Genealogists Say "Twilight" Star Robert Pattinson is Related to Dracula

By: Joyce Lee
Topics: News

Actor Robert Pattinson arrives at the premiere of "Twilight" in Los Angeles on Monday, Nov. 17, 2008. (AP Photo/Matt Sayles)

NEW YORK (CBS) Call it a coincidence, but vampire-playing actor Robert Pattinson may actually be related to a real vampire.

PICTURES: Kristen Stewart
PICTURES: Robert Pattinson
PICTURES: Taylor Lautner

Researchers at Ancestry.com say the 24-year-old "Twilight" star is a distant relative to Vlad III Dracula - the Transylvanian-born leader who is known to be the inspiration behind Bram Stoker's classic vampire novel "Dracula," according to a report by Reuters.

"Tracing Pattinson's family back to Vlad was difficult research, but the pieces that unraveled created the perfect accompaniment to 'The Twilight Saga,'" said Anastasia Tyler, a genealogist at Ancestry.com.

His connection to Dracula (a.k.a Vlad the Impaler) is apparently made through his lineage to British royalty. Prince William and Prince Harry are Pattinson's distant cousins and Vlad the Impaler was the princes' distant uncle.

Pattinson, who plays lovesick vampire Edward Cullen, isn't the only famous person related to Dracula. Ancestry.com also revealed that former president George W. Bush and U.S. Senator John Kerry are also distant relatives to the famous vampire.

"Eclipse," the third installment in the "Twilight" series, is due in theaters Wednesday, June 30.

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by brianbwb2011 June 24, 2010 2:50 PM EDT: Now CBS has crossed the line between journalism and fiction.

There is no such thing as a "real vampire".

Vlad Tepes, as his name really was, was as human as you and I, his victories against the invading Turks were especially bloody, and he earned the name "Vlad the impaler", because of his habit of hoisting hundreds of the impaled bodies of the enemy, some not yet dead, as example to strike fear into the hearts of those who chose to continue the attempt to invade his homeland.

The concept of the vampire was imagined by Bram Stoker, who used Vlad Tepes to make an allegory about the aristocracy, and their willingness to have blood spilled for their own gain, comparing it to "drinking the blood of the people". (Iraq and Afghanistan are modern examples of this)

Furthermore, he hints that his allegory has an earlier precedent, the books of Moses, which refers to the "tree of life" of which eating would cause one to "live forever".

It seems that, given enough time, the Stoker book will become like a holy text to Americans, where allegory is worshiped as literal truth, thus destroying the original purpose of the allegory.

Just like the bible.; Reply to this comment