Famous families are a crap shoot. The odds are so wacky that you have a shot at either being equally major stars like Warren Beatty and Shirley MacLaine or marginally uneven but still respectable stars like David and Patricia Arquette. But then there are the other situations where one sibling goes on to superstardom while their brother/sister toils in obscurity for the most part in the same industry that the other is shining so bright. It is with that set of circumstances in mind that I give you my list of the Top Not-Quite-As-Famous Siblings of Famous Actors!

5. Don Swayze (brother of Patrick Swayze)

Pity Don Swayze…the poor guy only wanted to grow up and become a famous movie actor but he was hit with the dual obstacles of having Patrick Swayze as his older brother and looking like the flawed clone of Patrick that somehow managed to escape the genetics lab before being destroyed with the rest of the test subjects. Don is Patrick Swayze with a few too many chromosomes missing. As such he had to stand by and watch Patrick get to play action heroes and leading men while he was relegated to roles as thugs, henchmen and carnival freaks.

4. Dedee Pfeiffer (sister of Michelle Pfeiffer)

How much must it suck to start your career as an actress in the 80s and have to compete for parts with your sister who just happens to be Michelle Pfeiffer? That has been Dedee Pfeiffer’s lot in life. Michelle goes on to become one of the most all known and respected actresses of the 80s-90s while Dedee plays hookers and strippers before settling into a groove as a frequent guest star on TV series as varied as Wings and Burn Notice. Plus Michelle is way hotter. I still have a soft spot for Dedee though from her performance in the underrated vampire flick Vamp where she played a stripper named Amaretto who was the only dancer in the strip club who was not a blood sucker.

3. Charlie Murphy (brother of Eddie Murphy)

I love Charlie Murphy…he is an extremely funny dude and I would be very confident in wagering that he is currently a million times funnier than his brother Eddie since it seams that Eddie’s sense of humor has crawled out of him and dies somewhere but Charlie is not a fraction of the star that Eddie is. Despite the rash of bombs from Norbit to A Thousand Words, Eddie is still a a mega-star. That doesn’t matter to me though because Charlie has a hat trick of awesome on his resume that rivals anything Eddie has done in my humble opinion: his Charlie Murphy’s True Hollywood Stories sketches from the Chappelle’s Show, his voice acting work on The Boondocks, and his role as Gusto in the hilarious satire of the rap music scene CB4.

2. Eric Roberts (brother of Julia Roberts)

I am an unabashed Eric Roberts fan and am not afraid to admit. The guy is capable of some truly great acting…just look at his work in Star 80 and the Coca-Cola Kid for proof. Sadly the promise he showed in those films never was realized as he soon became overshadowed by the insanely huge shadow of his little sister Julia in her meteoric rise to become America’s Sweetheart. So instead of reaching his potential Eric began slumming it ins straight-to-video fare that saw his acting get more and more cartoony and over the top till he hit the bottom of the celebrity barrel by appearing on Celebrity Rehab (For a marijuana addiction! Who needs help getting off weed?). But I am still holding out hope that E-Money will stop taking every job that is offered to him, show a little restraint in his acting and make a nice comeback movie. he needs to hurry up to because he is poised to become even less famous than his daughter Emma pretty soon.

1. Clint Howard (brother of Ron Howard)

Clint Howard has been acting for thousands of years and if you have ever watched any amount of TV or movies then you have seen him. You probably have no clue what his name is or that he is Ron Howard’s little brother but you definitely remember him because he looks like a mutated hobbit. Clint is the poster boy for cute child actors who grow up ugly. The squinty eyes, dwarfish head and buck teeth were adorable when he was 7 but by adulthood that look just becomes unsightly. Ya have to give Clint props though because he has taken his handicap and created a pretty stellar career as a character actor with appearances in movies that are far too numerous to name and not all of which he got cast because brother Ron was directing.