Glen Powell
Powell in 2013, photo by Prphotos
Birth Name: Glen Thomas Powell, Jr.
Place of Birth: Austin, Travis, Texas, U.S.
Date of Birth: October 21, 1988
Ethnicity:
*father – Polish, Lipka Tatar
*mother – English, small amounts of German and Welsh
Glen Powell, previously credited as Glen Powell, Jr., is an American actor, writer, and producer. His roles include the films Fast Food Nation, The Great Debaters, Red Wing, The Expendables 3, Sex Ed, Misconduct, Ride Along 2, Everybody Wants Some!!, Hidden Figures, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, Set It Up, Apollo 10 1⁄2: A Space Age Childhood, Top Gun: Maverick, Devotion, Hit Man (2023), Anyone but You, and Twisters; and the series Scream Queens and Jurassic World Camp Cretaceous, the latter in voice role.
His father’s surname is originally Chutsky, and his mother’s surname is Powell, and he was raised under his mother’s name. Glen played a Sergeant Dylan Chutsky in the film Sand Castle (2017).
His sister is singer and songwriter Leslie Powell.
Glen’s paternal grandfather was Stephen Chutsky (the son of Samuel Chutsky and Sophie Shonkowitz). Stephen was born in New York, to a Muslim family from the Russian Empire. They were likely of Lipka Tatar origin. Samuel was born in Minsk, Belarus, the son of Mustapha/Stephen Chutsky and Minnie Radlinsky. Sophie was born in New Jersey, to parents from Belarus.
Glen’s paternal grandmother is Lillian Dziuba (the daughter of Joseph Dziuba and Sophia/Sophie/Sofia Maciag). Lillian was born in New Jersey, to Polish parents, who were of the Catholic religion. Sofia was from Zielonka, near Warsaw.
Glen’s maternal grandfather was William Joe Powell (the son of Aubrey Harrison Powell and Mattie Stella Judd). William was born in Texas. Aubrey was the son of William Ingram Powell and Sophia Collins. Mattie was the daughter of Joe Meredian Judd and Minnie Ann Clinton.
Glen’s maternal grandmother was Pattie Jean Thomas (the daughter of Edgar Claude Thomas and Lacolian Eastham). Pattie was born in Texas. Edgar was the son of Ben/Benjamin Edgar Thomas and Lillian Letita Mabry. Lacolian was the daughter of John George Eastham and Celestia Crump.
Sources: Family histories of Glen Powell – https://www.hollywoodancestry.com
https://www.hollywoodancestry.com
Genealogy of Glen Powell – https://www.geni.com
Glen’s paternal grandfather, Stephen Chutsky, on the 1930 U.S. Census – https://familysearch.org
Genealogy and obituary of Glen’s maternal grandfather, William Joe Powell – https://www.findagrave.com
Obituary of Glen’s maternal grandfather, William Joe Powell – http://www.legacy.com
Obituary of Glen’s maternal grandmother, Pattie Jean (Thomas) Powell – http://www.legacy.com
Interesting little “mix” he has. He looks quite northwestern european but i can see the eastern spice in him. Very underrated actor, he is very good in both dramatic and comedic roles.
I found an interesting article:
https://www.pri.org/stories/2018-11-22/how-16-americans-found-family-faith-and-their-immigrant-roots-generations-after
I’m pretty sure the woman mentioned throughout the article, Marion Sedorowitz, is related to Glen. I think her mother is the half-sister of Samuel Chutsky (both Frances Gambinsky and Samuel Chutsky are children of Minnie Radlinsky). This woman is Lipka Tatar, which makes it even more certain that Glen’s grandfather was Lipka Tatar too.
I also think Samuel wasn’t born in Poland. If this is the same man (it likely is), he was born in Minsk, Belarus (then Russia).
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:7D7M-Q52M
The censuses also say Russia, both for Samuel’s and Sophie’s parents’ birth places.
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:X4PV-S8M
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:K3BN-113
Belarus is also the country with the most Lipka Tatars.
Yes, they were from Belarus.
I think he might have Welsh ancestry on his mother’s side, considering the abundance of surname which are common in Wales (Powell, Thomas, Lewis etc)
maternal grandfather – https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/42994067/william-j.-powell
The squareish face and the eyes gave away something I assumed was either Finnish or German..
Polish Muslim?
Yes. This is Glen’s great-grandfather’s gravestone:
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=Chutsky&GSbyrel=all&GSdyrel=all&GSob=n&GRid=104895046&df=all&
The nearby graves are also of Muslims with Polish surnames.
a convert
I don’t think so. They were probably Lipka Tatars (who were Muslim).
They had their own mosque in New York, which is where Glen’s grandfather was from.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam_in_Poland#20th_century
The other people buried nearby in the cemetery were probably from the same community.
Nice info.
Do they count as a separate ethnic group from the Poles? I know they’re of turkic origin (and from some photos they do look slightly central asian), but they all talk Polish and have Polish names.
Tatars would count as a separate group or a sub-group, but since I didn’t have any explicit info (except for the gravestone), I didn’t put it in. But Glen Powell likely does have some Tatar ancestry.
I think it should say “Polish, possibly Lipka Tatar (Father)”. There seems to be enough evidence to mention.
Well……
By the way, I looked at Sheri Moon Zombie’s page again yesterday, and she definitely has a lot of clearly Lithuanian surnames in her family tree. I just haven’t encountered a situation where Lithuanians changed their names to such Polish-sounding ones as Bronson’s family.
http://ethnicelebs.com/sheri-moon-zombie
At the very least, the info you wrote in the comments here should be included in the page, it is quite interesting that he might have tatar roots.
As for the Bronson thing again, maybe it wasn’t as common with “Polifications” of Lithuanian names as i thought. But Bronson’s parents’ surnames might also have been anglicisations of more Lithuanian-sounding names. And again, most people with the surname “Butsavage” identifies as born in Lithuania.
https://books.google.se/books?id=tkh9AgAAQBAJ&pg=PA25&lpg=PA25&dq=lithuanian+surnames+changed+to+polish&source=bl&ots=CgV9_x2Mz8&sig=NeJFB8VzQW4XMaaLnrcoHgmDaHU&hl=sv&sa=X&sqi=2&ved=0ahUKEwj8z4vR3v3NAhXEQpoKHR4hDe4Q6AEIXDAI#v=onepage&q=lithuanian%20surnames%20changed%20to%20polish&f=false
In this book, it says that many Lithuanian students in Moscow sided with the Polish nationalist movement, and changed their names to ones that was more Polish-sounding. It is possible that Poland had a large influance on the inhabitants of Druskininkai, being close to the Polish boarder. Thus, the Bučinskis —> Buchinsky change might not be so improbable. Bigger countries usually had a cultural influence on smaller countries in their vicinity. That is why so many Gaelic surnames are Anglicisations today.