You probably thought you knew everything about some of your favorite stars. But here is something that might surprise you: a good number of them came into this world with a built-in best friend. These 20 famous people all have (or had) a twin sibling.
Some of those twins became famous themselves. Others stayed quietly out of the spotlight. And a few stories are genuinely heartbreaking.
Stars You Grew Up Watching
Elvis Presley had a twin brother named Jesse, who was tragically stillborn 35 minutes before Elvis was born on January 8, 1935. Biographers have noted that growing up as a “twinless twin” left Elvis with deep survivor’s guilt that likely affected the rest of his life.
Liberace, the flamboyant pianist and entertainer born Wladziu Valentino Liberace in West Allis, Wisconsin, on May 16, 1919, also had a twin brother who died at birth. Of his three surviving siblings, his elder brother George was a gifted musician who made frequent appearances on Liberace’s television shows playing the violin.
Ann Landers, whose real name was Esther Pauline Friedman, born July 4, 1918, in Sioux City, Iowa, had an identical twin sister named Pauline Esther Friedman. Esther was born 17 minutes after Pauline. That twin sister grew up to become none other than advice columnist and broadcaster Abigail Van Buren. Two sisters, two famous advice columns. Hard to believe, but true.
TV and Movie Stars With a Double
Linda Hamilton, best known as the tough heroine of the Terminator films, was born in Salisbury, Maryland, on September 26, 1956. Her identical twin sister Leslie worked as a nurse but stepped in front of the camera to serve as Linda’s body double in Terminator 2: Judgment Day. That famous mirror scene? That is actually Leslie, not a special effect. Leslie sadly passed away in 2020.
Nicholas Brendon, who played Xander on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and who passed away in March 2026, had an identical twin brother named Kelly Donovan, born three minutes before him in Los Angeles on April 12, 1971. The show’s writers used this to their advantage in a Season 5 episode called “The Replacement,” when a demon split Xander in two. Donovan was hired to play his own brother’s on-screen double.
Laverne Cox, the Orange Is the New Black star and LGBTQ activist, was born on May 29, 1972, in Mobile, Alabama. Her identical twin brother, musician and performer M Lamar, played her character pre-transition in two episodes of the show in 2013.
Scarlett Johansson has a twin brother, Hunter Johansson, who is also an actor. The two were born three minutes apart in New York in 1984.
Kiefer Sutherland, the Canadian actor born in London on December 21, 1966, was followed into the world by his twin sister Rachel Sutherland seven minutes later. She works behind the camera in the entertainment industry, producing shows including Rookie Blue and Law & Order: Toronto.
Giovanni Ribisi, known for roles in Avatar, Saving Private Ryan, Lost in Translation, and the TV sitcom Friends, was born in Los Angeles on December 17, 1974. His twin sister Marissa Ribisi is also an actress with credits on both the big and small screen.
John Heder, the star of Napoleon Dynamite, has a twin brother named Daniel. The pair were born in Fort Collins, Colorado, on October 26, 1977. “I’ve had people tell me Dan might be just a tidbit better looking,” Heder joked in an interview with W magazine in 2008.
More Familiar Names, More Surprising Doubles
Ashton Kutcher was born on February 7, 1978, weighing 10½ pounds. Five minutes later, much to his parents’ surprise, a twin brother named Michael arrived, weighing just 4 pounds.
Rami Malek, the Oscar-winning star of Mr. Robot and Bohemian Rhapsody, has a twin brother named Sami Malek, born four minutes after him on May 12, 1981. Sami did not follow his older brother into acting. He works as an English teacher in Los Angeles.
Vin Diesel, born Mark Sinclair Vincent on July 18, 1967, has a twin brother named Paul Vincent who works in the movie industry as a sound editor. Their sister Samantha Vincent is a producer.
Eva Green, the French actress known for Casino Royale, the 300 films, and the horror series Penny Dreadful, was born two minutes before her twin sister Joy on July 6, 1980, in Paris.
Joseph Fiennes, star of Shakespeare in Love and The Handmaid’s Tale, was born on May 27, 1950, in Salisbury, England. His twin brother, Jacob Fiennes (known as Jake), works as a conservationist.
Gisele Bündchen, the supermodel born in Brazil on July 20, 1980, has five sisters. One of them is her twin sister Patricia, known as Pati.
Mikey Madison, who won the Oscar for Anora, was born in Los Angeles on March 25, 1999. She has a twin brother named Miles. In her 2025 acceptance speech, she thanked him with a quip that got a laugh: “And my twin brother, Miles. Thank you for being my best friend, not that you have a choice.”
A Musician, a Rockefeller, and a King
Aaron Dessner, a founding member of the Cincinnati rock group The National, earned a new wave of fans in the early 2020s through his Grammy-winning work with Taylor Swift on her surprise albums Folklore and Evermore. He was born in Ohio on April 23, 1976. His twin brother Bryce Dessner is a fellow member of The National and an acclaimed composer and musician in his own right.
Michael Rockefeller, the son of U.S. Vice President Nelson Rockefeller and great-grandson of Standard Oil co-founder John D. Rockefeller Sr., was born on May 18, 1938. A scholar and anthropologist, he infamously disappeared during an expedition to South Papua, Indonesia, in 1961. His twin sister Mary Rockefeller wrote in her 2012 memoir that she believed he had drowned while swimming to shore, though press reports at the time claimed he had been killed and eaten by remote tribes in the region.
James II of Scotland was born in Edinburgh on October 16, 1430, just a few minutes after his twin brother Alexander. Had Alexander survived, he would have stood first in line to the throne. But Alexander died in infancy, and James went on to take the throne himself in 1437, ruling for 23 years.
Twenty famous names. Twenty surprising siblings. It just goes to show, even the people you think you know can still hold a secret or two.
