Turns out one Star Trek: Deep Space Nine character has an actual connection to royalty, and it's an actor you'd likely never expect!
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine's Morn, Mark Allen Shepherd is related to both Queen Elizabeth AND DeForest Kelley from Star Trek. Oh, and Jane Wyatt and Gene Roddenberry and Denise Crosby, too. What are the odds of that? And we are not kidding. The actor, who portrayed the beloved Lurian character -- and the talkative-but-never-heard barfly at Quark’s -- on DS9, really is related to England’s late queen, Star Trek: The Original Series’ first Dr. Leonard “Bones” McCoy, Star Trek’s creator, and the actresses who played Spock’s mother and Tasha Yar, respectively!
Back in 2017, Shepherd penned a guest blog for StarTrek.com, the official Star Trek site. He explained that his 11th great-grandfather, Stephen Hopkins, joined his family aboard the Mayflower and arrived with them in 19620 at Plymouth, Massachusetts. Hopkins’ daughter, Constance, married Nicholas Snow III, who had arrived in America at the Plymouth Massachusetts Bay colony in 1623.
“Nicholas Snow III is my 10th great-grandfather, and his father Nicholas Snow II, is (also) my 11th great-grandfather and a common ancestor I share with DeForest Kelley, with whom I now realize I have several common ancestors, including King Henry VII Tudor and James V. Stuart. And while the Winter Queen Elizabeth Stuart (was) my cousin… DeForest Kelley was a direct descendant of the Winter King and the Queen. So, DeForest Kelley was my 11th cousin once removed and cousins with Queen Elizabeth II, as well as many, if not all, the royal houses of Europe.”
Shepherd went on to note that he and Gene Roddenberry shared four common ancestors, as did he and Jane Wyatt. Based on his research, Shepherd -- who currently lives in Germany -- claims that Wyatt was his 10th cousin three times removed. As for Crosby? “We share at least two ancestors: Kenelm Winslow and Eleanor Worden of Plymouth Colony, mid-1600s,” he wrote.
What would be REALLY cool is if Shepherd is somehow related to George Wendt. Wendt co-starred on the long-running sitcom Cheers, playing the resident barfly Norm. As most Star Trek fans know, Morn is an anagram of Norm.
Still, it's wild to think of the man behind the Morn mask having so many family connections in the world of Hollywood, and to Queen Elizabeth!
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