The actor has yet to meet Cooper, though.

Timothy Olyphant is actually related to Anderson Cooper and the Vanderbilts: ‘Somebody owes me money’

The actor has yet to meet Cooper, though.

By Jessica Wang

Jessica is a staff writer at , where she covers TV, movies, and pop culture. Her work has appeared in Bustle, NYLON, Cosmopolitan, InStyle, and more. She lives in California with her dog.

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Published on August 12, 2025 03:19PM EDT

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Timothy Olyphant; Anderson Cooper. Credit:

Steve Granitz/FilmMagic; Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty

Wikipedia gets it right sometimes: Timothy Olyphant is, in fact, a descendant of the prominent Vanderbilt family.

The *Justified *star confirmed the validity of being listed as a Vanderbilt descendant on the collaboratively edited online encyclopedia in a recent conversation with *The Hollywood Reporter*, noting that he has yet to meet one of the most well-known members of the family's current generation, journalist Anderson Cooper.

"You’re goddamn right I am, and somebody owes me money," Olyphant quipped when asked if he was truly a descendant. "It’s on my to-do list to head to upstate New York and see if I can get the keys to the house. I’ve never met Anderson. I assume that’s just because I keep missing the family reunions due to work and the kids."**

Timothy Olyphant at the 'Alien: Earth' European premiere.

Jeff Spicer/Getty

"But now that I’m an empty-nester, I hope we’ll be having drinks soon," the *Alien: Earth* star added.

Pull out the family Rolodex and give him a call, Cooper.

Online databases list business magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt as Olyphant's fourth great grandfather, with the familial ties stemming from the actor's father, John Vernon Bevan Olyphant. The Vanderbilts gained prominence during the Gilded Age, amassing their wealth through the shipping and railroad empires, and later, through subsequent generations, the real estate business.**

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Cooper is a Vanderbilt through his mother Gloria Vanderbilt, the socialite and heiress who had a career as a fashion designer, actress, author, and artist. She died June 2019 from cancer at 95.**

Anderson Cooper and mom Gloria Vanderbilt in 2016.

Jenny Anderson/WireImage

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Cooper released *Vanderbilt: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty, *a novel co-authored by historian Katherine Howe about the prominent family he admittedly knew little about, in 2021, citing fatherhood for his newfound interest in his family tree. He shares two young sons, Wyatt and Sebastian, with ex-partner Benjamin Maisani.

"In some ways I wanted this to be a letter to my son," Cooper told PEOPLE of the book. "My dad wrote a book before he died about his family growing up in Mississippi. And because he died when I was so young, a lot that I know of him came from that book. I wanted to write a letter to Wyatt about this crazy and unusual part of his family's past."

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Source: “AOL Celebrity”