Russell Crowe reveals he is related to Jacobite lord who inspired Outlander's Jamie Fraser

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Hollywood A-lister Russell Crowe has revealed just how close his connections to Scotland are. It was already known that the Australian actor had Scottish heritage, but the star has now opened up on his discovery that he's a distant relative of a notorious Jacobite lord who was the last man to be executed by beheading in Britain.The Gladiator star has been exploring his ancestry and his research uncovered some surprising connections when he recently found out he is related to Simon Fraser, the 11th Lord Lovat – known as the Old Fox.Known for his scheming plots and switching sides to and fro between the government and Jacobite causes, his clan was eventually among those defeated at the battle of Culloden in 1746 and he was executed the following year.Fans of the Outlander novels and TV series will recognise him as the grandfather of lead character Jamie Fraser.On X, formerly Twitter, Crowe said he had begun by trying to trace his Italian roots, something made difficult by “folkloric family tales and misspelling”.He discovered his great-great-grandfather Luigi Ghezzi had moved to New Zealand in 1864 after meeting Mary Ann Curtain in Cape Town.The 59-year-old actor added: “Also something else that has recently come to light on my fathers mothers side, via John (Jock) Fraser (arrived in NZ in 1841) we directly connect back to Simon Fraser.

11th Lord Lovat. Look him up.“He’s quite the character. The Old Fox they used to call him.“Seems his Machiavellian ways caught up to him at the age of 80, & he has a claim to infamy as the last man to have the head chopped off his living body in the Tower of London.

His death even coined a phrase.“Apparently, they set up temporary stands for the gentry to watch him die.“One of these stands