6 Famous Children of Dentists

Dentistry is a family business in many ways. But just as many children of dental professionals choose to follow in their parents’ footsteps with careers as dentists, hygienists, and lab technicians, many other children take decidedly different career paths. In some cases, this leads to fame and renown in other fields. With that in mind, here are 6 celebrities who come from dental families.

Currently CEO of Meta Platforms, Mark Zuckerberg is best known as the founder of Facebook, and to many, the face of the social media industry. But before he famously headed to Harvard and helped launch the dominant social media platform, he was raised in suburban New York by Edward Zuckerberg, DDS, FAGD. Although the public might not know him as well as his son, Dr Zuckerberg is well known in the dental industry as an advocate for the latest technology and techniques to deliver high-quality care with less stress, fear, and pain for his patients.

A jazz icon and pioneer, Miles Davis created some of the most influential music of the past century. He also is the son of a dentist. Although Miles Dewey Davis III is the person most know as Miles Davis, his father, Miles Dewey Davis Jr was a dentist who graduated from Northwestern University Dental School and went on to practice in Alton and East St Louis, Illinois,

Currently one of the biggest stars in Hollywood, Chris Evans is best known for playing Captain America in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. He too comes from a dental family: His father G. Robert “Bob” Evans, DMD, was a dentist in the Boston area. He retired in 2019, according to his practice website, but his career had been focused around holistic and biological dentistry.

Not quite a household name, Florence Price is the first African American woman to have her composition performed by a major orchestra when the Chicago Symphony Orchestra played her Symphony No. 1 in E Minor during the 1933 Century of Progress Exposition (aka, World’s Fair). Although she is most well-known for the work she created during the Chicago Black Renaissance of the 1930s and 1940s, Price was born and raised in Little Rock, Arkansas, where her father was the city’s only African American dentist.

A pair of sisters with lengthy acting résumés, Phylicia Rashad and Debbie Allen are widely known for their iconic 1980s television roles. Rashad is best known as Clair Huxtable from The Cosby Show and has a distinguished career on both stage and screen. Allen is known for her lead role in the TV series Fame, for which she also served as principle choreographer, and she too has gone on to a lengthy career in front of and behind the camera. Although dentistry has not figured into either sister’s career, their father was an orthodontist.

Image sources (from left to right): Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, DoD photo by Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Dominique A. Pineiro/Released; Miles davis, Tom Palumbo; Mark Zuckerberg at TechCrunch Disrupt 2012, JD Lasica; FELICIA RASHAD, John Mathew Smith 2001, Kingkongphoto & www.celebrity-photos.com