Chris Evans

Evans in 2011, s_bukley / Shutterstock.com

Birth Name: Christopher Robert Evans

Place of Birth: Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.

Date of Birth: June 13, 1981

Ethnicity:
*25% German
*25% Irish
*25% Italian
*25% mix of Welsh, English, and Scottish

Chris Evans is an American actor and director/filmmaker. Often recognized for appearing in material adapted from comic books, he is known for his roles as the Human Torch in two Fantastic Four films and Steve Rogers/Captain America in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, beginning in Captain America: The First Avenger; as well as for starring on the series Opposite Sex and Defending Jacob, and in the films Not Another Teen Movie, The Perfect Score, Cellular, Sunshine, The Nanny Diaries, The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond, The Losers, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, Snowpiercer (2013), Before We Go, which he also directed; Gifted (2017), The Red Sea Diving Resort, Knives Out, The Gray Man, Ghosted, and, in voice role, TMNT (2007) and Lightyear (2022).

He is the son of Lisa (Capuano), who has been artistic director at the Concord Youth Theater, and George Robert “Bob” Evans III, a dentist. His uncle, mother’s brother, is politician Mike Capuano (D), who was Mayor of Somerville, from January 1, 1990 to January 3, 1999, and a Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts, from January 3, 1999 to January 3, 2019. Chris’s brother, Scott Evans, is also an actor. Chris is married to Portuguese/Brazilian actress Alba Baptista.

Chris’s paternal grandfather was of Welsh, English, and Scottish descent, while Chris’s paternal grandmother was of German ancestry. Chris’s mother is of half Italian and half Irish descent.

Chris was selected People Magazine’s “Sexiest Man Alive” in 2022. He is the second man of significant Italian heritage to be given this title by the magazine. Bradley Cooper, in 2011, is the first.

Chris’s paternal grandfather is George Robert Evans, Jr. (the son of George Robert Evans and Maude/Maud Ellen Davis, born Maude/Maud Ellen Cryer). Chris’s grandfather George was born in Fort Sam Houston, Bexar, Texas, and is a prominent graphic arts executive. Chris’s great-grandfather George was the son of Matthew/Mathew James Evans, who was Welsh, and of Mary Anne/Anna/Annie Morlee, who was born in Illinois, to English parents; Matthew’s own father was named John M. Evans. Chris’s great-grandmother Maude was the daughter of Thomas Leo Cryer and Lola Ellen McCollom; she later took on the surname of her stepfather, John Mitchell Davis.

Chris’s paternal grandmother was Alma Emma Behling (the daughter of John Frank Behling and Ruth Annette Marold). Alma was born in Atco, Wayne, Pennsylvania. John was the son of German parents, Johann/John Dietrich/Diederick/Detrich Behling, from Bremen, and Johanna Marchhausen/Marschhausen. Ruth was the daughter of John Charles Marold and Emma Louisa/Louise Schneider, who were both also of German descent, with at least partial roots in Baden-Württemberg.

Chris’s maternal grandfather was Andrew Capuano (the son of Michele “Michael” Capuano and Sabina Solimina/Solimene/Solimele/Solimine). Andrew was born in Somerville, Middlesex, Massachusetts, to parents who were born in Province of Avellino, Campania, Italy. Michele was born in Candita, the son of Ignato Capuano. Sabina was the daughter of Sabbato/Sabato/Sabatiello Solimene/Solimele/Solimine and Luigia/Louise Rullo.

Chris’s maternal grandmother was Rita Marie Garvey (the daughter of Everett Earl Garvey and Grace Agnes Shaughnessy). Rita was born in Marlborough, Middlesex, Massachusetts. Everett was the son of Thomas F. Garvey, whose parents were Irish, and of Mary Coggin/Coggins, who was Irish, with family from County Sligo. Grace was born in Hudson, Middlesex, Massachusetts, the daughter of Irish-born parents, Martin Shaughnessy and Margaret “Maggie” Burke.

Chris’s matrilineal line can be traced back to Honora Morgan, who was born in Ireland.

Sources: Family histories of Chris Evans – https://www.hollywoodancestry.com
http://blogs.ancestry.com
http://blogs.ancestry.com

Genealogies of Chris Evans – http://famouskin.com
https://www.geni.com

Chris’s paternal great-grandfather, George Robert Evans, on the 1910 U.S. Census – https://familysearch.org
George Robert Evans on the 1920 U.S. Census – https://familysearch.org

Obituary of Chris’s paternal great-grandfather, George Robert Evans – https://apps.westpointaog.org

Genealogy of Chris’s paternal great-grandmother, Maude/Maud Ellen Cryer/Davis (focusing on her stepfather, John Mitchell Davis) – http://www.findagrave.com

Chris’s paternal great-grandmother, Maude/Maud Ellen Cryer/Davis, on the 1930 U.S. Census – https://familysearch.org

Obituary and genealogy of Chris’s paternal grandmother, Alma Emma (Behling) Evans – http://www.findagrave.com

Genealogy of Chris’s mother (through her brother) – https://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com

Chris’s maternal grandfather, Andrew Capuano, on the 1930 U.S. Census – https://www.familysearch.org

Obituary of Chris’s maternal grandmother, Rita Marie (Garvey) Capuano – http://archive.boston.com

ethnic

Curious about ethnicity

70 Responses

  1. danishcookie7 says:

    @Lee @italiano90 @Andrew I’m guessing you guys are American.

    Can someone explain to me why do Italians get so defensive when people say another person doesn’t look “italian” because of the blonde hair and colored eyes? I’m not sure if this is an American thing but in Europe I’ve never seen such a hostile response from any other european group. The Greeks don’t care because they know there are blonde greek people. Same with the Spaniards. Italians for whatever strange reason always make it known there are blonde italians. I don’t think anybody has ever denied that blonde italians except I mean Italy is in Europe for christ sake. It just looks really silly to see all of you argue whether Chris Evans looks Italian or not. I’ve seen a lot of blue eyed italians but they have a different shape than Chris Evans. Most of them have a deep set eye shape.

    • passingtime85 says:

      I’ve seen lots of Italians with eyes like comedian Jerry Colonna, so I’m not sure if just stamping deep set eyes as a common trait for the whole population as appropriate.

    • andrew says:

      @danishcookie

      About me, I live in Italy. Well Italians are by far the most trolled nationality in the Internet. According to these keyboard warriors Italians are basically more Middle Eastern even than people from Middle East, who are whiter than the Arab bunch Italians are.

      The subtle trolling against Italians never stops, so even a very decent user as Passingtime has stated below that he has seen “a lot” (really?) of Italians resembling this comedian named Colonna I’ve never heard before (also I’ve never seen an Italian who look like him in my life). More like this other Colonna: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_Colonna_(financier)

      So there has to be a virus around, I really dunno.

      • passingtime85 says:

        Okay sorry for referencing someone most people aren’t familiar with. I just did it because he was old school with a smaller chance of admixture. He just reminded me of many children I went to school with that claimed Italian heritage. I never vetted their claims however and perhaps I know not of what I speak.

        • andrew says:

          The comedian Jerry Colonna had unique facial features he enfatized with his mimicry, and that played a huge part in his success of course. You could have picked another example.

          Interestingly he had ancestors in Muro Lucano which despite being a such small town has several personalities involved (at least 4 in this site, most notably Anne Bancroft).

          • passingtime85 says:

            I guess I should have referenced Bancroft herself, not what I’d call a person with deep set eyes.

            I could have mentioned Pat Cooper, or Frank Vincent, or Tony Bennett. I wanted to mention Joe Lo Truglio or Steve Buscemi, but they’re only half Italian.

            I thought of Colonna because I associate him with the song Who’s Yehudi.

      • Thenabster says:

        Is that true?

    • Oaken05 says:

      I love your little tantrum where you get on everyone else for allegedly assuming things, and then you make your own assumptions about the posters you mentioned at literally the beginning of this rant. And the funny thing is that you were wrong to assume.

      • passingtime85 says:

        I didn’t think of danishcookie7’s post as a tantrum, more of a question really. Yeah he made assumptions especially on this website about the people profiled and the posters, we all do, some are are wrong, some are correct and based off of context clues, and some are still incorrect based off those clues.

        The only thing I didn’t like was the stat of 51% or more of Italians having deep set eyes. Too big of a number to be feasible.

    • KeysLocks says:

      Simply because Italians have been stereotyped for their frequent darker looks than the northern Europeans, mostly by Americans, in my country Australia too but very less compared to US.

      My mother is Danish and my father is Serbian, but I look like my father mostly.
      Leonardo DiCaprio is 1/4 Russian, but he looks like a Slav. Chris Evans doesn’t look like either of his listed ethnicities. He looks like Polish and Baltic mix to me, I don’t know why. Recently a Daniel Radcliffe look-alike was found in Russia, of course there is Russian Jewish ancestry in him but it’s still strange. So jumbled up looks can arise among various regions but I do agree many certain looks are common across some regions. And degree of melanin varies along North-South direction.

  2. Mixed Kidd says:

    He looks Polish or Lithuanian more than his other heritages

  3. SClife says:

    quarter Germany
    quarter Ireland
    quarter Italy
    quarter United Kingdom
    ______________________
    100% ATTRACTIVE

    • italiano90 says:

      I don’t see the Italian in him at all. Unless you’re referring to those Italian Americans who are mixed with irish.

      • passingtime85 says:

        Look up pictures from his youth before his rhinoplasty, maybe you’ll see his Italian heritage then.

      • cellardoor says:

        Being “Italiano” you should knwo how much Italians can vary in features/colors/shapes. Associating one entire ethnic group with a distinctive feature is really crazy, even in much more “homogeneous” groups there can be lots of diversity. Plus human beings are not playdough, we are much more complex and similar to the core. I’ll never understand why many people are obsessed with certain ethnicities having to look a certain, expected and often stereotypical way.

        • italiano90 says:

          I have blonde blue eyed cousins but they don’t resemble Chris Evans either. I’ve been to Italy over 15 times and have family there. He doesn’t look Italian. He looks like the average white american that is also Irish, english and german.

          • Lee says:

            LMAO

          • Lee says:

            What a comedian, can I get your autograph pal

          • andrew says:

            @italiano90

            This guy does not look Italian because he is only 1/4 Italian, it makes sense or not?

          • cellardoor says:

            I know what you mean, many italians with blue eyes and fair features do not necessarily look nordid, I appreciate the explanation but I know my taxonomy and I have lived almost all my life here. Which is the main reason I struggle to understand why so many people (from outside) are so strongly opinionated about how italians should look and what features should they possess in order to “look italian”. After all my time here, as an italian, I still have a hard time defining the so-called “italian look” that many people on this site seem to be extremely confident about. Of course, on AVERAGE even the blue eyed italians won’t necessarily resemble a steretypical Swedish person, BUT that doesn’t mean that people with those features 100% CANNOT be italian. Are those people common? NO!! Are they to be considered any less italian just ’cause they are a small minority that does not deserve to be representative of how Italian CAN also look…. NO, at least imho. I could mention some football players like Francesco Totti or Massimo Ambrosini, that clearly have nordic facial features (not just colors) but I can even link fb profiles for some of my (southern) italian friend who are 100% pure blooded italian and happen to have rather nordic features despite all. Should they matter less then the “middle eastern” looking italians? I do not think so and once for all, Italian in not even an ethnicity, it’s just a nationality so technically anyone could be italian (if they do have some kind of bond with this land). Now say whatever you want but I’m not interesested in establishing if someone’s nose look more italian or french, i think that’s bollocks, and I have better things to do. Peace and love! ;)

          • cellardoor says:

            @I know what you mean, many italians with blue eyes and fair features do not necessarily look nordid, I appreciate the explanation but I know my taxonomy and I have lived almost all my life here. Which is the main reason I struggle to understand why so many people (from outside) are so strongly opinionated about how italians should look and what features should they possess in order to “look italian”. After all my time here, as an italian, I still have a hard time defining the so-called “italian look” that many people on this site seem to be extremely confident about. Of course, on AVERAGE even the blue eyed italians won’t necessarily resemble a steretypical Swedish person, BUT that doesn’t mean that people with those features 100% CANNOT be italian. Are those people common? NO!! Are they to be considered any less italian just ’cause they are a small minority that does not deserve to be representative of how Italian CAN also look…. NO, at least imho. I could mention some football players like Francesco Totti or Massimo Ambrosini, that clearly have nordic facial features (not just colors) but I can even link fb profiles for some of my (southern) italian friend who are 100% pure blooded italian and happen to have rather nordic features despite all. Should they matter less then the “middle eastern” looking italians? I do not think so and once for all, Italian in not even an ethnicity, it’s just a nationality so technically anyone could be italian (if they do have some kind of bond with this land). Now say whatever you want but I’m not interesested in establishing if someone’s nose look more italian or french, i think that’s bollocks, and I have better things to do. Peace and love! ;)

          • andrew says:

            “Bollocks” indeed.

        • passingtime85 says:

          Sorry, I know you weren’t addressing me but I like to play the guess the ethnicity game. First link didn’t work but I googled the name. Anyway I’m no expert but I’d never peg Domenico Criscito as Italian. The others seem to fit me however.

  4. italiano90 says:

    Looks like the typical irish american suburban frat boy.

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