Hollywood's Golden Age gave us some of the most unforgettable stars in cinema history – think Gregory Peck, Sophia Loren and Grace Kelly. Yet their legacy didn't end with them; it lives on in their grandchildren, who are carrying the torch in more ways than one.
Whether it be stepping into the spotlight as actors and models, or championing their grandparents' causes, these stars all carry a level of glamour and charm that make their lineage unmistakeable. Join HELLO! as we meet the grandchildren of some of Hollywood's most famous Golden Age stars, and discover how they are following in their family's iconic footsteps.
Clover Watson – Natalie Wood
Natalie Wood’s decades-long career was tragically cut short when she drowned in 1981. A doting mother to daughters Natasha and Courtney, she passed away long before she could meet her only grandchild, Clover. Natasha shares Clover with her husband, Barry Watson, and movingly named her after Natalie's character from Inside Daisy Clover.
At just 13 years old, Clover is already making waves in the modelling industry, having teamed up with her mother to be the face of the fragrance line L'Amour Mēre, which is inspired by Natalie. “I think it’s just my way of connecting my daughter to my mum,” Natasha told People of the perfume campaign.
Natasha says Clover is growing up to be more like the West Side Story actress every day. “Clover has a real sense of herself and a real value of herself,” she explained. “My mum always fought for her worth in the business that she was in. Maybe Clover has that, and my mum is making sure that goes forward in her granddaughter.
“Clover is a very sensitive person. And I think she has that example in her grandma, being vulnerable but also such a force,” she added. The teen is just beginning to understand Natalie's place in film history, and watched her 1961 flick Splendor in the Grass, a story that left Clover "intrigued by the emotional spectrum of her performances". It sounds like she is already doing her homework on what it means to be Hollywood royalty!
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Ethan Peck – Gregory Peck
I would not be surprised if Gregory Peck's grandson, Ethan, gets mistaken for the Cape Fear actor every time he leaves the house – the resemblance is truly uncanny. Born in 1986 to Gregory's son, Stephen, and his former wife, Francine Matarazzo, he spent a lot of time with the Golden Age star as a child and built a strong relationship with him.
"We’d go over almost every week and play tennis and have lunch,” Stephen told Closer Weekly. “I wanted my son to know his grandpa, and he did. They got along really well.” Just imagine having tea and sandwiches with one of the greatest actors of all time – it's a cinephile's dream.
Ethan enjoyed moderate success in his youth with parts in That '70s Show and Passport to Paris (the Olsen twins classic), and continued to act in smaller roles until he won the role of Spock in the Star Trek prequel TV series Discovery and Brave New World.
Speaking to Entertainment Tonight about his legendary grandfather, who won an Oscar for his performance as Atticus Finch in To Kill A Mockingbird (A.K.A. my all-time favourite film), Ethan revealed whether he would ever consider taking on one of Gregory's iconic roles.
"Oh, my gosh. I don’t think that I would," he admitted. "He played such incredible, iconic characters that are so special to so many people, and I wouldn’t dare to make an attempt to reinterpret any of those. Maybe there’s a world where I would play him in like a biopic." Some legacies are simply too large to mess with.
Clark James Gable – Clark Gable
The Gone With the Wind star's namesake, Clark James Gable, who had his grandfather's dashing good looks and megawatt smile, followed in his family's footsteps by becoming an actor, and later found himself in the spotlight as a TV host. He was the son of John Clark Gable and Tracy Yarro, and had an older sister, Kayley, who was an actress in her own right. In a cruel twist of fate, John never met his father, as Clark died five months before his birth.
Clark James (confusing, I know!) hosted the reality show Cheaters for two years, and proved to have an entrepreneurial streak, too. He owned multiple businesses, including a boutique men's fashion line and an online electronics store. Clark welcomed a daughter, Shore LaRae Gable, in 2017, yet sadly passed away two years later due to an accidental overdose at age 30.
Charlotte Casiraghi – Grace Kelly
Perhaps one of the Golden Age's most celebrated stars was Grace Kelly, who won the heart of a prince and was whisked away to Monaco to become a real-life princess (swoon). She married Prince Rainier III of Monaco in 1956 and went on to have three children with him: Princess Caroline, Prince Albert, and Princess Stéphanie. Though Grace died in a car crash in 1982 near Monte Carlo and never met her 11 grandchildren, her legacy lives on through them.
Grace's grandchildren include singer and actress Jazmin Grace Grimaldi, humanitarian Pierre Casiraghi, and fashion designer Pauline Ducruet, to name but a few. Yet perhaps the most impressive of all is Charlotte Casiraghi, the second child of Princess Caroline and her Italian businessman husband, Stefano Casiraghi, who died in a boating accident when Charlotte was just four.
Now a mother of two, Charlotte is 11th in line to the Monegasque throne, and has achieved so much in her 39 years that it makes me wonder if she's ever gotten eight hours of sleep in a night. The multihyphenate became the face of Gucci Cosmetics in 2014, the brand ambassador for Chanel in 2020, and has modelled for major names like YSL over the years.
Charlotte also founded a philosophy organisation, has done extensive journalism work, started a production company, and was once an acclaimed equestrian. It seems like everything she touches just turns to gold.
Charlotte may never have met Grace – she was born four years after her grandmother’s death – yet she describes her influence as profound. "I feel rich in all these family stories, all these contrasts, all these women who have come out of a clear path," she told Madame Figaro.
"My whimsical great-grandmother. My grandmother, who made the choice to [leave Hollywood]." Grace may have left Hollywood behind, but her star power clearly remained in the family line.
Emma Ferrer – Audrey Hepburn
If I could be a descendant of anyone from this list, it would have to be Audrey Hepburn. Can you blame me? While she has five grandchildren in total, it is Emma Ferrer, daughter of Sean Hepburn Ferrer and Leila Flanagan, who has most publicly embraced her grandmother’s legacy.
Born in 1994, just a year after Sabrina star Audrey passed away, she grew up living between Los Angeles and Florence, Italy. She has modelled for Dior, Kosé, Givenchy and Tiffany & Co., and dabbled in acting with a role in The Man in the Attic in 2019.
Her focus is now on her art in Italy, where the brunette beauty is "trying to live her life with integrity and kindness" just like her grandmother, as she told HELLO! "My grandmother was one of the first women to make a million dollars for a movie," she explained.
"I've just begun to appreciate what it means to be so closely related to this female emblem of power and success. It's central to who I am, and a huge source of support. I feel very proud of all those in my family who helped to make great cinema."
Emma worked with her father Sean on the 2020 documentary Audrey: More Than An Icon, aiming to capture the real woman behind it all. "I think that, as time goes by, icons crystallise into two-dimensional images: a silhouette, some words associated with them, like 'elegance' or 'humanitarianism,'" she shared.
"So, where my grandmother is concerned, it's now my mission, along with my father, to try to help round out that image. It was wonderful to work with him on the [the documentary], which manages to show her as three-dimensional, as a woman, a mother, an actress, a daughter and an altruist." I would call that a mission accomplished!
The 31-year-old has since followed in Audrey's humanitarian footsteps and explained that she feels her grandmother's spirit guiding her while working with UNICEF. Clearly, grace and kindness run in the family.
Dakota Johnson – Tippi Hedren
Dakota Johnson hardly needs an introduction, but I'll give you one anyway because she's a certified star. The 35-year-old is the daughter of Melanie Griffith and Don Johnson, both successful actors in their own right, and the granddaughter of Golden Age star Tippi Hedren, best known for her role in Alfred Hitchcock's 1963 horror The Birds. Now that's a dinner party I'd like to join.
Dakota rose to fame in the Fifty Shades of Grey franchise, then cemented herself as a talented actress with roles in How To Be Single, Suspiria, Bad Times at the El Royale, The Peanut Butter Falcon and Materialists. She is also a mainstay on best-dressed lists, and has arguably the best haircut in the business (who else do you see pulling off a fringe like that?).
Dakota is incredibly close with her grandmother and opened up about the alleged treatment Tippi received at the hands of Alfred Hitchcock, the famed director. "She's always been really honest and firm about standing up for yourself. That's what she did,” the brunette beauty told The Hollywood Reporter. "Hitchcock ruined her career…and he terrorised her. He was never held accountable.”
"It's hard to talk about because she's my grandmother. You don't want to imagine somebody taking advantage of your grandmother," she continued. "I think the thing that she's been so amazing for me and with my mother is just like, no you do not put up with that s*** from anybody. She would say it in a far more eloquent way. She's such a glamorous movie star still." Get you a grandma who can teach you life's biggest lessons and tips on how to perfect your eyeliner.
Oona Chaplin – Charlie Chaplin
Charlie Chaplin – silent film genius and Golden Age icon – left behind a sprawling family, including 11 grandkids in total. One of the most famous from this list is Oona Chaplin, an actress best known for starring in Game of Thrones as Talisa Maegyr (a role which she played to perfection, in my humble opinion). If you've heard of the Red Wedding, then you've heard of her (R.I.P. Robb Stark).
She is the daughter of Charlie's eldest daughter, Geraldine, and her husband, Chilean cinematographer Patricio Castilla, and was born in Madrid. Oona (named after her grandmother and Charlie's fourth wife, Oona O'Neill) grew up in Spain, the UK, Switzerland and Cuba, often travelling due to her mother's acting career. Her passport must've been overflowing with stamps before she had mastered her times tables.
The 39-year-old beauty has found success on the screen, also nabbing roles in The Crimson Field in 2014 and The Longest Ride in 2015, as well as James Cameron's blockbuster film Avatar: The Way of Water.
As for her connection to Charlie, Oona shared how the trailblazer inspired her own work. "My family name is the only one I’ve ever known,” she told The Hollywood Reporter. “It’s not just about the talent and skills and the body of work; it’s also the intention behind it. My grandfather was a humanist. That’s why he was successful."
"He was trying to reach out to people and to make people laugh and love and cry, feel tenderness and feel okay about being human and feel okay about the human condition and strive toward being better human beings. And that’s something that has inspired me." In other words, Charlie's ability to connect with audiences is a once-in-a-lifetime talent that Oona hopes to bring to her own work.
Lucia Sofia Ponti – Sophia Loren
Everybody knows Sophia Loren – the Italian beauty who redefined womanhood on the big screen. Soon enough, everyone will also know the name of her granddaughter, Lucia Sofia Ponti, who made her debut in society at the famed Le Bal des Debutantes in 2024, alongside Apple Martin. That is how you step into the spotlight! Her father is filmmaker Edoardo Ponti, Sophia's son with Carlo Ponti, and her mother is actress Sasha Alexander.
Lucia is currently studying English and art history at Brown University, and is a competitive dancer with a flair for fashion, much like Sophia. "My grandmother always believed in timeless elegance and the importance of wearing something that reflects your true self. Growing up, she taught me the value of simplicity, tailoring, and always adding a touch of uniqueness to your outfit," she told HELLO!
Sophia and Lucia are incredibly close, and the 19-year-old spent her childhood visiting the Italian star in Geneva. "I love her dearly and despite the distance, we spend ample time together," she said.
As for what Sophia has taught her over the years, Lucia shared that she admired "her dedication to her values" and how "she never forgoes her own authentic self to fit the expectations of others around her". Lucia added: "I am infinitely inspired by her and always feel grateful to have such an amazing role model to look up to."
Growing up with a film legend in her life meant that Lucia also learned the importance of self-possession, confidence, and determination. "I think I have inherited her grit. She always taught me to never give up and to continue striving for what you yearn for, no matter the rejection or the cost." I personally cannot wait to see what Lucia does next.