Will Smith, Hollywood’s king of working with his kids, has officially graduated from making music videos to starring in big-budget tentpoles with his family. After Earth, directed by M. Night Shyamalan, sees Smith play father to Jaden Smith, with the two crash-landing on a future Earth now rendered inhospitable to human life.
Will and Jaden Smith (‘The Pursuit of Happyness’)
Will and Jaden Smith's first onscreen collaboration saw them play a down-on-their-luck father-and-son duo in 2006’s The Pursuit of Happyness. The elder smith played Chris Gardner – a homeless single dad and aspiring stockbroker — while Jaden played his adorable son. The key scene? When the pair spent the night in a subway bathroom — pretending it was a cave.
Will and Willow Smith (‘I Am Legend’)
Will Smith gave daughter Willow Smith her big-screen debut in 2007’s I Am Legend, where she played his adorable daughter. Will Smith and his daughter shared only a few flashback scenes, but they anchored the film and made his struggle as the last man in New York seem all the more painful.
Sylvester and Sage Stallone (‘Rocky V’)
1990’s Rocky V sees Sylvester and Sage Stallone play father and son as Rocky Balboa deals with forced retirement and bankruptcy. While previous films had been about Rocky focusing on himself and his training, the fleshing-out of young Robert Balboa’s character added a new layer to the franchise. “There are moments when I was holding my breath, because he could go over the top or under the top if he didn't’ hit that mark just right,” Stallone said of his son’s performance. “He was very,very true so I’m proud." Sage Stallone, who died of heart disease in 2012, also had a small role in his father’s 1996 film Daylight.
Martin and Charlie Sheen (‘Wall Street’)
In one of the finest father-son performances ever, young stock broker Bud Fox (Charlie Sheen) is torn between his humble but decent blue-collar upbringing exemplified by his father (Martin Sheen) and the unscrupulous but seductive power commanded by Michael Douglas’ Gordon Gekko. Though the elder Sheen’s role was small, his interactions with his son were among the film’s most strongly rendered moments.
Henry and Jane Fonda (‘On Golden Pond’)
Henry Fonda won an Oscar for playing opposite his daughter, Jane Fonda, in the 1981 movie. It tells the story of an elderly couple who care for the son of their daughter’s fiancé. In real life, the father and daughter had a strained relationship, but the film helped them reconnect. When Henry Fonda won the Oscar for the role, he was too ill to accept, so his daughter did it for him. He died five months later. "I was grateful for having had On Golden Pond with him and that I'd managed to tell him I loved him before it was too late,” Jane Fonda recalled in her autobiography. “I could feel myself making peace with the fact that though he hadn't given me all I needed from him, he'd given me plenty."
Kirk and Michael Douglas (‘It Runs in the Family’)
The 2003 drama really was a family affair. Kirk and Michael Douglas played father and son, while Michael Douglas’ mother (and Kirk’s ex-wife) Diana Dill played the family’s matriarch. The film centers on an affluent New York clan whose members each face their own personal and familial problems. Michael Douglas previously had an uncredited role in his father’s 1966 film Cast a Giant Shadow.
Angelina Jolie and Jon Voight (‘Lara Croft: Tomb Raider’)
Angelina Jolie played intrepid treasure hunter Lara Croft in the 2001 feature. Her father, Jon Voight, played her dad, Lord Richard Croft. The pair previously worked together when a young Jolie (credited as Angelina Jolie Voight) had a small role in her dad’s 1982 film Lookin' to Get Out, in which she also played his daughter.
Jerry and Ben Stiller (‘Zoolander’)
Jerry Stiller’s turn as a villainous fashion agent and his son Ben Stiller’s performance as self-obsessed model Derek Zoolander is perhaps the pair’s finest onscreen collaboration. A close runner-up has to be 1995’s Heavy Weights, in which the elder Stiller hilariously played a bankrupt camp owner and his son played the wannabee fitness mogul who took it over.
Stellan and Alexander Skarsgard (‘Melancholia’)
Alexander Skarsgard plays a newlywed whose wife is harassed at their wedding reception by her boss (Stellan Skarsgard). The 2011 apocalyptic drama wasn’t the first time they’d worked together, with the pair sharing eight other credits — mostly in foreign projects.
Demi Moore and Rumer Willis (‘Striptease’)
In 1996’s Striptease,Demi Moore played a secretary who turns to stripping to pay legal fees to regain custody of her daughter (Rumer Willis).A year earlier, Willis got her big-screen start in Moore’s Now and Then. She also worked with her dad, Bruce Willis, in 1996’s The Whole Nine Yards in 2000’s Hostage.
Janet Leigh and Jamie Lee Curtis (‘The Fog’)
Mother and daughter scream queens Janet Leigh and Jamie Lee Curtis teamed up for 1980’s The Fog. The John Carpenter film saw a fog containing killer zombies descend on a town — to horrifying results. The pair also teamed up for 1998’s Halloween H20: 20 Years.
Diane Ladd and Laura Dern (‘Rambling Rose’)
Diane Ladd and her daughter Laura Dern both earned Oscar nominations 199's Rambling Rose. The film set during the Great Depression saw Dern play a sexually forward housemaid and Ladd play her employer. The pair have worked together a number of times, including on 1990’s Young at Heart. Dern got her start in film with a cameo in her mother’s 1973 film White Lightning.
Ryan and Tatum O’Neal (‘Paper Moon’)
Tatum O'Neal was just 10 when she won an Oscar for her debut film, Paper Moon, in which she starred opposite her father, Ryan O'Neal. The Depression-era crime drama sees a grafter (Ryan O’Neal) adopt an orphaned young girl (Tatum O’Neal), whom many speculate is actually his daughter because of his past relationship with the girl's mother.
In real life, Tatum O’Neal had a rough childhood and a strained relationship with her father. Ryan O’Neal said the film helped repair the rift. “She may have been deprived of a childhood, but she still has a gift for living. I think about her scars, but what we've seen with Paper Moon is like a rebirth. My baby," the elder O’Neal said in 1974, "is going to live."