Nicolas Cage

Cage in 2011, Helga Esteb / Shutterstock.com

Birth Name: Nicolas Kim Coppola

Place of Birth: Long Beach, Los Angeles, California, United States

Date of Birth: January 7, 1964

Ethnicity:
*50% Italian
*25% Polish
*18.75% German
*6.25% British Isles [English, Scottish]

Nicolas Cage is an American actor and producer. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor for Leaving Las Vegas (1995). He has starred in many other acclaimed, memorable, and/or cult films over five decades, including Valley Girl, Racing with the Moon, Peggy Sue Got Married, Raising Arizona, Moonstruck, Vampire’s Kiss, Wild at Heart, Honeymoon in Vegas, Guarding Tess, It Could Happen to You, The Rock, Con Air, Face/Off, City of Angels, Snake Eyes, 8mm, Bringing Out the Dead, Gone in 60 Seconds (2000), The Family Man, Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, Adaptation., Matchstick Men, National Treasure, and its sequel; Lord of War, The Weather Man, The Wicker Man (2006), Ghost Rider, and its sequel; Grindhouse, Knowing, G-Force, Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, Kick-Ass, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, Drive Angry, Joe, Mom and Dad, Mandy, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Color Out of Space, Jiu Jitsu, Prisoners of the Ghostland, Willy’s Wonderland, Pig, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, The Old Way, Renfield, and Dream Scenario. He directed the film Sonny. He has also been credited as Nicolas Coppola.

Nicolas is the son of Joy (Vogelsang), a choreographer and dancer, and August Coppola (August Floyd Coppola), an academic, professor of literature, and author. He is a nephew of film director Francis Ford Coppola and actress Talia Shire. His great-uncle was opera conductor and composer Anton Coppola. His siblings are radio personality, DJ, and actor Marc “The Cope” Coppola and director Christopher Coppola. His cousins are director Sofia Coppola and actors Jason Schwartzman and Robert Schwartzman. Nicolas’s father was of Italian descent. Nicolas’s maternal grandfather was of approximately three quarters German, and one quarter British Isles [English, Scottish], ancestry. Nicolas’s maternal grandmother was of Polish descent. Nicolas owns production company Saturn Films.

Nicolas is married to Riko Shibata, who is Japanese. He has a son, musician Weston Cage, with his former partner, actress Christina Fulton; a son with his former wife Alice Kim, who is of Korean descent; and a daughter with Riko.

Nicolas’s paternal grandfather was Carmine Coppola (the son of Agostino/August Nicola Coppola and Maria/Mary Lillian Zasa). Carmine was a composer, born in Manhattan, New York, to parents from Bernalda, Province of Matera, Basilicata, Italy. Agostino was the son of Carmine Coppola and Filomena Coppola. Maria was born in Tunis, Tunisia, of Italian descent, the daughter of Pancrazio Zasa and Antonia/Antoinette Montesano. The Coppola family owns a luxury resort in Bernalda.

Nicolas’s paternal grandmother was Italia Pennino (the daughter of Francesco “Frank” Pennino and Anna Giaquinto). Italia was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Italian parents. Francesco was a composer, who was born, c. 1880, in Naples, Campania.

Nicolas’s maternal grandfather was Robert Albert Vogelsang (the son of William Gerald Vogelsang/Vogelgesang and Magdaline Lena Muentnich). Robert was born in Illinois. William was born in Illinois, the son of Jacob George Vogelgesang and Nancy Caldwell Lewis. Nicolas’s great-great-grandfather Jacob was the son of John Jacob Vogelgesang, an emigrant from Eichelscheiderhof, Waldmohr, Germany, and of Catherine Stenger, who was born in Louden, Maryland, of German descent. Nicolas’s great-great-grandmother Nancy was the daughter of Thomas Lewis and Mary Caldwell, and had English and Scottish ancestry. Nicolas’s Vogelgesang line can be traced back to Leonard Vogler, who was born, c. the early 1500s, in Neunburg, Bavaria. Nicolas’s great-grandmother Magdaline Muentnich was born in Illinois, the son of German immigrants, Jacob Muentnich and Gertrude Daum.

Nicolas’s maternal grandmother was Louise Adrianne Siputa (the daughter of Andrew Thomas Siputa and Anna Kaxzmarek/Kaczmarek). Louise was born in Illinois, to Polish parents. Andrew was the son of Stanley Siputa and Maria Dulat.

Sources: Genealogy of Nicolas Cage – https://www.geni.com

Marriage record of Nicolas’s paternal great-grandparents, Agostino/August Nicola Coppola and Maria/Mary Lillian Zasa – https://www.familysearch.org

Nicolas’s maternal grandfather, Robert Albert Vogelsang, on the 1910 U.S. Census – https://familysearch.org

Nicolas’s maternal great-grandfather, William Gerald Vogelsang/Vogelgesang, on the 1880 U.S. Census – https://familysearch.org

Biographical profile of Nicolas’s maternal great-great-grandfather, Jacob George Vogelgesang – http://www.findagrave.com