Heterochromia refers to a difference in coloration, usually of the iris but also of hair or skin. Heterochromia is a result of the relative excess or lack of melanin (a pigment). It may be inherited, due to genetic mosaicism, or due to disease or injury.
Eye color, specifically the color of the irises, is determined primarily by the concentration and distribution of melanin. The affected eye may be hyperpigmented (hyperchromic) or hypopigmented (hypochromic). In humans, usually, an excess of melanin indicates hyperplasia of the iris tissues, whereas a lack of melanin indicates hypoplasia.
Heterochromia of the eye (heterochromia iridis or heterochromia iridum) is of two kinds:
- In complete heterochromia, one iris is a different color from the other.
- In partial heterochromia or sectoral heterochromia, part of one iris is a different color from its remainder.
Though I personally don`t have heterochromia, I`m very interested in this anomaly, knowing a lot of people with this abnormality.
Actually, many hollywood actors/actresses have it though it`s not always noticeable, due to the partial heterchromia. Here are some celebrities who have both partial & complete heterochromia:
- Kate Bosworth – Right eye partial brown/blue, Left eye blue
- Jane Seymour – Right eye partial brown/green, Left eye green
- Mila Kunis – Left eye hazel, Right eye green
- Demi Moore: Right eye hazel, Left eye green
- Alice Eve : Right eye green, Left eye blue
- Elizabeth Berkley: Right eye partial brown/green, Left eye green
- Jessica Cauffiel: Left eye partial brown/green, Right eye green
- Idina Menzel: sectoral heterochromia
- Henry Cavill : Left eye partial brown/blue, Right eye blue
- Jonathan Rhys Meyers : Left eye partial hazel/blue, Right eye blue
- Josh Henderson : Left eye green, Right eye blue
- Keifer Sutherland : sectoral heterochromia (both eyes partial green/blue)
- Benedict Cumberbatch: sectoral heterochromia
- Marshall Lancaster : sectoral heterochromia (right eye hazel/blue, left eye blue)
- Simon Pegg : sectoral heterochromia (both eyes partial brown/blue)
- Christopher Walken : partial heterochromia (both blue with green inner rings)
- Dan Aykroyd: complete heterochromia (right eye green, left eye brown)
- Joe Pesci: partial heterochromia (both eyes partial blue/brown)
- David Bowie: he was born with blueish eyes. In 1962, he got into a fight with his longtime school friend George Underwood (over George’s girlfriend), and a punch from Underwood damaged Bowie’s left eye. His pupil was paralyzed, becoming unable to dilate or contract according to the ambient light. As a result, Bowie’s left eye now appears to be a different colour to his right eye, appearing either brown or green depending on the ambient light.
Mad World 
interesant, nu stiam ca exista o astfel de anomalie:D
Uite, chiar nu aflasem până acum de o așa anomalie. Mi-am îmbogățit bagajul cu încă o informație nouă…
wow
I have a friend with the same pupil condition as David Bowie. Similar incident too but a little more savage! He was stabbed in the neck where a nerve was hit so alas…one permanently enlarged pupil for life. Looks fantastic but I don’t recommend his method of obtaining individual looks. Contacts maybe?!
Yeah.. contacts should do the trick.. other than that, incredible story… good thing he`s still alive!
My friend was born with something like that she got a surgery when she was 3 and it made it worse
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This was a very informative and instructive article in bringing to bear the rarefied eyes of these famous faces. In particular the back-story on David Bowie’s left iris condition was revealing. I had always thought he was simply born with his eye that way!
Huh. I always did wonder what the heck was up with that amber-ish stripe in Jonathan’s eye. Now I know.
I have super obvious hetrochromia and I keep reading things about it and it ticked me off that people say its a disorder (which technically it is but i don’t like admitting it) so it makes me feel so much better that celebrities have it at least partially to
Well it`s not really a disorder… and I personally think it`s very cool… so what color are your eyes?
hello…
just while i was crying to search about heterochromia because my new born daughter also have heterochromia..
but when I see many people have that then just now I relex.
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i believe idina menzel has heterochromia iridium. she should be on here.
I`ll put a picture of her really soon 😉
My son, who is exceptionally intelligent, has a brown left eye and a light green right eye (with a “slice” of brown in the top of it. The “slice” can only be seen when he opens his right eye wide). So, he basically has two very different colored eyes – brown and light green. (They were green and blue when he was 2 months old. The green one got darker and the blue one got lighter). Between the ages of 7 & 10, his blue eye changed to light green. How cool is that?!! People have different reactions when they see his eyes, including weird questions like, “how did that happen?” I just tell them it’s a lack of pigment in one eye………or, he got one eye color from his mom and one from his dad
I hope I never get punched in the eye >_____<'
If you haven’t watched the movie “Practical Magic” starring Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman, do it now. In the movie, Officer Gary Hallet (Aidan Quinn in real life, if I’m not mistaken) has different eye colors, just like the ones you mentioned above. It’s part of the story, but I won’t say anymore, just in case you haven’t seen it yet.
Oh I`ve seen that movie tons of times.. and I loved it! The story is pretty great…
A friend of mine has a permanently dilated pupil, too. When she was born she had cancer in her lungs and the doctors needed to damage some nerves to get it all out. It looks pretty cool, especially with her eyes being light blue!
I have heterochromia (my right eye is green and my left is blue)
Pretty cool, my Gran has blue eyes with brown specks in her left eye 🙂 Except David Bowie doesn’t have Heterochromia at all he has Mydriasis. His eyes may appear different colors but they are actually the same color all the time it just seems different to us because of the enlarged pupil.
The different sized pupils (David Bowie) is not heterochromia. It’s a separate condition called anisocoria.
I know he doesn`t have heterochromia.. I never said he did.
Being different is a harder path in life. But as my dad says (I wear specs and was bullied a lot as a child), “Yours is not ‘condition’ – it’s a type of eye”. 🙂 Same with heterochromia. If someone makes you feel bad about this, it’s just because he wants to be different from others like you are. 😉
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Benedict Cumberbatch, too!
I know, I know! 😀
Benedict Cumberbatch also has heterochromia his is quite beautiful check it out
I don`t know how I`ve forgotten about him! `cause I adore that man! But I`ve just added him now 🙂
I have the Bowie eye and Sectoral Heterochromia. My left eye is like Simon Pegg’s and my right was hit with a shuttle cock. I now have a slightly bigger pupil then the left. It’s the double whammy.
That’s really interesting.. Not a lot of people can say they have the Bowie eye and also have heterochromia to begin with!
I am so sick of people when they see different eyes seem to think that they are rare…its like take a look around…for my eyes are different and when born had to be treated with dye #3 of green…..and they were gray…now have specks of light brown/yellish like…..blue and green
I have a blue and a green eye (you could have a photo if you want) 😀 it’s sometimes annoying that everyone asks “do you have different coloured eyes?”. But it’s pretty cool ^^
Sounds pretty cool and I would absolutely love to see your eyes. So send me a picture 🙂
Anthony Head (Giles in Buffy, Uther in Merlin) – left eye partial green/brown, right eye green
Bill Pullman – left eye partial brown/blue, right eye blue
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my sons is exactly the same as josh hendersons.one eye is very very blue,the other green.
I have this! I have a light blue eye and the other is hazel with an exact quarter, pie piece of blue on it.
That sounds awesome! I`m sure you`re gorgeous. Would love to see your eyes 😀
Benedict Cumberbatch is missing.
Sorry.. I don`t know how I could`ve missed him, giving the fact that he`s one of my favourite actors. I`ve just added him here 🙂
I was born with both bright blue eyes, but around age 8/9 my left eye turned partially green, and around age 11/12 it started turning brown. So now, I have one blue eye and one tie-dye eye.
I, myself, have complete heterochromia… one full icy blue colored eye and the other light brownish-amber like color. I’m always getting comments as the distinctive contrast is very noticeable. Especially when my shirt contains blue in it. Or in black & white pictures… the contrast a total trip! I used to get teased a little as a kid but now just get tons of compliments. I actually do like it he way it looks and just consider myself special & unique. =o)
My point exactly! Spread your wisdom with the other ones around here. That’s how everybody should be thinking. You leave an impact on each person you meet and can always use that to your advantage.
I have the same as some… I have (left) Hazel and (right) is Green. I never had this until I was hit in the head with a baseball bat in 2001. 😦 it is kinda neat it makes people stare at ya, then they ask ya why are your eyes are like that.
Then you have the “David Bowie eyes”! One good thing that came out of it and that you can be proud of.
I am from the Netherlands, my right eye is light blue en my left eye is 1/3 light blue en 2/3 dark brown. I never liked it, i am sorry, thé contrast is to much, so i wear contactlens
Sounds exactly like mine, only that my lighter color is a greenish blue. Always fun having to answer the ‘Eye color?’ question for different IDs – not!
What color lens do you wear and how does it work in cases like this?
I, too, have a brown right eye and a green left eye. I have gotten comments all my life about it.
Tim Mcilrath also has heterochromia add him here!
I believe the actor David Duchovney has it – one eye brown, one eye blue? – but the non brown eye he gets injected with dye to match.
My eyes are different colors- my right eye is brown and my left eye is half green and half brown.
Pretty cool! Half of these celebrities I didn’t even know had Heterochromia. Very interesting!
[…] 1 in every 167. The daughter of some family friends of ours is among them, along with a number of celebrities, including Kate Bosworth, Jane Seymour, Mila Kunis, Benedict Cumberbatch and even Dan […]
I have central heterochromia (this describes it as sectoral heterochromia but whatever) where I have 3 colours in both my eyes – partial green/blue with a gold ring around the pupil. It’s sort of the same as Benedict Cumberbatch except he has specks of gold instead of a gold ring. It’s awesome that so many have the same condition as me; I felt like I was the only one since I’m the only one in my family that has it!!
It is indeed really rare.. One of my distant relatives has it as well (one eye dark brown the other light brown) and I have always thought it was really weird as a child, until I learned more about it and found out how wonderfully unique it is! So just be proud of your beautiful eyes, just like Benedict Cumberbatch is!
I hate my heterochromia ..but at least I can see.
My right eye is a very light blue/green and my left eye brown with a small section of blue. Reminds me of Arnold in Terminator 😦
Any makeup suggestions?
There isn’t really anything you can do to mask it or make it less noticeable other than wearing contact lenses… But I think you should embrace it and be proud of your unique set of eyes!
I have sectoral heterochromia, my left eye is a greenish blue and my right eye is a greenish blue too, but it has a brown chunk at thr top of my eye. I don’t like when people ask why is your eye like that?, or what happened to your eye? If I could change my eyes I would, I have always been bullied because; my sectoral heterochromia.
That’s a shame.. People will always be cruel and ridicule what they can’t understand. I don’t have heterochromia myself, but I on my right eye I have one spot next to the iris (from a blood vein) and it’s barely noticeable but people somehow still find a way to notice and ask the forever annoying questions like ” What happened to your eye?” “What’s that weird spot in your eye?” etc. They will never stop at anything.
So just let bullies be bullies and embrace your uniqueness and if it bothers you that much just wear contacts 🙂 that’s the easiest solution to avoid the mean comments..
Max Scherzer- Pitcher for the Washington Nationals
Cool article. I have HeteroChromia (two different shades of brown eyes) and my new born son also has HeteroChromia. Right now his eyes are blue/brown but since he is only 2 months old his eye color is still changing. I will be interested to see what color(s) his eyes end up being.
Very interesting list! I actually have heterochromia myself, my left eye is hazel and my right eye is green! I sort of have a love-hate relationship with it, some days I love my eyes and others I just think they’re weird ahaha