, giving her the same famous Plymouth ancestor as Clint Eastwood and several other people on this list.
Wil Wheaton — Francis Cooke
Wil Wheaton reportedly traces his ancestry to Francis Cooke. Cooke traveled aboard the Mayflower while his wife and several of his children remained behind, with the rest of the family joining him in Plymouth several years later.
Orson Welles — John Alden
One of cinema’s most influential filmmakers also had a connection to one of Plymouth’s most prolific families. Orson Welles reportedly descended from John Alden, making him a distant relative of fellow Alden descendant Marilyn Monroe.
Christopher Reeve — William Bradford
Christopher Reeve was another famous descendant of William Bradford. That means the actor best remembered as Superman shared a distant ancestral connection with Clint Eastwood and Sally Field through the longtime Plymouth governor.
Hugh Hefner — William Bradford
Hefner also reportedly belonged to the enormous family descended from William Bradford. It is one of the more unexpected examples of just how widely the descendants of Plymouth’s early families eventually spread.
John Lithgow — William Bradford
John Lithgow is another actor whose family tree has been linked to William Bradford. More than three centuries separate Lithgow’s career from Bradford’s years governing Plymouth, but genealogical research places them on the same extended family line.
Bing Crosby — William Brewster
Bing Crosby descended from William Brewster, the religious elder who became one of Plymouth’s most influential early residents. Brewster had already been involved with the Separatist movement in England before sailing aboard the Mayflower.
Ashley Judd — William Brewster
Ashley Judd discovered her connection to William Brewster while appearing on Who Do You Think You Are? Brewster had once been wanted by English authorities for his involvement in printing and distributing Separatist religious material.
Katharine Hepburn — William Brewster
Katharine Hepburn’s famous Connecticut roots stretched back into the earliest years of colonial New England. Like Bing Crosby and Ashley Judd, the four-time Oscar winner reportedly descended from William Brewster.
Julia Child — William Bradford
Long before Julia Child transformed American cooking television, one branch of her family had already been in New England for centuries. She is reported to have descended from William Bradford, the governor whose writings preserved much of what historians know about early Plymouth.
Thomas Pynchon — William Bradford
Novelist Thomas Pynchon shares the same famous Mayflower ancestor as several Hollywood stars. His lineage has been traced to William Bradford, placing one of America’s most famously elusive writers in a very large and very well-documented colonial family.
Georgia O’Keeffe — Edward Fuller
Georgia O’Keeffe’s Mayflower connection comes through her mother’s side of the family. The celebrated painter reportedly descended from Edward Fuller, who traveled to Plymouth with his wife and son but died during the colony’s devastating first winter.
