Her face carries traces of two screen legends, yet the only child of this celebrated Hollywood couple rejected their profession and built an identity with a much louder edge.
Now 42, the Malibu-raised musician shares affectionate photographs with her famous mother and father, plus life updates on social media. Those warm images carry added meaning because this family endured an alarming confrontation that became public, followed by years in which nothing was said about it.
Her Voice Took Her Somewhere Hollywood Never Could
Long before strangers tried to identify her parents from her eyes or smile, the aspiring singer was determined to be heard on her own terms.
Music had been part of her world since childhood. Her grandmother encouraged her to sing, while school introduced her to the flute and some guitar, although she always considered her voice her real instrument.
She later trained in classical Italian opera with vocal teacher Charity Chapman. It may have seemed an unexpected foundation for someone drawn to hard rock, but she believed the discipline protected the very instrument she needed to perform louder, heavier material.
“Classical opera is the best way to warm up your voice for singing rock,” she explained. “You don’t want to lose your voice rocking out.”
Her musical taste happily ignored neat categories. Puccini could live beside Marilyn Manson, while Joan Jett and Nine Inch Nails felt closer to the sound she wanted to create.
Guns N’ Roses, Pink Floyd, and Jimi Hendrix were among her influences, along with Fiona Apple and Sheryl Crow. The record collection waiting at home made that musical education even richer.
“I got all their old vinyl,” she said. “So some of my favorite albums are Led Zeppelin, The Cars’ ‘Heartbeat City,’ the Allman Brothers’ ‘Eat a Peach’ and maybe some old Madonna.”
By 24, the blonde singer was preparing to introduce herself with a debut solo album that joined her technical training to her taste for something far rougher. That ambition belonged to Cleo Rose Elliott, the only daughter of actors Sam Elliott and Katharine Ross.
The family connection could hardly have been more cinematic. Sam’s unmistakable voice and rugged screen presence made him a Western favorite. At the same time, Katharine became one of her generation’s most recognizable actresses through films including “The Graduate,” “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” and “The Stepford Wives.”
Cleo could have pursued the same profession with two extraordinary examples at home. Instead, she wanted the microphone, and her parents apparently felt relieved that Hollywood had not claimed a third member of the family.