Celebs You Didn't Know Were Multiracial

[brinksteria]

Jennifer Tilly and Meg Tilly: one of their parents is of Chinese descent.

Here's an oldie from the 30s/40s: Merle Oberon. She was in Wuthering Heights with Laurence Olivier. Her life story was like "Imitation of Life." Her mother was from Sri Lanka . Her father was English.

Because of the extreme racism of the time, she was fanatical about keeping her ancestry under wraps. In Hollywood, her mother lived with her. But her mom's identity was concealed. Instead, she was introduced and worked as her maid.

[Deleted]

If anyone has read the book Queenie, which was also a mini-series starring Mia Sara of Ferris Bueller fame, it was supposedly based on either the life of Merle Oberon or Vivien Leigh. Leigh evidentally was of mixed descent and was born in India.

ETA: According to IMDB Merle was nicknamed "Queenie," so I'm guessing the book wasn't about Vivien.

[sobe]

Heather Locklear, Tom Hanks, and Elvis are rumored to be Melungeon.

Locklear is apparently an old Native American surname, common in a "tri-racial" group in North Carolina.


Kirk Hammett (sp?) of Metallica and Rob Schneider are both half Filpino.

[shriekingeel]

I've never heard any speculation on the internet about it, but I've heard people say that Mary Tyler Moore has black ancestry.

What exactly is Vin Diesel's background. We were watching him on Letterman the other night and my husband said "I didn't know he was white" I said " I didn't know he was black" We looked at each other and said "What is he?"

That's one of the things that I like about Vin Diesel, that he is, if you will, post-racial.

[veronicamars]

Merle's mother was Indian. Vivian Leigh was born in India because her parents oversaw a plantation there. She had no Indian blood. The book Queenie was based on Merle-her nephew by marriage wrote it. It was made into a 1987 mini series starring Mia Sara.

[emaline]

Perhaps this is already common knowledge, but I recently found out that Alexis Bledel (Rory on Gilmore Girls) is half-Argentinian and half-Mexican and that her first language is Spanish.

[veronicamars]

I think her dad is a European Aregentinian.

[missmsry]

I've seen her mom at the grocery store, and she is definitely a "European" Mexican. And most of Argentina is of decidedly European descent, except of course the indigenous people. Plus, Alexis has eyes so blue they would put a laser beam to shame.

[veronicamars]

A European Mexican is the same as a European Argentinian, right? So Alexis isn't really Mexican, like Thalia-she is only Latino in nationality, not ethnicity, right?

[chiqui]

Erm, no. Mexico is almost as diverse, racially, as the US is, with different waves of immigration. French, Germans, English, Jewish, Lebanese, etc. have migrated there over the centuries and intermarried with other immigrants or with the 'native' peoples (themselves a mixture of Native American and Spanish) leading to descendants who may appear European, but are overwhelmingly Latino in outlook.

Even in the same family there may be light-skinned siblings and darker- skinned ones who appear more 'native' (Aztec, Zapotec, Olmec, etc.)