Armie Hammer’s Family Tree, Explained: House Of Hammer Spotlights Decades Of Scandals

Trigger Warning: This piece contains mentions of prior allegations of sexual assault. Since early 2021, several women have come forward with claims against Armie Hammer — accusing the actor of rape, physical abuse, and alleged messages that convey cannibalistic and sexually violent fantasies. Hammer has repeatedly denied the allegations, which are spotlighted in the new House of Hammer docuseries on Discovery+. Bustle has reached out to Hammer’s lawyer Andrew Brettler for comment about House of Hammer and his ongoing investigation, but did not get a response yet.

The aftermath of the allegations ended the Golden Globe nominee’s role in several planned projects, and he was dropped by his talent agency WME, Variety reported last year. Since stepping away from the Hollywood limelight, Hammer has reportedly been working as a timeshare salesman in the Cayman Islands, where the Hammer family previously purchased property.

The fallout has served as the impetus for House of Hammer, but in the grand scheme of the Hammer family, it’s only the latest in a long line of reported controversies.

If the only Hammer you know is the Call Me By Your Name star, you may find it hard to keep track of all of the faces you’ll see in House of Hammer, including Armie’s aunt Casey, who’s been speaking out against the family since writing her 2015 memoir Surviving My Birthright. “I want to be an advocate for victims and survivors and help them realize they’re not alone,” she tells Bustle. “So by my nephew causing all this last year to be all of a sudden in the limelight, it got people interested in a whole ’nother way. I didn’t want to just be a soundbite for his implosion.”

Here’s a look at the men in the Hammer family tree.

Julius Hammer

While coverage of the Hammers tends to start with Armie’s great-grandfather Armand Hammer, Julius Hammer also played a role in the family’s history. Armie’s great-great-grandfather Julius was a doctor, Russian immigrant, and leading Communist Party of the United States member, according to a Vanity Fair exposé, which cited Edward Jay Epstein’s biography of Armand. In 1919, he reportedly was charged with manslaughter after the death of a woman he performed an abortion on, forcing his son Armand to take up the family drug business during his incarceration.

Armand Hammer

Armie’s great-grandfather Armand later invested in Occidental Petroleum, “reimagining himself as a self-made industrialist,” as Vanity Fair put it. He was socially connected to world leaders, being photographed with the Kennedys and the British royal family on several times. He was also described by Vanity Fair as Senator Al Gore Sr.’s “close friend,” and attended several presidential inaugurations, including that of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Ronald Reagan, and George H. W. Bush.

“I think he was the most satanic man of the second half of the 20th Century,” Neil Lyndon, a longtime journalist and author of Armand’s autobiography Hammer, said in House of Hammer. “In terms of corrupting the political process, in terms of controlling people, and making them dance his tune, there is no comparison. Armand Hammer was the embodiment of sin, because he was the embodiment of ruthless ego.”

Epstein’s biography, which was published after Armand’s 1990 death, also accused the businessman of “wide-ranging grifts, including laundering money.”

Casey opened up to Bustle about Armand’s all-encompassing grasp on the family and the world around him. “It’s pretty scary, my family and my grandfather’s issues just in general,” she says. “He wanted to win the Nobel Peace Prize. So that’s what he was chasing. So everywhere, there’s the museum with Hammer on it. There’s the mausoleum. I used to make jokes that if my grandfather could, he’d rename me. He wanted his name everywhere and that was his legacy.”

Julian Hammer

Armie’s grandfather Julian “could never get [Armand’s] attention unless he resorted to really, really bad behavior,” Casey once said. Her memoir claims that that behavior includes allegedly abusing his family and allegedly killing a man in 1955 “over a gambling debt and supposed advances on his wife,” per Vanity Fair, although all charges were dropped for the latter accusation because Armand reportedly arranged for $50,000 to be sent to a lawyer.

Michael Hammer

Julian’s son Michael is Armie’s father — and the oldest of Armand’s descendants still alive today. As Armie once recalled to The Hollywood Reporter, Michael had moved the family to the “f*cking paradise” of the Cayman Islands for some time, a period of 10 years, according to Vanity Fair. It’s the same Caribbean territory where Armie was reportedly spotted working as a timeshare salesman in 2022. Well before reports of Armie’s alleged sexual abuse circulated in 2021, Michael was rumored to have his own proclivities, including using “sex throne” that’s discussed in the House of Hammer documentary. An attorney for Michael described it as one of the “unsolicited gag gifts sent by friends” and called the magazine’s questions about it “absurd.”

Michael and his wife Dru did not respond to interview requests for House of Hammer.

Armie Hammer

Armie’s real name is Armand, named after his great-grandfather. His second child with ex-wife Elizabeth Chambers carries on the family naming tradition: Ford Douglas Armand Hammer, according to People. In 2021, a source told the magazine that Armie had been financially cut off from his family, and in 2022, reports surfaced of him selling timeshares in the Cayman Islands.

Armie declined to be interviewed for House of Hammer.

If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, you can call the National Sexual Assault Telephone Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673) or visit hotline.rainn.org. If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic abuse, call 911 or the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-SAFE (7233) or visit thehotline.org.