Russell Crowe (also) has distant Italian origins. This was revealed by the Australian actor himself, born in New Zealand, with a series of posts on In the end, however, it turned out that “my great-great-great grandfather, on my maternal side, who arrived in New Zealand in 1864, was Luigi Ghezzi, born in 1829 in Ascoli Piceno”.
And here the star of Gladiator provides an example of the ‘mistakes’. Luigi was the son of «Augestine (most likely Agostino, ed.) and Annunziata, born in Parma». He went to work in Argentina, then embarked for India, “was shipwrecked and ended up in Cape Town, where he met and married Mary Ann Curtain.” The two then emigrated to New Zealand. Crowe conducted meticulous historical research on his ancestors, discovering “Norwegian, Italian, Scottish, Maori” origins, and from a DNA test of a close relative, ancestry emerged “mostly Irish, even if we don’t know how and through whom”.
Among the curiosities also the direct relationship, «on my father’s maternal side, through John (Jock) Fraser, who arrived in New Zealand in 1841, with Simon Fraser, eleventh Lord Lovat. An interesting character, nicknamed the ‘Old Fox’, ended up on the gallows at the age of 80, «a mark of infamy», given that he was «the last man beheaded in the Tower of London». There was a crowd to witness the execution and a structure staged for the spectators collapsed, causing the death of nine people. Lord Lova laughed «and was still laughing» when the executioner cut off his head, «giving rise to a proverbial phrase in English», which could be translated as « die from laughing”.
Furthermore, “in my mother’s family for three generations the women married men called Crowe.” The actor loves Italy very much and often posts images of his trips to our country. But until now he has never been to the places of origin of his ancestor. Going to discover them could be “an adventure” he concludes. “As mayor I can only take the opportunity to publicly invite Russell Crowe to visit Ascoli, we will gladly host him”, the mayor of the Marche city Marco Fioravanti tells ANSA.