There are many actors who have carried on the family business of acting and filmmaking with Mills, Penn and Barrymoor being just examples.
The Cusacks have been gracing the big screen for many years, John perhaps being the most famous, and this week we look at their movie family tree.
It was Richard John Cusack was the first to step into the world of movie kicking off his career after attending university.
He mixed television work on Overexposed and Evil Has a Face with movie work on My Bodyguard and Eight Men Out.
In 1971 he won an Emmy in 1971 for his abortion documentary The Committee twelve months later he left his advertising business and set up Cusack Productions.
Dick Cusack died in June 2003 from pancreatic cancer.
John followed in his father's footsteps into the world of acting and has enjoyed major big screen success.
Cusack made his debut in Class back in 1983, alongside Jacqueline Bisset and Rob Lowe, and went on to establish himself throughout the eighties with Sixteen Candles, The Sure Thing and Better Off Dead.
By 1989 he won the Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Emerging Actor after his performance in Say Anything.
But it was movies such as Grosse Pointe Blank and Con Air that brought box office success for the actor and it wasn't long before the award nominations came his way.
Famed for mixing up his roles it was off the wall 1999 drama Being John Malkovich that brought Cusack further success.
He was nominated for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Actor and the London Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor for his performance. The movie's cast were also recognised when they were nominated at the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture.
In 2000 it was comedy High Fidelity that brought him more recognition. Directed by Stephen Frears and adapted from the Nick Hornby novel by Cusack and follows Rob Gordon who struggles to understand women.
After getting dumped by his current girlfriend, Laura (Iben Hjejle), he decides to look up some of his old flames in an attempt to figure out what he keeps doing wrong in his relationships.
Cusack was nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay at the Baftas and Writers Guild of America as well as a Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy nod at the Golden Globes.
Since then Cusack has continued to vary his work moving from horror movie 1408 to drama in Grace is Gone and animation lending his voice for Igor.
He will next be seen in Roland Emmerich's disaster film 2012.
Joan Cusack has also enjoyed major success over the years in her career, making an early big screen appearance alongside her father in My Bodyguard before going on to appear alongside her brother John in Sixteen Candles and Class.
As well as building up her movie portfolio in the eighties she was also a regular on Saturday Night Live in 1985 and 1986.
In 1988 she landed her first Oscar nomination for her role in Working Girl, for Supporting Actress, loosing out to Geena Davis.
She received a second Best Supporting Actress nomination in 1997 for her role in In & Out, this time missing out to Kim Basinger.
Over the years she too has mixed her roles with dramas such Working Girl and comedy, for which she is best known, such as High Fidelity, Nine Months and School of Rock.
My Sister's Keeper was her last outing earlier this summer and she will lend her voice to Hoodwinked 2: Hood vs Evil and Toy Story 3 next year.
A third of Dick's children followed in him into acting as Ann went in front of the camera. She made her debut in 1992 in A League of Their Own with Geena Davis, Tom Hanks and Madonna.
Since then she has spent most of her time working in TV appearing in grey's Anatomy, Charmed and Ally McBeal.
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