All About Lily Gladstone's Parents, Betty and Howard

Photo:Todd Williamson/CBS via Getty Images

Todd Williamson/CBS via Getty Images

Get to knowLily Gladstone’s parents.

The actress,who uses she/they pronouns, has generated award season buzz for her role inKillers of the Flower Moonand no one is more proud than their parents.

As Gladstone promotes the film, she has opened up about her parents on a few occasions and their unwavering support for her recent successes. Recently, Gladstone, who is of Siksikaitsitapi and Niimiipuu heritage,became the first Native American Best Actress nominee.

Born in August 1986, Gladstone was raised on the Blackfeet Reservation in Browning, Montana, to parents Betty and Howard. The actress’ father is of Piegan Blackfeet and Nez Perce heritage, while her mother is of European descent.

Here’s everything to know about Gladstone’s parents.

Both of Lily Gladstone’s parents have connections to historical figures

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Both of Gladstone’s parents are descended from historical figures. Her father, who is of Piegan Blackfeet and Nez Perce heritage, is descended from Red Crow, a Kainai Nation chief. Meanwhile, her mother, who is of European descent, is distantly related to British prime minister William Gladstone,perThe Guardian.

“Of course, it was the Brits that colonized my fam­ily, too,”she toldThe Telegraphof her family history, noting how her first visit to London put that irony into focus.

Lily Gladstone’s father studied at the University of Washington

During a feature withThe Guardian, Gladstone revealed that she father attended the University of Washington in the 1970s, however, he left early because it was “not an easy time for an outspoken Native American.” The publication adds that he later went into broadcast journalism.

As her family eventually moved to Seattle during her middle school years, her father later found work as a boilermaker in a shipyard,per a previous featurewith the University of Montana’s magazine.

Lily Gladstone’s mother is an early childhood education specialist

Gladstone’s mother is an early childhood education specialist with a master’s degree in child development.Speaking with NPR, Gladstone’s mother revealed that she first moved to “the reservation as a single woman to work with the Head Start program as their education coordinator.”

“It’s really a look at the development of human beings,” she said of her master’s degree. “What makes a person the person that they are? The concept of family, community, culture was ever-present, and language is a big part of culture. And then when I moved to the reservation, I saw it in action. Just having the experience of children be reflective of who the community is. And that became even closer to my heart once I became a mother.”

Lily Gladstone’s mother encouraged her to learn Blackfeet

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With a background in early childhood education, it was Gladstone’s mother who encouraged her to learn the Blackfeet language. After using it inher Golden Globes speech, Gladstone elaborated on her mother’s influence, saying that she “worked tirelessly to get our language into our classroom so I had a Blackfeet language teacher growing up.”

Speaking with NPR, Gladstone’s mother opened up about her daughter and how learning Blackfeet made a huge impact on her life growing up. “She became a really good self-advocate,” she told the publication. “She, I think, felt very empowered to address some misperceptions about Natives, to share more about who she was with her peers, even in high school, to even be granted the opportunity to create kind of a parallel exploration in curriculum in some of her classes. That she could say, you know, I’d really like to look at this from a Native perspective or Blackfeet perspective. So I think because she grew up in that kind of bicultural, somewhat bilingual environment, she just felt that was the way education should be.”

Lily Gladstone’s parents were supportive of her career aspirations early on

Speaking withThe Telegraph, Gladstone said her parents encouraged her to pursue her artistic passions from a young age. “I’ve got a very close relationship with my parents,” Gladstone told the publication.

“They just poured so much into making sure that their overly exuberant, super-energetic, adorably chunky little girl was able to dance,” she said of her early beginnings in dance. “I wanted to be a ballerina, and they never told me I couldn’t be, like you see in biopics, ‘Oh, honey, you don’t have the body for that.’ They’re like, yeah, you’re great at it, we’re gonna drive a 180-mile round trip every weekend to take you to ballet.”

Lily Gladstone was living with their parents when Martin Scorsese first approached her aboutKillers of the Flower Moon

Before getting her big break inKillers of the Flower Moon, Gladstone was living with her parents in Seattle. In fact,Gladstone was seriously contemplating quitting actingand taking up a job researching hornets before she got the audition forKillers of the Flower Moon.

However, while working on her application for the Department of Agriculture, she received an email notification about a meeting request fromMartin Scorsese, who wanted the actress to audition for a lead role inKillers of the Flower Moon.

Lily Gladstone was FaceTiming her parents when her Oscar nomination was announced

source: people.com