Celeb Kids Who Never Lived Up To Their Parents' Careers

By the time Tom Hanks was his son, Colin's age, 39, Tom had an Oscar. If Colin wants his career to catch up to his father's, he'll have to work twice as hard. Colin is an actor with a long list of credits, but no real hits to his name. Sure, he appeared in 12 episodes of Dexter and 11 episodes of Fargo, but nothing that has him to fame. The current buzz about him seems to be his role as Greg in Life in Pieces.

While thoughts and criticism on Colin are lukewarm, at best, his father continues to make soaring headlines. Tom caused quite the stir with his David S. Pumpkin skit on Saturday Night Live this past fall — but attention is nothing new for Tom. He's got five Academy Award nominations and two wins, eight Golden Globe nods and four wins, and 13 Primetime Emmy Award nominations and six wins.

For the rest of their lives, Tracee and Evan Ross will always be in the shadow of their mother, Diana Ross, and her laundry list of accomplishments. Together, this sister-and-brother duo have tackled television, film and music. Tracee, 44, who recently picked up her first Golden Globe for her work on the comedy Black-ish, has been a working actress in Hollywood since the mid '90s, according to IMDb. Evan, 28, who's starred in the Hunger Games 1 and 2, as well as several TV shows, hasn't had the same level of success. Evan even tried his hand in music, according to Billboard. In 2015, he released a song dedicated to wife Ashlee Simpson. Despite all that Tracee and Evan have accomplished, their mother is still "The Boss."

According to Billboard, Diana has recorded 39 albums, achieved five number one singles and was a founding member of The Supremes. The legendary group was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988. Diana earned a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1982, she's earned three Golden Globes nominations, won one in 1973 for her turn as Billie Holiday in Lady Sings the Blues, and was nominated for an Academy Award for the same film. Tracee and Evan may work a lifetime to achieve just a tenth of the success and respect Diana has earned in her five-decade career.

Spencer Grammer has watched her father, Kelsey Grammer's, career soar to astronomical heights of fame and fortune. At the age of 33, she's still striving to hit her mark in Hollywood. Although she's achieved minimal success by comparison, she's not giving up. That hardworking can-do attitude is evident from her acting resume. According to IMDb, she's got five projects coming out in 2017 alone. Her past credits include appearances on Scorpion, Rick and Morty, Chicago P.D., and of course a five-year run on Greek. As Spencer says, her father has always been in her corner as she tries to push her career forward. "He has been great about me being an actress," she told People in 2007. "He always tells me to follow my heart and to do things for the right reasons."

And it appears that Spencer really respects her father's legacy. It's a career that saw him play Dr. Frasier Crane on two different shows for exactly 20 years. Kelsey has earned three Golden Globes and five Primetime Emmy Awards. But he's more than an actor. In fact, he's a celebrated producer who brought The Game, Girlfriends and Medium to life.

In 1988, two of the biggest movie stars on the face of the planet, Bruce Willis and Demi Moore, welcomed daughter Rumer Willis to the world. While raising their daughter, and two other girls, the acting duo dominated Hollywood with a number of blockbuster films that earned them big recognition and a host of award nominations. Demi was a certified sex symbol in the '90s by the time she filmed Striptease, and Bruce was a bonafide action-hero star with the Die Hard franchise earning box-office gold.

By comparison, Rumer, 28, has cracked a small portion of her parents' success. She had a small recurring role in 90210 from 2009 to 2010. But she didn't become a household name until winning Dancing with the Stars in the spring of 2015. And by that fall, she had begun her run in Broadway's Chicago, according to People. Although her career is on the rise, Rumer says her parents never pushed her into the spotlight. "I have been very, very blessed with not having stage parents," she told People in a separate story. If she wants to make a dent in a crowded field of actresses and other celebrity offspring, mom and dad may need to give her a boost.

There are few mother-daughter duos as famous — and good looking — as Kate Hudson and her iconic mother Goldie Hawn. Although Kate, 37, got her mother's good genes, she hasn't quite accomplished as much in Hollywood. She's got a fair amount of acting credits, including her biggest hit to date, Almost Famous. That movie earned her a 2011 Oscar nomination and won her the Golden Globe for best performance by an actress in a supporting role.

Goldie, a sex symbol, started her career in the '70s, making dozens films over the years — including the cult classics Overboard, Death Becomes Her and The First Wives Club. Goldie has been nominated for two Academy Awards and won one in 1970 for Cactus Flower. She's also been nominated for nine Golden Globes, winning just one in 1970 for the same film, reports IMDb. Kate may never step out of her mother's shadow if she doesn't begin selecting more serious roles for her career. It's time to give up romantic comedies for good.

Jakob Dylan, unlike many children of celebrities, realizes he will never escape his father's shadow. As he acknowledged to The New York Times, people will never stop asking about Bob Dylan. "If people want to talk about Bob Dylan, I can talk about that," Jakob, 47, said. "But my dad belongs to me and four other people exclusively... When I was a kid, he was a God to me for all the right reasons. Other people have put that tag on him in some otherworldly sense."

Jakob achieved decent success as the lead singer of the '90s group The Wallflowers, whose 1996 album sold more than four million copies. Since then, he's released other albums but has yet to make a wave like his father, who was recently awarded the Nobel Prize, according to another New York Times report. Bob's accomplishments could go on for pages — in short, he's perhaps considered one of the greatest songwriters of a generation. In a sense of defeat, Jakob said, "Look, he's the best at what I do. I know that, and so do my heroes. I got to watch my heroes meet him and saw how they reacted, whether it was Joe Strummer or Tom Waits. It was peculiar. I'm so stoked to meet Tom Waits, and he's so nervous to meet my dad. It's a head spin."

It'll be a long shot if Sophie von Haselberg ever reaches her mother's success in Hollywood. Sophie is the only child of Bette Midler. At age 30, she got a seemingly late start to Hollywood. "I grew up performing, but when I got to college I decided to sort of become a 'more serious person,' whatever that means," Sophie told W Magazine. "After that I moved to China and was working at this advertising agency, but I'd be sitting in meetings and having these pangs of missing out on being an actor. I knew that's what I really wanted, so I moved back and spent a couple of years taking classes, and then I realized that if I wanted to be taken seriously, and if I wanted to take myself seriously, I needed really hardcore training. So I went to Yale Drama, which was the best decision of my life, and graduated from their MFA program about a year and a half ago. It's been a pretty wild ride since then."

Sophie has starred in a Woody Allen movie, Irrational Man, and landed a few other films, according to IMDb. Like others in her position, she's well-aware that comparisons to her mother, who's a triple threat with three Golden Globe awards, three Emmys, two Grammys and a Tony, will never end. "Acting was something I always knew I was going to do, but I didn't for a long time because of my mom," Sophie told the New York Post. "You know you will always be compared to your parent."