Ancestry is a fascinating topic full of many surprises, as the most unexpected people can share a common ancestor. Tom Hardy and Ben Hardy are both English actors and go by the same last name, so it makes sense to wonder if they are related.
Tom Hardy is not related to Ben Hardy. While they were both born in England and are both known for being hard-working, talented actors, they are not directly related.
Read on below to find out more about their separate backgrounds, and Tom Hardy’s famous family.
Tom Hardy and Ben Hardy
Tom Hardy was born in Hammersmith, London, in 1977, and was raised in East Sheen. He is the only child of his parents and studied acting at the prestigious Drama Centre London as an adult with a teacher who also taught Michael Fassbender at the same time as Hardy and Anthony Hopkins many years before.
Ben Hardy was born 14 years later in 1991 in Bournemouth, Dorset, a coastal town on the southern coast of England. He was raised in Sherborne, Dorset, and attended school there. While he enjoyed drama, he was much more interested in athletics and played rugby until he was injured and couldn’t keep playing at 15 years old.
Ben Hardy was actually born Ben Jones, and goes by Ben Hardy as his acting or stage name. One reason he may have taken the name is that while he was a student at the Gryphon School, he starred in a school play as Sergeant Francis Troy in their adaptation of the classic novel Far From The Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy.
Tom Hardy isn’t related to Thomas Hardy, either, but Hardy is a very popular surname for families all over the world. Who, then, are some of Tom Hardy’s famous relatives?
Hardy’s Famous Family
Tom Hardy has famous relatives very close to him, as both of his parents work in art and entertainment. His mother, Elizabeth Ann Hardy, is an artist and painter, while his father, Edward John “Chips” Hardy, is a novelist, screenwriter, playwright, comedy writer, and creative director.
Along with his parents, Hardy married the English actress Charlotte Riley who is best known for her role as Sarah Hurst in Easy Virtue. The two met while playing Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw in a television adaptation of Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë.
Hardy’s father is known for writing many commercials as well as the book Each Day A Small Victory published in 2007 and Blue on Blue, a play with lots of dark humor that was first put on in London in 2007.
Hardy and his father are actually working together with Steven Knight on a BBC television drama series called Taboo, which is based on a story written by the father and son duo. Chips Hardy is working as the co-creator, a writer, and a consulting producer on the show, while Tom Hardy is a fellow co-creator, co-producer, and stars as James Keziah Delaney in the series.
The show is set in 1814, and illuminates the darker sides of London in showing corruption in politics and business, gangs, poverty, and more. The series starts with Delaney returning from Africa with stolen diamonds after the death of his father.
The series was generally well received and praised by many viewers. The consensus of the critics on the Rotten Tomatoes website reads, “After a sluggish start, Taboo takes hold as a mysterious, dark, and often brutal period drama with plenty of promise as a series — most notably evident in Tom Hardy’s exceptionally watchable performance.”
Fans fell in love with the show, praising his performance in posts on Twitter like this one and the dedication to fully embodying his character in posts like this one.
Check out the YouTube video below to watch the trailer of the first season of Taboo.