Is Alan Thicke Jewish?

Alan Thicke was not Jewish. Thicke was born in Kirkland Lake, Ontario, Canada, the son of Shirley "Joan" Isobel Marie (née Greer), a nurse, and William Jeffery, a stockbroker. They divorced in 1953. His mother remarried to Brian Thicke, a physician, and they moved to Elliot Lake.

The actor, known for his role as Dr. Seaver on Growing Pains, was married three times. His first marriage, to Days of Our Lives actress Gloria Loring, lasted from 1970 until around 1984; they had two sons, Brennan and Robin. He started dating actress Kristy Swanson when she was 17 years old in 1986 and got engaged to her two years later when he was 42. He married his second wife, Miss World 1990 Gina Tolleson, on August 13, 1994, and had a son, Carter William Thicke, before their divorce was finalized on September 29, 1999. In 1999, he met Tanya Callau in Miami, where he was the celebrity host and she was a model. They were married from 2005 until his death on December 13, 2016, when Thicke suffered a heart attack while playing hockey with his son Carter. He was 69.

Is Alan Rickman Jewish?

Alan Rickman was not Jewish. He was born Alan Sidney Patrick Rickman on February 21, 1946.

The actor was born in Acton, London to a working class family, the son of Margaret Doreen Rose (née Bartlett), a housewife, and Bernard Rickman, a factory worker. His ancestry was English, Irish and Welsh; his father was Catholic and his mother a Methodist.

Alan Rickman died on January 14, 2016

Is Jon Hamm Jewish?

Jon Hamm, the TV and movie actor, is not Jewish. His long time girlfriend Jennifer Westfeldt is Jewish through her mother.

Jonathan Daniel Hamm was born in St. Louis on March 10, 1971. He is known as actor, director and television producer. He's best known for playing advertising executive Don Draper in the AMC drama series Mad Men. Hamm has received 11 Emmy nominations for his performances in Mad Men and 30 Rock.

Is Anne Meara Jewish?

Anne Meara was Jewish through conversion. She was known as an American actress and comedian. Along with her husband, Jerry Stiller, she was one-half of a prominent 1960s comedy team, Stiller and Meara. She was also featured on stage, television, in numerous films, and later became a playwright. Her son, Ben Stiller, is a famous comedian and actor. While Meara was raised a Roman Catholic, she converted to Reform Judaism six years after marrying Stiller. She claimed she did not convert at Stiller's request, but because "Catholicism was dead to me."

Anne Meara was born in Brooklyn, New York, the daughter of parents of Irish descent, Mary (née Dempsey) and Edward Joseph Meara, a lawyer. She was raised in Rockville Centre in Long Island, New York and was an only child. Her mother committed suicide when she was 11. When she was 18, Meara spent a year studying acting at the Dramatic Workshop at The New School in Manhattan. The following year, 1948, she began her career as an actress in summer stock.

During her career, Meara was nominated for four Emmy Awards and won a Writers Guild Award as a co-writer for the TV movie, The Other Woman. In addition to being the mother of actor and filmmaker Ben Stiller, she was also the mother of actress Amy Stiller.

Meara took her conversion seriously and studied the Jewish faith in such depth that her Jewish-born husband quipped, "Being married to Anne has made me more Jewish." They discussed how they met and their early career during a guest appearance on the TV game show, What's My Line? in 1968.

Anne Meara died on May 23, 2015, at the age of 85. She is survived by her husband, children, and two grandchildren.

Is Gwyneth Paltrow Jewish?

Gwyneth Paltrow is Jewish if you follow patrilineal descent. That is because her father Bruce Paltrow who was Jewish. Gwyneth Paltrow's mother, the actress Blythe Danner, is from a Christian background. Gwyneth Paltrow was raised with "both Jewish and Christian holidays". Her brother had a bar mitzvah ceremony, but she did not have a bat mitzvah ceremony.

At the age of 24, Paltrow was engaged to actor Brad Pitt, whom she dated from 1994 to 1997. She had an on-off three-year relationship with actor Ben Affleck from 1997 to late 2000. In 2002 Paltrow began dating Chris Martin of the British rock group Coldplay backstage three weeks after the death of her father, Bruce Paltrow. They married on December 5, 2003, in a ceremony at a hotel in Southern California. Paltrow and Martin have two children together, a daughter Apple Blythe Alison Martin and a son Moses Bruce Anthony Martin (her son's first name came from the song, "Moses", that her husband wrote for her before their wedding).

Gwyneth Paltrow's father came from a long line of influential Eastern European rabbis, and that inspired Paltrow to raise her daughter and son in a Jewish environment. She has said "if you could see how much food I make – I am the original Jewish mother".

In 2014, Paltrow announced that she and Martin had separated after ten years of marriage, describing the process as "conscious uncoupling". In August, 2014, Paltrow started dating Glee co-creator Brad Falchuk, who is Jewish. Falchuk is a television writer, director and producer who is the son of Hadassah national president Nancy Falchuk.

In September 2014, Gwyneth Paltrow revealed that she is formally converting to Judaism. "The actress is quietly converting after years of following Kabbalah, which originated in Judaism, and being friends with Michael Berg, co-director of the Kabbalah Centre," PageSix.com reported.

In 2011, she appeared on NBC’s “Who Do You Think You Are?,” which described how her family came from a long line of influential Eastern European rabbis. After appearing on the ancestry show, Paltrow had said she wants to raise her daughter, Apple, 10, and son, Moses, 8, in a Jewish environment, even though their father is Christian. She reportedly made the comment to guests at a London event that was hosted by Community Security Trust, a charity that represents Jewish interests.

Is Lauren Bacall Jewish?

Yes, Lauren Bacall is Jewish. Lauren Bacall was born Betty Joan Perske on September 16, 1924 in the Bronx, New York. She was known for her distinctive husky voice. As an actress, Bacall first emerged as a leading lady in the Humphrey Bogart film "To Have and Have Not". Bacall's performance in the movie The Mirror Has Two Faces earned her a Golden Globe Award and an Academy Award nomination.

Lauren Bacall was the only child of Jewish parents (her mother emigrated from Romania through Ellis Island and her father was born in New Jersey to Polish-born parents). Her mother, Natalie Weinstein-Bacal, was a secretary who later legally changed her surname to Bacall. Her father was William Perske, who worked in sales. Bacall was a first cousin to Shimon Peres, the ninth President of Israel, whose term expired on July 24, 2014. Bacall died on August 12, 2014.

Was James Garner Jewish?

James Garner, the actor known for The Rockford Files, was not Jewish. His family was Methodist.

Garner was born in Norman, Oklahoma, the youngest of three children of Mildred Scott (née Meek) and Weldon Warren Bumgarner, a carpet layer. Garner died on July 19, 2014 at 86 years old.

Is Tom Hanks Jewish?

Tom Hanks is not Jewish. He was raised in Catholicism and Mormonism. Growing up he was friends with several Jewish children and has made many close Jewish friends in Hollywood over his more than three decades as an actor.

In July 2004, Hanks put on a yarmulke and a fake tallit (Jewish prayer shawl) and danced to "This is How We Do It" at Scooter Braun's wedding. Braun is Justin Bieber's manager.

Is Kate Upton Jewish?

Kate Upton is not Jewish. The model and actress was not born to Jewish parents. She has been known to date the Dancing with the Stars participant Maksim "Maks" Aleksandrovich Chmerkovskiy and Detroit Tigers pitcher Justin Verlander.

Is Lenny Kravitz Jewish?

Lenny Kravitz is a Half-Jew. Born Leonard Albert "Lenny" Kravitz on May 26, 1964, Lenny Kravitz is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer, actor and arranger, whose "retro" style incorporates elements of rock, soul, R&B, funk, reggae, hard rock, psychedelic, folk and ballads. In addition to singing lead and backing vocals, Kravitz often played all the guitar, bass, drums, keyboards and percussion himself when recording. He is known for his elaborate stage performances and music videos.

Kravitz was born in New York City on May 26, 1964. He is the son of Roxie Roker, an actress known for her character Helen Willis in the 1970s hit television sitcom The Jeffersons, and Sy Kravitz, an NBC television news producer. His father was from a Russian Jewish family. His mother was of Afro-Bahamian and African-American descent, and was from a Christian family. During his early years, Kravitz did not grow up in a religious environment. After a spiritual experience when he was thirteen, he started attending church, becoming a non-denominational Christian.

Kravitz identifies himself as a Christian in a religious sense, "through choice but I'm also a Jew, it's all the same to me". During another interview Kravitz stated, "I'm half Jewish, I'm half black, I look in-between."

Is Bob Hoskins Jewish?

Bob Hoskins claimed he was not Jewish, but rather an atheist. His parents raised him as an atheist.

Hoskins' father was an atheist communist  In 1967, aged 25, Hoskins spent a short period of time volunteering in kibbutz Zikim in Israel.

Hoskins announced his retirement from acting on 8 August 2012, due to his ongoing battle with Parkinson's disease. Hoskins is the father of Alex Hoskins (1968) and Sarah Hoskins (1972) from his first wife Jane Livesey and father of Rosa Hoskins (1983) and Jack Hoskins (1986) with his second wife Linda Banwell.

Bob Hoskins died on April 29, 2014 at 71. 

Is Ginnifer Goodwin Jewish?

Yes, Ginnifer Goodwin is Jewish. The actor known mostly for her role on HBO's "Big Love," was born in Memphis, Tennessee. Her mom Linda is Jewish and her dad Tim Goodwin is of Welsh descent.

Ginnifer Goodwin was raised attending synagogue on Saturdays and Unitarian church on Sundays. She was both baptized and had a bat mitzvah ceremony. As a teen Ginnifer Goodwin was involved in both NFTY (North American Federation of Temple Youth) and BBYO (B'nai Brith Youth Organization) at the Jewish Community Center in Memphis.

She went to school at St. Mary's Episcopal School in Memphis, Tennessee and graduated from Lausanne Collegiate School in 1996 and then attended Hanover College (majoring in Theater) for one year before moving on to earn her Bachelor of Fine Arts from Boston University.

In 2013, Goodwin said that, after she left Memphis, she "...up and left Judaism for a very long time," and that, "For 10 years, there was nothing. No ritual. No tradition. No community." She later reconnected with her faith, and has said, "I was a Jew by birth, and now I'm a Jew by choice."

Goodwin subsequently began dating her Once Upon a Time co-star Josh Dallas in 2011. Goodwin and Dallas became engaged on in October 2013 and the next month announced that they are expecting their first child. They married on April 12, 2014.

In April 2014 while pregnant with the couple's first child, she went on the Jimmy Kimmel Show and told the story of how her ketubah was first lost and then later found the day of her wedding.

Is Mickey Rooney Jewish?

Mickey Rooney was not Jewish. Mickey Rooney was born Joseph Yule, Jr. in Brooklyn on September 23, 1920. He was an American film actor and entertainer whose film, television, and stage appearances spanned nearly his entire lifetime. Some people thought that Mickey Rooney was a Jew because of his brand of humor including vaudeville.

His father, Joe Yule (born Ninnian Joseph Ewell), was from Glasgow, Scotland, and his mother, Nellie W. (née Carter), was from Kansas City, Missouri. Both of his parents were in vaudeville, appearing in a Brooklyn production of A Gaiety Girl when Joseph, Jr. was born. He began performing at the age of 17 months as part of his parents' routine, wearing a specially tailored tuxedo.

He received multiple awards, including a Juvenile Academy Award, an Honorary Academy Award, two Golden Globes and an Emmy Award. Working as a performer since he was a child, he was a superstar as a teenager for the films in which he played Andy Hardy, and he has had one of the longest careers of any actor, spanning 92 years actively making films in ten decades, from the 1920s to the 2010s. For a younger generation of fans, he gained international fame for his leading role as Henry Dailey in The Family Channel's The Adventures of the Black Stallion.

Rooney died on April 6, 2014 and was one of the last surviving stars who worked in the silent film era. He was also the last surviving cast member of several films in which he appeared during the 1930s and 1940s.

Is Jason Bateman Jewish?

No. Jason Bateman is not Jewish.

Is Joel Kinnaman Jewish?

Yes, Joel Kinnaman is Jewish. The actor from Sweden is the star of the remake of the 1987 classic "RoboCop".

In a recent interview with the Jewish Daily Forward, Joel Kinnaman explained:


“When I’m in Sweden I feel like I have something that is not Swedish.  And when I’m here I feel I have something that’s not American. I’d say I feel still more Swedish then American because I grew up there, but at the same time when I grew up I went to a public school that had English speaking classes, and when we played football in the breaks it was us against the Swedes.”

Joel’s father, Steve Kinnaman, is an American who left the United States in the 1950s. He immigrated to Sweden, where he met Joel’s mom, who is Jewish.

“The Jewish community in Sweden is an old community,” Joel Kinnaman said. “My family came from Ukraine in 1850. They’re very integrated, so it’s a silent presence. We have a fascist party in our government, they’re very anti-Muslim, I don’t think that the Jewish community is affected by that. They wanna kick out all the immigrants. That is something that we’re dealing with in Sweden right now.”

Is Michael Sheen Jewish?

Michael Sheen is not a Jew. The actor has been linked with several Hollywood actresses and US Magazine recently reported that he is dating Sarah Silverman.

Michael Sheen was born in Newport, Wales, the son of Irene (née Thomas), a secretary, and Meyrick, a British Steel personnel manager. He has one younger sister, Joanne. When he was five, the family moved to Liverpool, England, but settled in his parents' hometown of Baglan in Port Talbot, Wales three years later.

Sheen was raised in a theatrical family—his parents were both involved in local amateur operatics and musicals and, later in life, his father worked as a part-time professional Jack Nicholson look-alike.

Is Philip Seymour Hoffman Jewish?

Philip Seymour Hoffman was not Jewish. The actor died of a drug overdose on February 2, 2014 in his Greenwich apartment in New York City.

Hoffman was born in Fairport, New York. His mother, Marilyn O'Connor (née Loucks), who was born in Waterloo, New York, is a family court judge, lawyer, and civil rights activist. His father, Gordon Stowell Hoffman, is a former Xerox executive. He had two sisters, Jill and Emily, and a brother, Gordy Hoffman, who scripted the 2002 film Love Liza, in which Philip starred. He had German, English, Irish, Dutch, and remote Polish ancestry. His father was Protestant and his mother Catholic.

Hoffman attended the 1984 Theater School at the New York State Summer School of the Arts. After graduating from Fairport High School, Hoffman attended the Circle in the Square Theatre's summer program, continuing his acting training with the acting teacher Alan Langdon.

He received a BFA in drama in 1989 from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. At NYU, he was a founding member of the theater company the Bullstoi Ensemble with actor Steven Schub and director Bennett Miller. Soon after graduating, he went to rehab for drug and alcohol addiction and remained sober until May 2013, when he entered a detox facility after briefly relapsing.

Is Simon Cowell Jewish?

Is Simon Cowell a Jew? According to the website PopJewish.com, Simon Cowell has a Jewish father and is planning to marry his Jewish girlfriend in a Jewish ceremony:

The British musical reality shows judge is said to be taking Israeli folk dance classes in preparation for his wedding to his girlfriend Lauren Silverman, who is Jewish. According to reports, the couple's wedding will be officiated by a rabbi. The Daily Mall reports that Simon Cowell, 54, the English eternal judge of musical reality shows, plans to get married in a Jewish wedding, his good friends say. Cowell, who was born to a Jewish father, is set to marry his pregnant Jewish girlfriend Lauren Silverman in the coming year, and the two will be blessed by a rabbi.

Wikipedia reports that "Cowell was born in Lambeth, London, England, and brought up in Elstree, Hertfordshire.His mother, Julie Brett (née Josie Dalglish), is a former ballet dancer and socialite, and his father, Eric Selig Phillip Cowell (1918–1999),was an estate agent developer and music industry executive.Cowell's father was from a mostly Jewish family, though he did not discuss his background with his children (Cowell's paternal grandmother had immigrated from Poland). Cowell's mother was from a Christian background, and is of part Scottish descent. He has a younger brother, Nicholas Cowell, three half-brothers, John, Tony, and Michael Cowell, and a half-sister, June Cowell."

According to an article in Haaretz, titled "Is Simon Cowell planning on converting to Judaism?":

A report in The Daily Mirror suggests so. According to the British tabloid, the "X Factor" boss, 54, is planning to embrace the Jewish faith of his girlfriend and soon-to-be mother of his first child Lauren Silverman, 36. Silverman isn't Cowell's first connection with Judaism; according to "Sweet Revenge: The Intimate Life of Simon Cowell," the celebrity's father was Jewish, but didn't share the religion with his children. The TV mogul was raised Roman Catholic, but has previously expressed little interest in religion, the Mirror said.
The Mirror report also states that after he converts, Cowell will embark on a secret trip to Israel. “Simon is getting increasingly excited about becoming a daddy," a source told the Mirror. “He really is embracing fatherhood and wants to be the first person to cradle his new-born son. He is open to reason on the subject of religion and the faith in which his son is brought up. But he is naturally inquisitive and really wants to visit Israel so that he can make a more informed decision.” Cowell’s son is due on February 28, the source added. "Contrary to reports, Cowell intends to be at the birth and has booked out a top £12,000-a-night private hospital in the US ahead of Lauren’s elective C-section," the Mirror report states, "And while he is keeping quiet about the baby’s first name, he has told pals the middle one will be Eric – after his late father." The Mirror reported that following the baby's birth, the couple will settle down in Cowell's west London mansion. Cowell recently made headlines in Israel when he donated some $150,000 to the Friends of the Israel Defense Forces. At a fundraising gala event in Los Angeles, the organization raised $20 million.
It was also reported that Cowell was considering taking traditional Israeli dancing lessons in preparation for his upcoming wedding to Silverman.

Is Marc Silverstein Jewish?

Marc Silverstein is Jewish. Married to actress Busy Philipps, Marc Silverstein is an American screenwriter, producer, actor, and director. He is known for writing romantic comedy films such as He's Just Not That Into You, Valentine's Day, and The Vow. The couple has two daughters: Birdie Leigh (born August 2008) and Cricket Pearl (born July 2013).

Is Amanda Bynes Jewish?

Amanda Bynes is Jewish. Born Amanda Laura Bynes on April 3, 1986, Bynes was raised in Thousand Oaks, California (part of the Greater Los Angeles Area), the youngest of three children of Lynn (née Organ), a dental assistant and office manager, and Rick Bynes, a dentist.

Bynes has two older siblings, Tommy (born 1973), a chiropractor, and Jillian (born 1983), who has a B.A. in History from UCLA and has also acted. Bynes' ancestors immigrated from Ireland, Poland, Russia, and Romania, and her maternal grandparents are from Toronto, Ontario. Her father is Catholic and her mother is Jewish. Bynes has described herself as Jewish.

Wiki Commons

In 2007, regarding her religious beliefs, Bynes stated: "As far as religion, I was raised both. I learned about both Judaism and Catholicism. My parents said it was up to me to decide [which faith to adhere to] when I grew up. I'm sort of a spiritual person anyway. I haven't decided yet on a religion. I don't know yet exactly what I believe."

Bynes rose to prominence in the late 1990s and early 2000s on the Nickelodeon series All That and The Amanda Show. From 2002 to 2006, she starred on the WB sitcom What I Like About You. Bynes has also starred in several films, including What a Girl Wants (2003), She's the Man (2006), Hairspray (2007), Sydney White (2007) and Easy A (2010).

Following several charges for vehicular crimes in 2012, Bynes was arrested in May 2013 for charges related to marijuana possession and was placed under an involuntary psychiatric hold two months later.