George Jung’s Family – Father, Mother, Wife and Daughters

(Last Updated On: Jun 3, 2017)

George Jung’s Father, Frederick “Fred” Jung

George Jung’s father Frederick Fred Jung, a was a hardworking German American, who never made it to the top. He came out of high school at the beginning of the Depression and went right to work.

George Jung’s father was a heavy-set man, who smoked cigar and drank beer. He was an oilman who wasn’t respected much in his household. Mr. and Mrs. Jung never mixed much with their neighbors.

When Fred Jung’s future wife Ermine met him in the hard times of the Depression, heating-oil business seemed economically safe in the harsh New England’s climate. Fred was a prosperous-looking man, who had lots of customers, owned three oil trucks then and had employees working for him.
Rumor has it that Ermine’s mother, a stage entertainer Ethel O’Neill who sang in Boston’s music, taked her daughter into the marriage.
Unfortunately, Fred started to frequent the Suffolk Down Racetrack and losing a lot of money. Eventually, he mortgaged and then lost his trucks. When the war came, he started working in the naval shipyard in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
After the war, the family moved to Weymouth and Fred Jung recovered some of his oil business, but it was much smaller than before. Money was not the same. George Jung’s father started teaching little George the art of poker. George’s mother Ermine threw the deck into the basket, and said that there would be no more gambling in their household.

Later on, George Jung’s father Frederick Jung lost his job and had to declare bankruptcy in 1950’s. George vowed that he’ll never be poor like his dad.

George’s father plays an important role in his life. In the beginning of the movie “Blow”, he tells George that “Money isn’t real”.

Ray Liotta played the role of George Jung’s father, Fred Jung ages from 27 to 60. His character was about the love of a father for his troubled son.

In one of the scenes, George sends his dying father a cassette where he recorded his feelings to him, his love, sorrow and remorse. George Jung never knew how his dying father reacted to this tape.

George Jung’s Mother, Ermine Jung

George Jung was born to Ermine Jung (née O’Neill), in Boston, Massachusetts, then raised in Weymouth, Massachusetts. The Jungs lived next to the Cadman Conservation area.

Ermine O’Neill came from a higher social status than Fred Jung. The movie Blow portrays that the reason their marriage and family life was dysfunctional is mainly because Ermine is very selfish, has virtually no motherly instincts and constantly nags at George’s father that he is not making enough money. She leaves their home every now and then, and Fred forgives her every time.

Real life stories by friends of the family portray Ermine Jung in a different light. Their memory of George’s mother is of a “nice and quiet woman” who worked a shop in nearby Braintree. She was very pretty, and resembled the actress Loretta Young. Sha never missed “The Loretta Young Show” on TV.

Judging from her first impression of Fred when the couple met in the 1930s, Ermine expected more of a future when she married him. But Fred’s gambling and the war eventually downgraded him to an average worker who wasn’t making much money and may have continued to gamble.
One thing for sure – Ermine and Fred’s marriage was not a happy one. George Jung’s family was dysfunctional, and he continued the pattern of dysfunction after marrying Mirtha Calderon Jung, who gave birth to their daughter Kristina Sunshine Jung.

At some point in their lives, Fred and Ermine are forced to bitterly accept that their son is a drug dealer.

George Jung’s Wife, Mirtha Jung

Mirtha Jung (nee Calderon) became George Jung’s wife in 1977 and the mother of his daughter Kristina Sunshine Jung in 1978. Mirtha is in her early 60s in 2017, about 10 years George junior. They were married from 1977 to 1984.

Mirtha became George’s wife during his time as a Medellin cartel drug smuggler. Because of her Cuban roots, there is an assumption that George met her through his Colombian cocaine contacts.

Sources suggest that Mirtha resides in the United States. Her last public contact was in 2001, when the biographic Blow hit the screens and she gave an interview to a Texas newspaper. By 2001 Mirtha had been long out of her former lifestyle and clean for 20 years.

Mirtha Jung is a fictional character in Blow, played by Penelope Cruz. Johnny Depp plays George Jung. She is portrayed as a strong woman, yet addicted to cocaine and George’s running partner. During their relationship, they often fight. Mirtha does cocaine while pregnant, but goes clean in 1981; her daughter Kristina Sunshine is three years old at that time.

Finally, during George’s longest prison stay, Mirtha visits him in jail and informs that she plans to divorce and ask for alimony.

George Jung’s Daughters, Kristina Sunshine Jung and Clara Pearson

Kristina Sunshine Jung, the daughter of George Jung and Mirtha Calderon Jung was born in 1978, and is 39 years old in 2017. Kristina becomes George’s main reason he stops drug dealing (but later on he starts again).

Kristina’s father was sentenced to 60 years in prison, and her parents divorced when she was only 6 years old. Kristine has lived in California most of her life. She has two children, but it is unclear if she still is together with her husband Romain Karan.

Kristina Jung starred in the Blow (2001), portrayed by two actresses – Emma Roberts and Jaime King. Kristina worked with the director Ted Demme on the Blow. The movie ends with the sad scene of Jung admitting that his daughter was the best thing in his life.

In real life, Soon after George Jung was released in 2014, the father and daughter started working on their new family business – Boston George Apparel. George Jung’s daughter is an excellent entrepreneur. She is tirelessly promoting BG apparel and merchandise, together with her half-sister Clara Pearson, who is also helping her dad promote the BG merchandise.