John Cusack's Family Is Full Of Megastars: Meet His Siblings And Famous Father

John Cusack has had a notable career, dominating the '80s as a heartthrob and showcasing incredible range in the '90s, from drama to romance to comedy. But he isn't the only member of his family that has a talent for acting. Cusack comes from a large family with four siblings, all of whom have pursued acting in various capacities.

Joan Cusack is probably best known for her comedic roles in flicks like "School of Rock" and "Addams Family Values," as well as for voicing Jessie in the "Toy Story" films. Others might recognize Ann Cusack from "A League of Their Own" and "Stigmata." The Cusack siblings seemed to have gotten their love for acting from their parents. Their mother was a teacher, and their father, Richard "Dick" Cusack," began his career in advertising before transitioning into Hollywood full time as an actor and writer.

The family is relatively private by Hollywood standards but clearly enjoy working with each other based on the fact they've regularly appeared in films together throughout their careers. John is often in the leading role, like "High Fidelity" and "Say Anything..." with at least one of his siblings, usually Joan, playing a supporting role. "I always love working with her. I can't believe they still let us do it," he told CinemaBlend in 2007. But their other siblings, especially Ann, have shown a flair for acting and built respectable careers of their own.

Richard "Dick" Cusack started his career as an ad man. He worked as an ad executive at McCann-Erickson, before founding Cusack productions in 1970. In 1971, he earned an Emmy for his writing on the abortion documentary "The Committee." He went on to write plays, including "Punto," "The Last Word of the Bluebird," and "The Night They Shot Harry Lindsey With a 150mm Howitzer and Blamed It on the Zebras." Dick landed his first acting gig after his friend Byrne Piven — father of actor Jeremy Piven — asked him to appear in his play "The Man in 605."

His daughter Joan Cusack remembered her father's creativity, telling The Guardian in 2011, "He was a really funny man, very silly. He loved comedy. We would watch Mel Brooks movies and Monty Python and he would always find some humor in everything. He made home movies of us, and he would show them in the backyard. He was great fun." Dick also collaborated with his children on several films, including Joan's first major film, "My Bodyguard." He also appeared with John Cusack in "Eight Men Out" and "High Fidelity." John starred in a script written by his father, the 1999 HBO film "The Jack Bull."

The patriarch of the family, Dick died in 2003 from pancreatic cancer. In an interview with Lake (via The New York Times) in 2002, he shared he still had several projects in the works, saying, "Healthy speculation is that none of them will be made. I expect to fall over in a heap with a lily on my chest and no writing credits.” Among the projects was a screenplay on psychic Edgar Cayce that John told The New York Times he still hoped to produce and star in.

Richard and Nancy Cusack raised their five children in Chicago, where they became involved in the theater scene. The Cusacks were close with the Piven family, founders of the Piven Theatre Workshop, which offers theater and acting training for children and adults. According to The Chicago Tribune, Dick Cusack was a member of the Evanston Arts Council and while chairman of the group, helped save and convert the Noyes School into the Noyes Cultural Arts Center, which is where the Piven Theatre Workshop is still located.

The Cusack siblings all attended the Piven Theatre Workshop, with John Cusack perhaps becoming its most famous alum. The family's names are in dozens of credits in the Young People's Company, with roles in the ensemble and crew, as well as starring parts. In an interview with Charlie Rose, John praised the training he received there. "They teach actors, very young actors who are very fragile and can easily be sent in the wrong direction, they teach them to really trust their own instincts and use their own experience as their instrument," he said. "And that's a very rare thing."

The oldest of the Cusack siblings, Ann Cusack lead the charge in pursuing theater and acting. "I was always the director and always played the princess," Ann told the Chicago Tribune in a 1992 profile of her and her sisters, Joan Cusack and Susie Cusack. Ann and Joan were the first to attend the Piven Theatre Workshop, founded by family friends the Pivens. Byrne Piven told the outlet, Ann was "the leading lady with a simpatico quality." He also noted there wasn't much of a rivalry amongst the sisters.

Though she was the first to break into acting as a child, Ann didn't make her film debut until 1992's "A League of Their Own." "I just wanted to be able to do a great job and not be totally intimidated and overwhelmed by meeting Tom [Hanks] and Geena [Davis]," she told People in 2022 of landing her first role on screen. "I was just trying to not make an a** out of myself in front of all these people who I was starstruck with."

And with that, her career took off. In the '90s, Ann was in a number of features, including "Tank Girl" and "The Birdcage," as well as TV shows like "The Jeff Foxworthy Show" and "Murder, She Wrote." Some of her more recent credits include 2014's "Nightcrawler" and a recurring role on "The Boys." Ann's also a musician, and has played with a band called The Generation Jones Band. 

Joan Cusack is the second-eldest of the Cusack siblings and has become a respected actor, especially wowing audiences with her comedic performances. Joan described herself as "shy" when she was a child, but found her voice in the Piven Theatre Workshop. "It was great training because it was the 60s and all about theatre games and humanizing people — the creative process. You had to be unselfconscious, and that was perfect for me because I was very shy. When we played these games, I suddenly felt free," she told The Guardian. Byrne Piven told The Chicago Tribune showed a natural knack for comedy, saying, "Even as a youngster, Joanie would understand what it was about her character that was ridiculous or pathetic."

Joan was the first of the Cusack siblings to have a role on screen in the film "My Bodyguard," (which her father also appeared in). She was originally cast as an extra, but eventually was assigned a larger role with lines. "They told me I got a line, and I couldn't believe it!" she told The Salt Lake Tribune in 2017. "Then they said I should go get an outfit, so I got one with these purple Gloria Vanderbilt pants, and I was like 'Oh my god, this is really happening!' I was playing the ugly girl, and in the movie, they threw ketchup and mustard on me, but it didn't matter because I was wearing my Gloria Vanderbilt pants!"

While there's no obvious sibling rivalry, Joan Cusack, who delighted fans with a red carpet appearance at the "Toy Story 5" premiere, may well have surpassed the others in terms of accolades from the acting community. Joan has scored two Oscar nominations in the best supporting actress category: Her first for 1988's "Working Girl" and the second for 1997's "In & Out." She's also earned five Primetime Emmy nominations and one win in the outstanding guest actress in a drama series category for her role on "Shameless." 

While it might seem like Hollywood decided they won't cast John Cusack anymore, he sure has had an impressive career. His expansive filmography includes roles in teen romcoms like "Say Anything...," which hits different as an adult, and "Grosse Pointe Blank," among others, but he has fewer major nominations than Joan. John has a Golden Globe and BAFTA nom for "High Fidelity," and a total of 23 nominations across multiple awards bodies. Their sister Ann Cusack has but one major award to her name: the Chicago Film Critics Association's Commitment to Chicago Award, which she shares with her siblings and parents.

John Cusack and Joan Cusack have appeared in a whopping 10 movies together, going back to the 1980s in films like "Sixteen Candles" and "Class" as well as other films like "High Fidelity," "Martian Child," and "War, Inc." They played siblings onscreen in the classic rom com "Say Anything...," a moment John clearly treasured. "It's easy to work with your sister," John said during a 2025 screening event for the film, per People. "What happens is she'll come in and then I'm in the scene with her. She runs me over like a Mack Truck and they say print it, and then it's everyone's favorite thing in the movie."

Joan also had kind words for her brother when she spoke with The Guardian in 2011, recalling John Hughes casting his films in the Chicago area and the luck they both had in nabbing roles. "There's a lot of serendipity involved in both my brother John and I becoming actors. I was in the right place at the right time," she said. Joan, who has otherwise ditched Hollywood, also noted that her brother is a "great uncle" to her children, and they visit when she goes to Los Angeles for work.

John Cusack and Joan Cusack aren't the only Cusack siblings to share the screen. John, Joan, Ann Cusack, and Bill Cusack all appeared together in "Grosse Pointe Blank" in 1997. That same year, John and Bill were both in "Con Air." John, Joan, Ann, and Bill also appeared together in the 2008 film "War, Inc." Separately, John and Ann appeared together in "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" and "America's Sweethearts."

The youngest Cusack sibling, Susie Cusack, hasn't made as many film appearances, but even she manages to have a few roles alongside her siblings. Susie made her film debut in 1992 in the film "Hero" alongside her sister, Joan, and later appeared with her and John in "High Fidelity." And their actor/playwright father, Dick Cusack, appeared with John in the aforementioned "Eight Men Out," as well as "Class" and "High Fidelity."

Bill Cusack is the fourth-born of the Cusack siblings and appears to be slightly less involved in the film industry than, say, John Cusack or Joan Cusack. When he was in his 20s, Bill was in a small theater group called New Crime with John and their family friend Jeremy Piven. In 1991, they put on a production of "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas," directed by John and starring Bill and Piven. As previously noted, he also acted alongside his siblings in "War, Inc."

On screen, Bill has 21 acting credits to his name, as well as one producing credit . Among those are his roles alongside his brother John, including "The Jack Bull," written by their father. Otherwise, he appears to have mostly stuck with theater, having been a member of The Actors' Gang in Los Angeles. He also worked as a writer for promos for an unnamed cable TV network, according to a biography on HuffPost.

The youngest of the Cusack siblings, Susie Cusack is arguably the least public-facing member of the family. In the 1992 Chicago Tribune profile of her and her sisters, Ann Cusack and Joan Cusack, she is described as "whimsically offbeat baby of the family, in love with risk and being bad with a capital B." Byrne Piven, who taught her at the Piven Theatre Workshop with the rest of the Cusacks, described her in the piece as delivering lines with "the most incredible singularity."

Susie made her film debut in the 1992 film "Hero," alongside her sister Joan, and made another appearance with John Cusack and their other siblings in "High Fidelity. In total, she has six acting credits to her name. Evidently, the acting bug didn't bite Susie as hard as it bit the other members of her family.