If you are a fan of movies and TV shows, you might have noticed that there are two actors with the same last name: Ann Cusack and John Cusack. Are they related? The answer is yes, they are siblings. In fact, they are not the only ones in their family who are in the entertainment industry. Here is everything you need to know about the Cusack clan and their careers.
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The Cusack Family Background
Ann Cusack was born on May 22, 1961, in Manhattan, New York, to Ann Paula (Nancy) Cusack, a mathematics teacher and political activist, and Dick Cusack, an actor, producer, and writer. She is the eldest of the children in her family and has four siblings: John, Joan, Bill, and Susie, all of whom are working in the entertainment industry.
The family moved from New York to Evanston, Illinois, where they grew up. They were friends of activist Philip Berrigan and were influenced by his social justice views. They also trained at the Piven Theatre Workshop in Evanston and the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts.
Ann Cusack’s Career Highlights
Ann Cusack started her acting career in 1992, when she was cast in A League of Their Own, as Shirley Baker, a baseball player who could not read. She also appeared in other films such as Renaissance Man (1994), Multiplicity (1996), Grosse Pointe Blank (1997), which starred her siblings John and Joan, What Planet Are You From? (2000), Accepted (2006), Sully (2016), and Love and Mercy (2015), where she played Brian Wilson’s sister-in-law.
She also had a prolific career on television, starring in Maggie (1998), a Lifetime series about a psychic woman, and guest-starring in many shows such as Star Trek: Enterprise (2002), Grey’s Anatomy (2007), Scandal (2013), One Tree Hill (2009), Charmed (2005), Ghost Whisperer (2008), The Unit (2007), Boston Legal (2008), Bones (2010), Frasier (2003), Ally McBeal (1999), Criminal Minds (2011), Private Practice (2010), Fargo (2015), Better Call Saul (2016-2017), The Boys (2019-2020), and The Good Doctor (2020).
John Cusack’s Career Highlights
John Cusack was born on June 28, 1966, in Evanston, Illinois. He began acting in films in the early 1980s, starring in coming-of-age dramedies such as Sixteen Candles (1984), The Sure Thing (1985), Better Off Dead (1985), and Say Anything… (1989). He then started appearing in independent films such as Eight Men Out (1988), The Grifters (1990), True Colors (1991), and Bullets Over Broadway (1994).
He also established himself as a leading man in mainstream films such as the comedy Grosse Pointe Blank (1997), the action thriller Con Air (1997), the animated musical Anastasia (1997), the psychological drama Being John Malkovich (1999), and the romantic comedies High Fidelity (2000), America’s Sweethearts (2001), Serendipity (2001), and Must Love Dogs (2005). He also starred in Runaway Jury (2003), Grace Is Gone (2007), Martian Child.
