Anderson Cooper has just started his two-week run guest hosting the hugely popular US TV show Jeopardy! .The successful CNN news anchor and award-winning TV presenter reportedly earns a lot of money from his CNN role alone, but he is also a descendant of the famous Vanderbilt dynasty and inherited money after his mother Gloria Vanderbilt passed away last year, although allegedly not as much as people thought. The likes of the Vanderbilts, Gettys and Rothschilds are synonymous with extreme wealth, but are these legendary old-money families still as rich and powerful in 2021? Click or scroll through as we take a look at how the descendants of five of the world's most illustrious dynasties live and work today. 

The original media mogul and the inspiration behind Orson Welles' Citizen Kane, William Randolph Hearst owned 28 major newspapers and 18 magazines at the peak of his career. He was worth the equivalent of $30 billion (£21.9bn) in today's money when he died in 1951.

Unlike other dynasties, who in the most part gave away or squandered their money, the Hearsts held on to and expanded the family business. These days, the living heirs, who number around 67, are said to be worth a not-too-shabby $21 billion (£15.3bn) according to the most recent estimate by Forbes.

Sharing the family fortune, George Randolph Hearst III, a great-grandson of William Randolph Hearst, is the publisher and CEO of Upstate New York's Times Union newspaper and a director of the Hearst Corporation.

Another scion, Patty Hearst, a granddaughter of William Randolph Hearst, was famously kidnapped and held hostage in 1974 by domestic terrorist group the Symbionese Liberation Army. A victim of Stockholm Syndrome, Patty actually ended up robbing banks for the terrorists. When she was eventually discovered, Hearst was arrested and thrown in prison, but her sentence was later commuted and she was pardoned by President Clinton in 2001. Now a noted philanthropist, Patty Hearst is reportedly worth around $50 million (£36.5m). 

Patty's daughter, the model and actress Lydia Hearst (pictured), is likely to be even richer with an estimated fortune of $100 million (£73m). She's married to actor Chris Hardwick.

What is left of the Rockefeller family fortune is stashed away in charitable trusts or divided among hundreds of descendants. The clan's collective net worth was an estimated $8.4 billion (£6.1bn) in 2020, according to Forbes, but this figure may be on the conservative side.

Other living scions of note include designer Ariana Rockefeller (pictured) and retired politician Jay Rockefeller, who has an estimated personal fortune of $160 million (£117m).

The richest member, banker Baron Benjamin de Rothschild (pictured with his wife Ariane) from the French branch of the family, died suddenly from a heart attack in January. He had a net worth of $1.1 billion (£800m) in April 2020, according to Forbes, making him the richest individual Rothschild.

Jacob Rothschild, 4th Baron Rothschild, is the wealthiest member of the English branch of the family. The retired investment banker has a net worth of $1 billion (£730m) according to Bloomberg. His daughter Hannah is a filmmaker, author and chair of the board of trustees of the National Gallery in London.

J. Paul Getty died at his Surrey mansion in 1976 at the ripe old age of 83, leaving a fortune of $4 billion, which is $17.3 billion (£13.5bn) in today's money, most of which was channelled into the J. Paul Getty Trust, now the world's wealthiest art institution.

A trust fund consisting of shares in Getty Oil set up by J. Paul Getty's mother was the main source of wealth for the surviving members of the Getty family. Investor, philanthropist and acclaimed composer Gordon Getty (pictured), J. Paul Getty's fourth child, is the richest living family member. He sold Getty Oil to Texaco for $10.1 billion in 1984, and is currently worth $2.1 billion (£1.5bn), according to Forbes. Tragically, Gordon's son John Gilbert Getty, who was a musician, died of complications following a drug overdose in November last year; his film director brother Andrew had died of a meth overdose in 2015.

J. Paul Getty's grandson Mark Getty, the founder of picture library Getty Images, is worth several hundred million dollars, while actor and musician Balthazar Getty (pictured) is said to have a fortune of some $200 million (£146m). 

Read more about the Getty family's turbulent lives

Gloria Vanderbilt's son Anderson Cooper, 53, had said he wouldn't inherit a dime of his mother's money. But Cooper did reportedly inherit most of her fortune, although her estate was actually only worth $1.5 million (£1m) according to the New York Post. However, court documents don't state an exact figure for the estate Cooper has inherited. Gloria's New York apartment was given to her other son Leopold Stokowski. But Cooper was already rich in his own right, as the award-winning TV journalist earns a reported $11 million (£8m) a year from his CNN gig. Cooper is a huge fan of Jeopardy! and has previously competed on the celebrity version of the show prior to his guest-hosting role now.

Other notable and affluent descendants of Cornelius Vanderbilt include Blenheim Palace custodian the 12th Duke of Marlborough, who is related to the patriarch through his great-grandmother Consuelo Vanderbilt, as well as Hollywood screenwriter James Vanderbilt (pictured), and actor Timothy Olyphant.

Read more about the rise and fall of the Vanderbilt family