Madre. Maman. Mãe. Oma. Inay. Mutter. Mum. Mor. Mama. However you say it, the word mother conjures up the deepest of emotions.
Here, LIFE.com offers a selection of portraits of famous moms (Jackie Kennedy, Shirley MacLaine) with their kids, and also famous kids (Liz Taylor, Sophia Loren) with their moms and, in a few instances, famous kids with their famous moms (it’s amazing how recognizable baby Liza Minelli is in the hands of her mother, Judy Garland). Owing to the public nature of their lives, some of these relations are famously complicated (see Joan Crawford, the subject of the withering memoir and movie Mommie Dearest). Even those examples underline the uniquely powerful bond between children and their mothers.
Liz Ronk edited this gallery for LIFE.com. Follow her on Twitter at @LizabethRonk.
Jackie Kennedy read to her daughter, Caroline, in Hyannis Port, Mass., in 1960.
Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Judy Garland holds her daughter, Liza Minelli, at home in Hollywood in 1946.
Martha Holmes The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Elizabeth Taylor on the set of Cleopatra with her daughter, Elizabeth Frances, in Rome in 1962.
Paul Schutzer The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Elizabeth Taylor and her mother, Sara, in 1948.
Mark Kauffman The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Shirley MacLaine and her daughter, Sachi Parker, in 1959.
Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
The great American contralto Marian Anderson kisses her mother after a concert in Philadelphia in 1937.
Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Burlesque star Gypsy Rose Lee holds her 4-year-old son, Erik Lee Kirkland, during a stopover in her traveling carnival show, Memphis, Tenn., 1949.
George Skadding The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Shirley Temple with her daughter, Lori, in Atherton, California, in 1957.
Leonard McCombe The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Ingrid Bergman and her daughter, Pia Lindstrom, in 1959.
Leonard McCombe The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Sophia Loren with her son, Carlo Ponti, Jr., in 1969.
Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Sophia Loren (right) poses with her mother (center) and her sister, Maria, in 1957.
Loomis Dean The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Zsa Zsa Gabor and her daughter, Francesca, at home in Bel Air, 1951.
Ed Clark The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Joan Crawford and two of her children, Christina and Christopher, on the beach, Monterey, California, 1945.
Peter Stackpole The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Ethel Kennedy with her children, 1961.
Leonard McCombe The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Jane Fonda and her daughter, Vanessa, in California, 1971.
Bill Ray The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Nancy Reagan with Ron Reagan in Pacific Palisades, Calif., in 1965.
Bill Ray The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Natalie Wood and her mother at home, 1945.
Martha Holmes The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Peggy Lee gets a goodnight kiss from her 4-year-old daughter Nicki, 1948.
Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Mia Farrow reads to her children on Martha’s Vineyard in 1974.
Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
