5 Hollywood stars you probably didn't know had German roots
Antje Binder sh
November 7, 2017
Hollywood is their home, but worldwide fame was merely a dream to their ancestors. Many celebrities have connections to Germany and some even speak a bit of German, like Leonardo DiCaprio.
Image: picture alliance/PictureGroup/S. Kirkland
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5 Hollywood stars you probably didn't know had German roots
Hollywood is their home, but worldwide fame was merely a dream to their ancestors. Many celebrities have connections to Germany and some even speak a bit of German, like Leonardo DiCaprio.
Image: Getty Images/J. Philips
Leonardo DiCaprio
Leonardo DiCaprio is undeniably proud of his German heritage. His mother Irmelin and his grandmother Helene are said to have given him the virtues of frankness and honesty. It seems that his celebrity fame hasn't changed any of it. Perhaps his German background has kept him grounded during his successful career.
Image: Getty Images/J. Philips
Charlize Theron
The Oscar-winner was born in South Africa, but has German ancestry through her mother, Gerda, who had German forefathers. As a model, Charlize Theron lived for a time in Hamburg, learning some German during her stay. However, none of this was enough to get the 41-year-old German citizenship - her application was rejected.
Image: AP
Michael Fassbender
Michael Fassbender was born in Heidelberg and is the son of an Irishman and a German. He moved to Ireland at the age of two with his family, but his German heritage is apparent through his name and occasional film scenes in German. In the film "Inglorious Bastards," for example, he played a British lieutenant fluent in German.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/A. Cowie
Sandra Bullock
Whenever she gives interviews in Germany, it becomes clear that Sandra Bullock can chat in nearly accent-free German. It's the result of spending her childhood in the city of Nuremberg, as the daughter of a German opera singer. The famous actress never forgot her roots and has both German and American citizenship.
Image: FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP/Getty Images
Bruce Willis
It's a shame that Bruce Willis speaks only broken German. Otherwise, it would be a treat to hear him speaking with an accent from the Palatinate region. Willis, the son of a US soldier and a German mother, was born in the idyllic Idar-Oberstein region of the Rhineland. In 2007, his birth town made him a special ambassador. He's been awaited there for an official visit ever since.
Image: Theo Wargo/Getty Images
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In 1984, in a small West German local paper, a photo of the winners of a breakdance competition was published. In the picture is a small blonde boy with a mischievous smile. Surrounded by other dancers, he poses for the camera with a small trophy in one hand and a record in the other.
The young boy is Leonardo DiCaprio at the tender age of nine. In the North Rhine Westphalia town of Oer-Erkenschwick, he performed under his breakdancer's name, "The Noodle," looking much like the self-confident American boy one might expect. Although he only came in at second-place, he got a photo in a local newspaper - probably his first ever.
Summer in the town of Oer-Erkenschwick
DiCaprio regularly visited Germany as a child. His mother, Irmelin Indenbirken, was German. In the 1950s she immigrated to the US and married American George DiCaprio. Then, in 1974, young Leo was brought into the world.
The pair split when Leonardo was a year old. He grew up with his mother, Irmelin, and his grandmother was there to help too. In the summer, they would regularly visit his grandmother, Helene, in the German town of Oer-Erkenschwick in a house that smelled of roasted potatoes. He received 10 German marks pocket money and was rewarded with a large ice cream at the end of the vacation.
Direct, like his grandmother
Even after achieving fame, DiCaprio stayed true to his German roots. He cares for his mother and grandmother, even taking them with him to rehearsals and film premieres. Until her death in 2008, he visited grandma Helene in the Ruhr region of Germany.
He gets his direct way of speaking from his grandmother, said the actor in an interview. His middle name, Wilhelm, was taken from his German grandfather.
What other celebrities have German ancestry? Find out in our High Five Ranking by clicking through the gallery above.
