If you are a fan of the Netflix series Stranger Things, you might be familiar with Charlie Heaton, the actor who plays Jonathan Byers, the older brother of Will Byers. But do you know that he shares his last name with another famous actor, Patricia Heaton, who starred in the sitcoms Everybody Loves Raymond and The Middle? Are they related by blood or just by coincidence? Here’s what we found out.
Who is Charlie Heaton?
Charlie Heaton is an English actor and musician, born on February 6, 1994 in Leeds, West Yorkshire. He was raised by his mother on a council estate in Bridlington, a small coastal town in Yorkshire. ² He has an older sister, Levi Heaton, also an actor and a member of Self Esteem’s live band.
Heaton moved to London at age 16 and played in a number of bands before joining the noise-rock band Comanechi as the drummer.During his tenure, the band released an album in 2013 and toured for a year and a half.He then joined London-based psychedelic band Half Loon.
Heaton has no formal acting training, first considering an acting career while working for extras and commercial agencies to supplement his income as a musician and bartender.In 2015, he had guest roles on a string of British television dramas and was cast in three major projects, including Stranger Things. He first appeared in the ITV crime drama series DCI Banks and Vera and then guest-starred in BBC One’s medical drama series Casualty.
In his first feature film role, he appeared in the 2016 thriller film Shut In, co-starring Naomi Watts and Oliver Platt, and directed by Farren Blackburn. The film was produced in early 2015, prior to being cast in Stranger Things, but was released following the show’s premiere. Concurrently, he filmed the coming-of-age film As You Are in late 2015. It premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2016.
Heaton’s breakthrough role was as Jonathan Byers in the Netflix supernatural drama series Stranger Things. The first season premiered in July 2016 to critical acclaim; the most recent season, its fourth, was released in 2023.
In 2017, Heaton had a main role in the psychological horror film Marrowbone. In May of that year, Heaton was cast to star as Samuel “Sam” Guthrie / Cannonball in the film The New Mutants based on the Marvel Comics comic book of the same name. Filmed in 2017, the film was released in 2020.
In August 2018, the BBC announced that Heaton would be playing Joseph Merrick, commonly known as the “Elephant Man”, in a new two-part drama. The casting drew criticism from a disability charity group, the group’s head saying that not using a disabled actor was a missed opportunity.
Who is Patricia Heaton?
Patricia Heaton is an American actress and comedian, born on March 4, 1958 in Bay Village, Ohio. She is the daughter of Patricia (née Hurd) and Chuck Heaton, who was a sportswriter for The Cleveland Plain Dealer. When she was 12, her mother died of an aneurysm. The fourth of five children,Heaton was raised as a devout Catholic.
Heaton has three sisters, Sharon (now a Dominican nun and assistant registrar at Aquinas College in Nashville), Alice, and Frances, and one brother, Michael (who died in September 2022 at the age of 66), who was a columnist for The Cleveland Plain Dealer and a writer for the paper’s Friday Magazine.
While attending Ohio State University, she became a sister of Delta Gamma sorority. She later graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in drama. In 1980, Heaton moved to New York City to study with drama teacher William Esper.
Heaton made her first Broadway appearance in the chorus of Don’t Get God Started (1987), after which fellow students and she created Stage Three, an off-Broadway acting troupe. Heaton auditioned for the role of Elaine Benes on Seinfeld.
Heaton was featured in three short-lived sitcoms— Room for Two, Someone Like Me and Women of the House —before landing the role of Debra Barone on Everybody Loves Raymond. She was nominated in each of the series’ last seven seasons for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series, winning in 2000 and 2001. With her win in 2000, she became the first of the cast members on the show to win an Emmy.
After Everybody Loves Raymond ended in 2005, Heaton starred in the ABC comedy series The Middle from 2009 to 2018, playing Frances “Frankie” Heck, a middle-class wife and mother. For her performance, she was nominated for two Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series.
Heaton also appeared in several films, such as Memoirs of an Invisible Man (1992), Beethoven (1992), The New Age (1994), Space Jam (1996), Moms’ Night Out (2014), and Carol’s Second Act (2019-2020).
Heaton is a three-time Emmy Award winner – twice winning the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for Everybody Loves Raymond, and a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Culinary Program as host of Patricia Heaton Parties (2015–2016).
Are They Related?
The answer is no. Charlie Heaton and Patricia Heaton are not related by blood or by marriage. They just happen to share a common surname, which is not uncommon in the entertainment industry. There are many other examples of celebrities who have the same last name but are not related, such as Tom Cruise and Penelope Cruz, Emma Stone and Sharon Stone, or Will Smith and Jaden Smith. Okay, maybe not the last one.
However, that does not mean that they are not aware of each other or have never met. In fact, Charlie Heaton once tweeted a picture of him and Patricia Heaton together at an event, jokingly captioning it “Mom?” Patricia Heaton replied with “Son?” The two actors seemed to have a good sense of humor about their name coincidence and posed for a friendly photo.
So there you have it. Charlie Heaton and Patricia Heaton are not related, but they are both talented actors who have starred in popular shows and movies. Maybe one day they will work together on a project and play relatives on screen. That would be fun to watch.
