Ewan McGregor

McGregor in 2012, image via kathclick/Bigstock.com

Birth Name: Ewan Gordon McGregor

Place of Birth: Perth, Perthshire, Scotland

Date of Birth: 31 March, 1971

Ethnicity: Scottish, as well as one sixteenth German

Ewan McGregor is a Scottish actor and director. His roles include the films Being Human, Shallow Grave, Trainspotting, Brassed Off, The Pillow Book, Nightwatch, Velvet Goldmine, the Star Wars universe, beginning with The Phantom Menace; Rogue Trader, Eye of the Beholder, Moulin Rouge!, Black Hawk Down, Down with Love, Big Fish, Young Adam, Robots, The Island, Stay, Alex Rider: Operation Stormbreaker, Miss Potter, Cassandra’s Dream, Angels & Demons, I Love You Phillip Morris, Amelia, The Ghost Writer, Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang, Beginners, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, The Impossible, Jack the Giant Slayer, August: Osage County, Last Days in the Desert, Our Kind of Traitor, American Pastoral, which he also directed; Beauty and the Beast (2017), Disney’s Christopher Robin, and Doctor Sleep, and television’s Long Way documentaries, Fargo, and Halston.

Ewan is the son of Carol Diane, a teacher, and James Charles Stewart “Jim” McGregor, a teacher and careers master. Ewan’s uncle is actor and director Denis Lawson. Ewan is married to American actress Mary Elizabeth Winstead. He has four children, including model Clara McGregor and actress Esther McGregor, with his former wife, French-born production designer Eve Mavrakis; and a son with Mary Elizabeth. He is also a U.S. citizen.

Ewan’s paternal grandfather was James Peter McGregor (the son of James W. MacGregor and Emily Cramb). Ewan’s grandfather James was born in Crieff, Perthshire. Ewan’s great-grandfather James was the son of Alexander McGregor and Janet Stewart. Emily was the daughter of Henry Cramb and Elizabeth McGregor.

Ewan’s paternal grandmother was Isabella McMillan Clark McIndoe (the daughter of Juan/John Charles McIndoe and Mary Forrester Clark). Juan was born in Chile, to a Scottish father, Robert McIndoe, who was an engineer assisting with the construction of railways there; and of Wilhelmina Landmann/Kraus, who was likely of German ancestry. Mary Forrester was born in Lanarksh, Scotland, the daughter of George W. Clark and Isabella McMillan.

Ewan’s maternal grandfather was Laurence Lawson (the son of Alexander Dobbie Lawson and Diana McCulloch Brown). Lawrence was born in Glasgow, Lanarkshire. Alexander was the son of Lawrence Lawson and Elizabeth Dobbie. Diana was the daughter of James Brown and Christina McCulloch.

Ewan’s maternal grandmother was named Phyllis/Phyliss Neno Stamper.

In 2016, Ewan said:

I’m not a religious person… I’m married to a Jewish woman [then-wife Eve Mavrakis], so my children are Jewish and my involvement in religion has more to do with the Jewish faith now and not the Christian faith, which I was very vaguely brought up in… My parents were not religious, but my school had prayers at morning assembly… So my early understanding of religion was the Protestant faith in Scotland. But my experience is no longer that.

Eve Mavrakis was raised in France, and is of Greek-Sephardi Jewish ancestry. Ewan’s daughters had Bat Mitzvah ceremonies.

More information about Ewan’s family’s religion can be read here.

Sources: https://www.archyde.com

Genealogy of Ewan McGregor – http://www.geni.com

Partial family history of Ewan McGregor – http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk