Twilight Star’s Genealogy Traces Back to Historical Dracula

By John Farrier in Film, History on Jun 25, 2010 at 5:52 pm

The legend of Dracula was inspired by the 15th Century Romanian warlord Vlad the Impaler. Researchers at Ancestry.com recently discovered that Robert Pattinson, the actor who plays the sparkly vampire Edward in the Twilight series, is related to him:

Researchers at Ancestry.com discovered that Pattinson and the Transylvanian leader (real name: Vlad III Dracula) are connected through their relationship to the British royal family. Prince William and Prince Harry are Pattinson’s distant cousins; Vlad the Impaler was their distant uncle.

“Tracing Pattinson’s family back to Vlad was difficult research, but the pieces that unraveled created the perfect accompaniment to the Twilight Saga,” said Anastasia Tyler, a genealogist at Ancestry.com. “Without any myth or magic, we find royalty and vampires lurking in Pattinson’s life — making his story just as supernatural as the one he’s playing on screen.”

Link via Nerd Bastards | Images from Geek Tyrant, photo of Robert Pattinson originally from Summit Entertainment


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  1. Tempscire
    Jun 25th, 2010 at 6:07 pm

    This tripe? Oh, Neatorama, not you, too.

  2. Rich
    Jun 25th, 2010 at 6:44 pm

    Yup, tripe… everyone knows the royal family are warewolves.

  3. archibot
    Jun 25th, 2010 at 7:40 pm

    And I’m related to ghengis khan.

  4. Zavatone
    Jun 25th, 2010 at 7:59 pm

    But did Vlad sparkle?

  5. rahuu
    Jun 25th, 2010 at 8:34 pm

    I have a sneaking suspicion that Vlad would have nailed Pattinson’s feet to the floor and had his sparkly intestines devoured by dogs.

  6. Johnny Cat
    Jun 25th, 2010 at 9:00 pm

    I’m sparkled at this news.

  7. Sleestak
    Jun 25th, 2010 at 9:01 pm

    ““WITHOUT any MYTH or MAGIC, we find royalty and vampires lurking in Pattinson’s life — making his story just as SUPERNATURAL…”

    Sigh

  8. slander
    Jun 25th, 2010 at 9:46 pm

    “…who plays the sparkle-faerie Edward…”

    FTFY

  9. Tim Giachetti
    Jun 26th, 2010 at 2:51 am

    Great!!!

    Now can the locals please burn down Pats house and dispatch him like they did with his great squared geran pappy? PLEASE????

  10. S-r-ex
    Jun 26th, 2010 at 6:32 am

    Wow, Robert is related to one of the most brutal and psychopathic tyrants ever. HEADLINES!!!

  11. TheJungleman
    Jun 26th, 2010 at 7:20 am

    How old is Robert Pattison’s dad if his uncle is from the 1400s?

  12. atanguay
    Jun 26th, 2010 at 12:43 pm

    Well ok! NOW I’m interested in ‘Twilite’! This changes everything!

  13. Vonskippy
    Jun 26th, 2010 at 1:41 pm

    Now maybe someone at Ancestry.com can search thru history leaving no parchment un-read trying to find some relative of mind that would give a rats behind.

  14. AndyA
    Jun 26th, 2010 at 3:11 pm

    Everybody alive today is probably related somehow to Vlad the impaler. When you go back far enough then statistically there will always be somebody that links your family tree to everybody else’s.

    It’s marginally more impressive that he’s a distant cousin of the princes… but even that includes a very large number of people and the chances are much greater than most people would imagine.

  15. Fatecrasher
    Jun 26th, 2010 at 7:25 pm

    Everyone has 2 parents, 4 grandparents, 8 great-grandparents, 16 great-great grandparents and so on…

    It stands to reason that if you trace back far enough everyone is related in some way or another.

  16. Dyanne
    Jun 26th, 2010 at 8:10 pm

    Spike would still kick sparkle-boy’s arse.

  17. boden
    Jun 26th, 2010 at 8:49 pm

    Some back of the envelope calculations:
    600 years, maybe 22 years per generation = ~27 generations.
    2^27 = ~134 million.

    So, assuming little to no inbreeding, I am theoretically the direct descendant of 134 million persons living in the early 15th century. Wikipedia lists a population estimate in 1400-1500 around the neighborhood of 450 million. So maybe 1 in 4 persons could be related to Vlad?

    With royalty being involved, the inbreeding assumption goes out the window, but it is still obvious to me that anyone of European lineage has a decent chance of being related to Vlad.

  18. Kalel
    Jun 27th, 2010 at 9:55 am

    OK, fine… but how many degrees of separation is he from Kevin Bacon?

  19. Gauldar
    Jun 28th, 2010 at 9:57 am

    Well that explains why he’s a pretentious douche.

  20. AndyA
    Jun 29th, 2010 at 9:06 am

    “600 years, maybe 22 years per generation = ~27 generations. 2^27 = ~134 million.”

    This underestimates things doesn’t it? You’re only tracing a direct maternal/paternal line – i.e. his grandparents and great grandparents etc. The article bases the relationship on cousin relationships too.

    When you include cousin relationships – i.e. his aunts/uncles and their spouses and their parental and cousin lines, you need much less than 600 years to be statistically related to everybody on the planet.

  21. Sud Bucket
    Jul 3rd, 2010 at 3:41 pm

    And, unfortunately, Vlad Tepes/Dracula wasn’t even called a vampire until the Western European monarchs decided his tactics were a little too far gone (after they’d supported him against the Turks) and they came up with some blood lust legends. He wasn’t even considered a real “vampire” until centuries later.

    So sad, poor Vlad.


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