44 real-life pop-culture siblings you (probably) didn’t know were related

Irish post-punk band The Virgin Prunes has many close ties with U2, including a long friendship between frontmen Gavin Friday and Bono. But the tightest bond linking the two bands is between their guitarists: Dik Evans and his younger brother, David “The Edge” Evans. The Virgin Prunes’ arty, goth-steeped style never had a chance of breaking as big as U2’s stadium-aimed anthems, but Dik’s guitar style is every bit as atmospheric as The Edge’s. The Virgin Prunes broke up in 1984, and Dik has kept a relatively low public profile ever since. But the band can still be viewed as the dark, eerie counterpart to U2 in the ’80s, just as the latter band was embracing Christianity and fist-pumping populism. [Jason Heller]

Back in the mid-to-late-’90s, when Radiohead was on its way to world domination, Thom Yorke’s younger brother, Andy, was forging a slightly more modest path as the lead singer of The Unbelievable Truth. The group had little in common with Radiohead: Its stellar 1998 debut, Almost Here, was moody and brooding, with a focus on acoustic guitar-driven, folky dirges. Unfortunately, save for a high-profile slot opening for Tori Amos on her fall 1998 tour, The Unbelievable Truth never made much of a dent, and split in 2000. Post-break, Andy Yorke returned to school to study Russian politics and business, and received a Ph.D. from the London School Of Economics in 2014. [Annie Zaleski]

Michael Stipe has collaborated with his younger sister Lynda on occasion—she’s part of the backing chorus on R.E.M.’s “Bang And Blame”—but she’s also an influential musician in her own right, thanks to her tenure in the early-’80s indie-pop act Oh-OK. The guitar-free group (which also featured Magnapop’s Linda Hopper and, later, added the guitar with Matthew Sweet) specialized in danceable, rhythmically hypnotic music that was primitive and exuberant. Later, she formed the group Hetch Hetchy, which was more inspired by ethereal British ’80s dreampop; Michael even produced the band’s debut EP, Make Djibouti. [Annie Zaleski]

To say Malcolm and Angus Young revolutionized hard rock and metal is a vast understatement: After all, the pair founded AC/DC in 1973, and continued to tour and record together up until last year, when Malcolm left the band after being diagnosed with dementia and other health issues. Brother George, meanwhile, has had a more varied musical career: He was a member of The Easybeats, a British Invasion-sounding band responsible for the hit “Friday On My Mind,” and was also part of the mysterious group Flash And The Pan, whose “Walking In The Rain” was a minimalist new wave gem. George Young also worked closely with AC/DC, co-producing seminal albums such as 1976’s Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap and 1977’s Let There Be Rock. [Annie Zaleski]

Both Robert and Jason Schwartzman were major players in the cuddly Cali-pop scene anchored by The O.C. The former, who sometimes goes by Robert Carmine, fronted effervescent power-pop band Rooney, while the latter drummed for the more earnest indie-pop act Phantom Planet and then launched a solo career with the quirkier Coconut Records. As befitting their relationship to the Coppola family—Francis Ford is their uncle, while Sofia is a cousin—both men have also carved out solid acting careers, with Robert most known for playing hunky Michael Moscovitz in The Princess Diaries, while Jason has amassed credits in films such as Rushmore. In recent times, Robert has scored several movies and formed the slick, synth-riffic new band Starsystem, while Jason appeared in Saving Mr. Banks. [Annie Zaleski]

In Southern rock lore, the Van Zant family looms large. This is largely due to the mythology around original Lynyrd Skynyrd vocalist Ronnie Van Zant, who perished in the same 1977 plane crash that killed four other members of the band and crew. However, brother Donnie Van Zant is no slouch, either: He spent nearly four decades in .38 Special, the AOR staple known for the hits “Hold On Loosely” and “Caught Up In You.” Not to be outdone, brother Johnny Van Zant currently fronts Lynyrd Skynyrd and has also collaborated with Donnie in a band dubbed—wait for it—Van Zant. [Annie Zaleski]

Ellen DeGeneres’ career as an actress, stand-up comic, and beloved TV show host is well documented. The pop-culture contributions of her older brother, Vance, are a bit more obscure: In the old Saturday Night Live skits about Mr. Bill, he was Mr. Hands, those intrusive digits wreaking havoc on the poor claymate. As a musician, he played in New Orleans new wave band The Cold; formed House Of Schock with Go-Go’s drummer Gina Schock; and, in the mid-’00s, briefly played with the veteran rock band Cowboy Mouth. At the turn of the century, he was a correspondent on The Daily Show; thanks to that stint, pal Steve Carell ended up asking him to co-run his production company, Carousel Productions, which was responsible for 2011’s Crazy, Stupid, Love and 2013’s The Incredible Burt Wonderstone. Oh, and Ellen and Vance have of course collaborated occasionally: For example, the pair appeared together on Hollywood Squares in 1987. [Annie Zaleski]

Despite a string of superlative singles through the ’60s and ’70s, Dee Dee Warwick never saw the stratospheric success of her older sister, Dionne. But that doesn’t diminish the excellence of overlooked Dee Dee gems like 1969’s heartbreakingly sublime “,” which mine a grittier soul sound than Dionne’s more delicate, Burt Bacharach-penned classics. Dee Dee died in 2008, but her work has become immortalized by others; her debut single, the blistering “You’re No Good,” was later taken to massive popularity by Betty Everett in 1963 and Linda Ronstadt in 1975. [Jason Heller]

Depending on where your interests mostly lie, either David or Jon Langford is the most notable sibling in their family. To music fans, Jon is known as the longtime leader of The Mekons, the veteran post-punk-turned-roots-rock band that began in England in the late ’70s before relocating to its current home of Chicago (as chronicled recently in the documentary ). But older brother David’s career has been just as storied, only in the realm of science fiction—where the author, critic, and editor has taken home dozens of Hugo Awards, the top award in the field. [Jason Heller]

Most film fans know of Sean Penn’s brother Chris, who died in 2006 after noteworthy roles in movies like Footloose and Reservoir Dogs. But there’s another Penn brother who followed an entirely different route: into music. His biggest solo hit, “No Myth,” was most famous for the quintessentially 1989 line, “What if I were Romeo in black jeans?” In real life, Penn married fellow song-maker Aimee Mann. And in recent years, he’s veered closer to his brothers’ territory as he does impressive soundtrack work, most recently composing for cable series like Masters Of Sex and Girls. He also memorably appeared on-screen as the put-upon record producer in Boogie Nights. [Gwen Ihnat]

Everyone knows Martin Sheen’s male offspring: the good brother/bad brother duo of Emilio Estevez and Charlie Sheen, who grace the screen together in such films as Young Guns and Men At Work. Emilio has gone on to work behind the camera as a director; Charlie favors tiger blood and #winning and sitcoms set to “banal.” But these brothers also have a sister, Renée Estevez, who played a key role in a venerable cult movie: She was Veronica Sawyer’s (Winona Ryder) former best friend Betty Finn in Heathers, leading to Veronica’s famous rant: “Betty Finn was a true friend and I sold her out for a pack of Swatch dogs and Diet Coke heads!” After a variety of other movies, including Intruder, Renée Estevez landed the role of Nancy for several years on The West Wing, proving that she has more in common with the brother who shares her surname. [Gwen Ihnat]