Films about Adoption: a Selection

Anon: To an Adopted Child
"Never forget for a single minute
you didn't grow under my heart
but in it"

I'm including informal as well as formal adoptions. A selection not comprehensive list. Suggestions welcome. Secrets and Lies is a popular film on the subject, but I didn't like it. I was also disappointed with the Oscar-winner Tom Jones, which hardly does justice to the epic book.

Adoptees:
Carl-Theodor Dreyer
Ray Liotta
Marilyn Monroe
Michael Bay
Priscilla Presley
Ingrid Bergman (looked after by aunt and uncle after parents’ deaths)
Naomi Kawase (by her grandmother)
Anna Magnani
Stan Brakhage
Peter Finch
George Cole
Jack Nicholson (by grandparents, believing them his parents)
+
Krishna (fostered to prevent his being killed)
Jesus Christ (by Joseph)
Eleanor Roosevelt
Bill Clinton
Jesse Jackson
Crazy Horse
Edgar Allen Poe
Nelson Mandela
Edgar Allen Poe (fostered not formally adopted by a merchant when orphaned)
Debbie Harry
William the Conqueror
Aristotle
Ella Fitzgerald
Joseph Conrad (by family)
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Moses
Marshall Tito
Eric Clapton (by grandparents)
Leo Tolstoy
John James Audubon
Roman Abramovic
Dalai Lamas (by monks)
Mike Tyson (raised in institution then guardianship)

Adopters:
Brad Pitt & Angelina Jolie
Steven Spielberg
Shimizu Hiroshi
Mia Farrow
Sharon Stone
Julie Andrews
Jane Fonda
Henry Fonda
Diane Keaton
Bette Davis
Paul Newman
Harpo Marx
Walt Disney
Michelle Pfeiffer
Isabella Rossellini
Jane Russell
+
Alexander the Great
Madonna

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