One of Richard Dreyfuss's best stories is about how a great-great aunt was instrumental in the assassination of Russia's czar Alexander II in 1881.

There were repercussions for her actions.

"She was a member of a group called the Narodnaya Volya... and she and Alexander Lenin were part of this group, Nikolai's brother, and everybody in this group was killed except her because she was pregnant," said Dreyfuss. "And even the Okhrana, the secret police, did not kill pregnant women.  

"She was exiled to New York."