Who Do You Think You Are? Episode 3.07 Rita Wilson

Actress, producer, and singer Rita Wilson has appeared in over 60 films and television shows. A passionate Greek, Rita helped bring "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" to the silver screen, which became the highest grossing independent film of its time. Rita and her husband Tom Hanks live in Los Angeles, just 10 minutes from Rita's mother, Dorothy. "My mother is Greek," Rita explains, "and my father was born in Greece but at some point as a child moved to Bulgaria." Rita knows a lot about her mother's family, as she was eager to talk about her past, but her father, Allan, always refused to talk about his. Allan died two years ago and Rita hopes this search will help her fill in the blanks of his story.

Rita's dad was born a Muslim in northern Greece in 1920, and his real name was Hassan Halil Ibrahimoff, but when he became an American citizen in 1960, he changed it to Allan Wilson. Rita starts her search on Ancestry.com and finds her parents' marriage certificate from 1951 online. The certificate lists Oraio, Greece as her father's birthplace, so Rita travels there in hopes of walking in her father's childhood footsteps.

"This is pretty exciting," Rita exclaims as she begins her search in Oraio, Greece where she meets her translator and guide, Deniz Hacihalil. Deniz takes Rita to the house where Allan was born, which Rita happily explores with tears in her eyes. "It's mind-boggling, I can't even believe that I'm able to be here," Rita says as her mind races. "It's amazing to think of where he came from and where he ended up." Rita still doesn't know anything about why her dad's family moved to Bulgaria, so Deniz introduces her to her father's cousins who still live in Oraio. They tell Rita about her grandfather, who she never knew, and they seem to have conflicting stories on how and when her family left for Bulgaria. Rita decides to travel to Smolyan, Bulgaria to discover the facts firsthand.

Rita arrives in Bulgaria and meets with historian Dr. Vania Stoyanova to clarify her father's history. Dr. Vania shows Rita documents which indicate that her father and his five siblings moving to Bulgaria with their parents sometime between 1927 and 1934. The next time Hassan surfaces in the Bulgarian archives is 1941, when he was drafted into the military. "I've never heard this piece of information before," Rita says, "this is unbelievable." Xanthia, the region of Greece that includes Oraio, belonged to Greece in 1920 when Hassan was born, but in 1941, Bulgaria invaded Xanthia with Nazi support, and occupied it during World War II. Although Hassan was born Greek, he was then considered Bulgarian, and like others, he was drafted into the invaders' army.

Dr. Vania shows Rita a surprising military document that shows Hassan was dismissed from military service and imprisoned for three years and eight months for stealing. "So my dad was sentenced to strict confined imprisonment... why? What did he do?" Rita asks. Dr. Vania tells Rita that Hassan stole 28 siphon bottles and the sum of five levs. "It's a minor crime," Dr. Vania tells Rita, but he was given a harsh sentence as an example to other soldiers of the consequences of breaking rules. "When you know how kind my father was and how fun loving he was... I just now understand why he didn't talk about this period of his life," Rita tells Dr. Vania.

Rita travels to Plovdiv, Bulgaria, where her father settled after being released from prison in his mid-20s. Professor Meglena Zlatkova meets with Rita to help her discover more about Hassan and why he moved to this particular city. Professor Zlatkova shows Rita documents that list her father and shockingly, his first wife Alice. Rita is taken aback by this revelation; it's a whole life he never told his American family about. Rita reads a translated marriage certificate that has her father Hassan marrying Alice Markaryan on October 26, 1945. Coincidently, Rita's birthday is also on October 26th. Rita looks at another document provided by Professor Zlatkova that reveals her father and his wife had a child together named Emil Hassanov Ibrahimov, born on December 26, 1945.

Now that Rita has discovered her father had a previous secret family in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, before he immigrated to America, she asks Professor Zlatkova about her stepfamily's current whereabouts. The professor hands Rita a document which reveals the devastating news that Alice died due to complications of childbirth, and her newborn son Emil died four months later. "At 24-years-old, my dad had already suffered so much," Rita says as she fights back tears. "He never told us about this." Rita is also shocked by coincidence in her father's untold life: his son Emil was born on December 26th, Rita's own son was also born on December 26th, and Rita herself was born on the 26th of October.

Rita heads to Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria, to meet with Dr. Daniela Koleva. There she discovers her father was imprisoned in a forced labor camp because he "lived a wild lifestyle" that was counter to communist ideals, and tried to escape communist Bulgaria for Turkey. In 1944, near the end of World War II, the USSR invaded Bulgaria, and the Communists staged a successful coup, making Bulgaria. Opposition was not tolerated, labor camps were installed across the country, and tens of thousands of Bulgarians were targeted for imprisonment.

Rita is heartbroken to learn about the conditions of the forced labor camps her father had to endure. Bulgarian labor camps were notoriously inhuman. Women, children, and men slaved endlessly with only meager food and little sanitation. Thousands were literally worked to death or shot and killed when they tried to escape. Dr. Koleva hands Rita a report from a security guard detailing Hassan's escape from the camp. Rita intently reads the document like it was a best-selling thriller. On the 8th of May her father and other prisoners escaped in the middle of the night, dodging bullets and certain death if caught. "He became an enemy of the state," Dr. Koleva tells Rita as she shows her a communist manifest literally listing Hassan as an enemy of Bulgaria; number 8,011 of 9,000 to be exact.

Rita heads back to Smolyan, Bulgaria, to meet with Hassan's 96-year-old half-brother. "I'm really hoping that he will be able to fill in some of the blanks about what happened to dad after he escaped the labor camps and made his way to the USA." Meeting for the first time, tears of joy run down Rita and her uncle's faces. Rita learns he was in the labor camp with her father, but was unable to escape with him. He gives Rita a letter Hassan sent him after he immigrated to America and she begins to read it aloud. "I came to America on May 4th, 1949..."

Tears flow down her cheek as Rita reads from the letter Hassan sent his brother from America. She learns Hassan snuck into Turkey and gained work on a ship that was headed for the U.S. Once the ship docked, he snuck off and started his life in the new world. He took night classes to learn English and then began taking classes to learn about radio and television equipment. "Never in my life have I seen such high-paid work as here in America," Rita's father wrote, "schools are free here. You can even become a doctor if you have the brains." Rita feels that discovering her father's heartbreaking story has been incredibly illuminating, and now she's excited to share all she's learned with her family. "When I go home, I'm going to tell my children that they come from an extraordinary man."