Stacy Conradt
The Quick 10: Nine People with Heterochromia (and one without)
by Stacy Conradt - March 16, 2011 - 10:37 PM

Q10

Heterochromia, in case you didn’t know, is just a fancy word for different-colored eyes. It comes in several forms – different colored eyes entirely, eyes that are part one color and part another, or even eyes that are a different color around the pupil than at the outer edges. It’s quite rare, but a surprising number of famous people seem to have been afflicted (blessed?) with it. Here are a few of them.

1. Alexander the Great is rumored to have had a hazel eye and a green eye, and according to some stories, may have purposely sought out a horse with unique peepers, too.

2. Kate Bosworth. The actress arguably best known for Blue Crush has one blue eye and one eye that’s blue and hazel.
3. Christopher Walken. As if he needed another reason to be distinctive, Walken shares Bosworth’s blue-and-hazel combo.

4. Kiefer Sutherland. Back when Julia Roberts was dating him, she referenced her then-fiancee’s blue-and-green eyes in an acceptance speech.

5. Michael Flatley. The Lord of the Dance boasts one blue and one green.

6. Jane Seymour. Dr. Quinn would have been able to diagnose this heterchromia right away, even though Seymour’s case is a bit more subtle with one brown and one hazel eye.

7. Dan Aykroyd has the same colors as Jane Seymour. What, you never noticed?

8. Mila Kunis. The Black Swan beauty has a green left eye and a brown right eye.

9. Simon Pegg (one of my favorites). His are blue-grey with brown areas, which he once explained by saying, “I am slightly mutanty.”

10. David Bowie. Many people think Bowie has two different colored eyes, but that’s not actually what’s going on with his ocular oddity. They’re both blue. What you’re seeing is his permanently dilated pupil. When he was about 15, Bowie got in a fight with a good friend whose fingernail sliced into his eye just so as he got clocked. Doctors were concerned that he would lose his sight entirely in that eye but ended up being able to restore it (albeit with some depth perception and dilation problems). But hey, Bowie doesn’t hold grudges: his sparring partner later did some of the artwork for his album sleeves.

Do any of you have heterochromia? Do you get sick of people asking about it?

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Comments (53)

  1. I have Davie Bowie eyes. One pupil is normal, one is dilated.

    posted by H on 3-16-2011 at 10:48 pm

  2. Oh and I also have green eyes with brown flecks throughout the irises. Does that count?

    posted by H on 3-16-2011 at 10:50 pm

  3. My Granny had one hazel eye and one that was hazel with a large brown spot in it.

    I also have a friend who has a brown dot in his blue eye.

    posted by misty on 3-16-2011 at 11:00 pm

  4. yep! I’ve got one blue and one green. The difference can be more pronounced depending on what color clothes I wear.

    posted by Shannon on 3-16-2011 at 11:32 pm

  5. My 5-year-old son has one green and one green/brown. He hit his head recently, and the doctor checking his eyes said, “They were like that before he hit his head, right?”

    posted by Ellen on 3-16-2011 at 11:41 pm

  6. Both my irises are mostly greyish-green with yellow-brown around the pupil radiating out like a sunburst with a few flecks of rust-color between some of the yellowish rays. I’m not entirely sure if this is heterochromia, but I really like that my irises are so complex.

    posted by Beth on 3-17-2011 at 12:10 am

  7. Heterochromia is most certainly hereditary and not just a quirk of nature.

    Both of my eyes are blue on the outside and green on the inside. My fathers eyes were the same way. 2 of my 4 children (1 Son, 1 Daughter) also have the exact same condition I have.

    posted by Joe L. on 3-17-2011 at 12:12 am

  8. I have green eyes with a few brown flecks. Also, the rim of both is blue.

    posted by sumgrl on 3-17-2011 at 12:49 am

  9. I’m wondering if this has happened to anyone else. I was born with two blue eyes. Both eyes gradually changed to green, but at different paces, then the right gradually changed to hazel and the brown. Leftie is still green though….

    posted by longtones on 3-17-2011 at 1:58 am

  10. Interesting, Stacy, as usual. I myself have a weird form of this, I have one hazel-colored eye (my right), and my left is half-brown & half-hazel. I believe Tommy Smothers of the Smothers Brothers also has two different colored eyes.

    posted by Eddie on 3-17-2011 at 2:08 am

  11. My eyes are also heterochromic; they’re sort of an olive green with streaks of golden brown radiating out from the pupil.

    They started off gray-blue and it took a couple of years before they finally settled on this mix of colors. Apparently, they were quiet striking during the transition; my mother said that every time she would go out with me, someone would stop her and say something along the lines of “she has such pretty eyes…what color are they?”

    I love my eyes, but in back in high school biology when we were using punnett squares to study inheritance patterns of eye color, they did cause me some anxiety. My mother’s eyes are brown and my father’s are blue. My biology teacher had no explanation for how my parents were able to produce a green-eyed child. If it weren’t for the fact that I undeniably inherited my mother’s cheeks and my father’s nose, I may have had serious doubts about my parentage.

    Also, I’m wondering if anyone can tell me what color hazel actually is. I’ve seen light brown, yellowish brown, brownish green and multi-colored eyes all referred to as hazel. Which one is it?

    posted by MissCris on 3-17-2011 at 3:45 am

  12. I LOVE David Bowie! Always glad to see a MentalFloss post with him in it! In fact we need more Bowie posts on here! Maybe then he’ll come out of retirement and rock our minds once more.

    posted by Gay For Bowie on 3-17-2011 at 5:57 am

  13. I dont think its hereditary. I have 1 green eye and 1 brown eye. No one on both sides of my parents have or have had brown eyes.

    posted by wendi on 3-17-2011 at 6:18 am

  14. My best friend has one greenish-brown eye and one greenish-blue. People ask her about it all the time, and I don’t know how she’s still so patient about it.

    posted by Grace on 3-17-2011 at 6:28 am

  15. I have a student who has the brown/blue combination. I’m wondering if this has a higher likelihood of going hand in hand with some sort of ocular degeneration, because she has a disorder that is making her eyesight rapidly get worse (which is crazy sad- she’s in 6th grade and is one of the most voracious readers in my class).

    posted by Mrs. Cookie on 3-17-2011 at 7:13 am

  16. I have one light brown eye and one brown and grey eyes, my eyes where grey when I was little and the right one just never completley changed.

    posted by HiD on 3-17-2011 at 7:58 am

  17. My brother has one blue eye and one that’s half-blue, half-brown. I’ve always been a little jealous.

    posted by Julie on 3-17-2011 at 8:02 am

  18. And remember, all those with Heterochromia will be asymptomatic carriers when the eventual zombie apocalypse hits.

    posted by Keith on 3-17-2011 at 8:37 am

  19. MissCris, our eyes sound a lot alike — as does our love of them.

    As far as I understand, eye color isn’t as simple as punnet squares. Anyway, even if it was, brown would be considered dominate and blue recessive (or at least it was in my life science class), so your mom would have Brown-othercolor, your father blue-blue, and othercolor-blue would be your eyes.

    I think people call light brown eyes hazel and some people also call “hazel” any eye-color they can’t define. Growing up, I was told my eyes were hazel; I stopped calling them that when I figured out many people expected hazel to be a kind of brown.

    posted by Beth on 3-17-2011 at 8:50 am

  20. My husband has the neatest color eyes I’ve ever seen. They’re 3 different colors; brown on the outer rim of the iris, green in the middle rim, and blue on the inner rim. He thinks it looks muddled, but I think it’s cool. It’s not easy to notice right away, but if you stare at him for a few seconds, you can definitely tell there are 3 distinct colors.

    posted by Krie on 3-17-2011 at 8:53 am

  21. Mine are grey-blue with brown/hazel streaks that have gotten more prominent as I get older. Interestingly, my daughter (who’s father has yellowy hazel eyes) has eyes that are DEEP brown in the middle and more yellowy towards the edges.

    posted by Jenny on 3-17-2011 at 9:02 am

  22. My dad doesn’t have Heterochromia but his eyes change color depending on what he is wearing. When he wears a red shirt his eyes get dark brown in the middle and bright red around the edge, it’s pretty cool!

    posted by Suz on 3-17-2011 at 9:16 am

  23. I don’t have heterochromia, but my uncle has one very light blue eye and one dark brown eye. And my mom has the most unusual eye color I have ever seen — I can only describe it as Seafoam, as in the Crayola color. Not really blue, not really green, and VERY light. She has always hoped that one of her children or grandchildren would inherit it, but so far, all brown.

    posted by jenny on 3-17-2011 at 9:25 am

  24. Sean Watkins of the band Nickel Creek has this as well.

    posted by Joel on 3-17-2011 at 9:33 am

  25. There was this guy that was a complete doofus in high school, but he had green eyes with red flecks that matched his hair. The only nice thing about him!

    posted by Ginger Awesomness on 3-17-2011 at 9:35 am

  26. Based on all of these (really cool) comments, I’m calling for an article about eye color change! In childhood, adulthood, at random times, etc.

    posted by Muppy on 3-17-2011 at 10:05 am

  27. One reason for it can be answered through iridology. Your eye color can be due to health. My eyes were always a dull, murky brown, not clear at all. Since beginning serious work through natural health, the murkiness is greatly cleared everywhere except nearest the pupils and a few other small spots. The outer portions are now a filmy gray or green to almost blue depending on where you look. It’s a fascinating science, correlating specific parts of the eye to parts of the body, and explaining the pockets, lines, etc., that you see in the iris. If you enjoy thinking away from the mainstream, I encourage you to take a peek at iridology.

    posted by kd on 3-17-2011 at 10:25 am

  28. I have one brown eye and one eye that is 1/4 brown and 3/4 blue.
    Very seldom does anyone mention it anymore but as a kid I was “different” and hated it.
    I have noticed that people will tend to lock eyes with me when I’m in a crowd or audience without realizing it or knowing why.
    It also makes it hard to fill out forms because most forms that ask for eye color only allow one answer.

    posted by Harley on 3-17-2011 at 10:30 am

  29. I have sectoral heterochromia! My eyes are blue but my right one has a brown wedge! My eye color is definitely heriditary, as Waardenburg Syndrome runs in my family and heterochromia is one of the quirks that goes with it! Although I don’t know of any relatives with such obvious heterochromia, but I have plenty of relatives with the specks or different color around the pupil than the rest of the iris!

    posted by Muahahaha on 3-17-2011 at 10:32 am

  30. In the movie, Practical Magic, Aidan Quinn’s character has two different colored eyes. I thought he actually had them and had to look him up on IMDB. Must have worn contacts.

    posted by KJ on 3-17-2011 at 10:34 am

  31. Gracie Allen (the late Mrs. George Burns) had this.

    She had one green and one blue eye, caused by getting shards of glass in the blue eye when she was very small.
    The blue eye remained blue, the other changed to green as it was supposed to.

    posted by emily on 3-17-2011 at 10:45 am

  32. I have yellow around the pupil with little streaks (kind of like sunrays) and grey/blue everywhere else.

    posted by Sarah on 3-17-2011 at 10:51 am

  33. I had a green eye and a blue eye that were much more
    prominent when I was younger. So much so that after seeing a similar cat [lovingly preserved in Formaldhyde] in midway freak show my older btother wanted to sell me to the show.Since then I’ve suffered a detached retina in one eye.the lens was removed and the iris has developed a hybrid goat/cat appearence. Any one know of a good freak show. Look it up youngun’s

    posted by beezer on 3-17-2011 at 10:58 am

  34. I had a dog when I was a kid that had one blue eye and one brown eye. It was a Shetland Sheepdog.

    posted by Lee on 3-17-2011 at 12:59 pm

  35. Maybe this is what I have? My eyes are brown around the pupil, but olive green through the rest of the iris.

    posted by AmyD on 3-17-2011 at 1:41 pm

  36. Alice Eve (of She’s Out of My League and Sex in the City 2 fame) has heterochromia – her right eye is green and her left is blue.

    posted by Steve from San Diego on 3-17-2011 at 2:01 pm

  37. I also experienced my eye color changing – went from dark brown to green during adolescence. Someone once told me it could be due to hormonal changes…always wondered if that is correct.

    posted by Susan on 3-17-2011 at 2:23 pm

  38. My mom and I both have what we call hazel eyes. they are light brown with greenish undertone when we are feeling happy or mellow, and emerald green when we are angry or excited.
    one of my sons has greenish brown eyes that stay that way(hazel) and the other has grey eyes like my grandmother. the grey eyes are almost mirrorlike and appear to change based on what color shirt he’s wearing.
    My husband’s aunt and cousins have what I can only describe as ice-green eyes, beautiful.

    posted by Heidi on 3-17-2011 at 2:45 pm

  39. Question for those of you with heterochromia: How do you fill out things that ask for your eye color, like your driver’s license info?

    posted by Jenn on 3-17-2011 at 4:43 pm

  40. Years ago, our office secretary was filling out ID cards for everyone. When she gave me mine, it had eye color brown. I told her my eyes were hazel and she said no, that she’d specifically checked the day before and they were brown. She then looked at my eyes closely and exclaimed “They’re green!” I explained that the previous day I had worn a brown shirt and today I was wearing green. My hazel eyes have shades of brown, green, blue and flecks of gold, each of which is heightened by the color of shirt I wear. Of course the best answer of my eye color came from daughter when she was five. My wife has deep brown eyes and I’m hazel. Our daughter has brilliant blue eyes like both her grandmothers. After explaining why her eyes were so blue (and during a bad allergy day for me), I asked her what color my eyes were. Without hesitating she said “RED!”

    posted by Prism on 3-17-2011 at 4:48 pm

  41. Does anyone have Bette Davis eyes?

    posted by JJ on 3-17-2011 at 5:10 pm

  42. I’m so glad someone mentioned the zombie apocalypse!

    posted by Kat on 3-17-2011 at 6:32 pm

  43. I’m not sure if this counts as heterochromia, but my eyes get progressively darker as they go from the pupil. My pupil has a “corona” of sorts because bordering it is a streak of gold which looks quite amazing when I’m in the dark and my eyes are dialated. After that is light green, which goes to dark green, which goes to a light blue, which ends up turning into a dark blue for the edge of my irises. It’s a very subtle difference, and people don’t tend to notice because it blends in, but that’s the way it is.

    posted by Someone on 3-17-2011 at 6:44 pm

  44. Additionally, I was one day messing around with an app on my iPod, and what the app does is you take a picture and it turns it black and white – using your finger, you can put the original colors back into it. Anyways, one time I took a picture of my eye and put the color only back in the iris. It turned out bluish-green, but then I repeated it the next day and the second time I took it it turned out purple. That can probably be simply explained, but it was very funnily strange.

    posted by Someone on 3-17-2011 at 6:49 pm

  45. I have blue eyes with a brown wedge that takes up about 1/8 or so of my left eye. I love having it!! When I was little I called it my “eye freckle” since I have freckles on my cheeks and nowhere else. My grandmother had an eye spot, too, so it may be hereditary. It definitely does not affect my vision, at my last physical I have 20/15.

    posted by Anon. on 3-17-2011 at 7:43 pm

  46. I was born with one blue eye and one half brown/half blue eye (the brown half is the lower half, so you don’t really see the blue half unless I open my eyes wide). After years of being compared to husky dogs and having awkward conversations with people right after they notice my eyes are two different colors, it can sometimes be a bit tiresome to have to keep explaining, “yeah, yeah, I know my eyes aren’t the same color and yes, I was in fact born this way, no I’m not wearing colored contacts.” But, all in all, I love my eye color and how it makes me unique and I wouldn’t change it even if I had the chance.

    posted by LMK on 3-17-2011 at 11:52 pm

  47. My fiancee has green eyes that get gold rings around the pupils when he is in the mood and the more in the mood he gets, the bigger the rings.

    posted by Sarah on 3-18-2011 at 12:40 am

  48. My sister somewhat has this – she has a dark blue rim and it gets lighter blue towards the pupil, but she also has gold rays and flecks that spread out from the pupil. It’s the neatest thing. I also have the dark blue rim-lighter blue center, but that’s it. Although people often ask if I’m wearing colored contacts because they’re “just so blue!”

    posted by Roosie on 3-18-2011 at 7:45 pm

  49. One of my two best friends has one dark brown eye and one green eye. It’s very striking, and she likes her eyes. A doctor told her she suffered some kind of damage at birth, and that’s why one of her eyes turned green. Everyone else in her biological family has brown eyes.

    I have green eyes with a noticeable ring of almost reddish brown around the pupil. My mother is brown-eyed and my father has brilliant sky blue eyes; my sister has light brown, almost hazel eyes, and my brother’s are the color of dark chocolate.

    I’ve somehow managed to work my way through three eye colors in my lifetime. I had blue eyes like my father’s until I was 3, when they turned gunmetal grey. They stayed that way for about 4 years, and then turned green with brown, which they have remained. I also had light blond, curly hair until I was 10; it’s now dark brown and straight. People who knew me as a child often won’t believe I’m the same person.

    posted by Katey on 3-19-2011 at 1:20 am

  50. My eyes have a thin ring of gold around the pupil, and the rest are grey-ish with maybe a lean toward blue. Don’t get many questions about it, but the ladies seem to enjoy them.

    posted by Brandon on 3-21-2011 at 1:40 am

  51. My daughter has heterochromia. One poster was asking if can develop over time, and it can. My daughter was born with the typical slatey blue eyes that most babies have. Then they started to become true blue, but when she was about 6 months old, one half of her left eye started to darken and continued to darken over the next couple of months. She now, at age 8, has one eye that is perfectly sectored blue and brown. It is very cool!

    posted by SC on 4-12-2011 at 1:26 pm

  52. My 9 week old has Complete Heterochromia his right eye is brown and his left eye is blue, and my 2 year old has Sectoral Heterochromia his eyes are yellow brown and his right eye has a Dark Brown Spot on it.

    posted by Corrina on 7-14-2011 at 1:52 pm

  53. I’m not sure what I have exactly and I’ve looked everywhere for answers. My eyes have always had a base of green, but they’ve always changed color. Sometimes they are like heterochromia. They vary from green to yellow to orange to blue to grey and to red and everything inbetween except for violet. Sometimes they are half green and half red or half green and half yellow etc. So I’m really confused and I want to know if anyone has ever heard of this before.

    posted by Angel on 2-6-2012 at 8:01 pm

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