Daniel Radcliffe broke down in tears as he read his great-grandfather's suicide note after he took his own life following a robbery at his Hatton Garden jewellery shop.
The Harry Potter star, 29, was told about his ancestor's fate in an episode of BBC1's Who Do You Think You Are? set to broadcast tomorrow evening.
Radcliffe's relative Samuel Gershon killed himself after £3,000 worth of jewellery was stolen in the infamous 1936 Hatton Garden raid.
Police officers suggested Mr Gershon was in on the crime and intended to submit a fraudulent insurance claim, the Times reports.A document from the police at the time said: 'Jews are so frequently responsible for the bringing down of their own business premises.'
The actor responds to the revelation by saying it's 'very jarring' to see being a Jew treated as evidence against his relative.
Mr Gershon, who died at the age of 42, was facing bankruptcy. In his note, addressed to his wife Doll, he said: 'I can assure you my angel, to leave a girl like you is more than a wrench.'
Radcliffe has himself been open about his own struggles with his mental health - earlier this year, he said he turned to alcohol as a way of coping with his fame.Speaking on Off Camera With Samuel Jones, he said: 'In my case, the quickest way of forgetting about the fact that you were being watched was to get very drunk and then as you get very drunk, you become aware that, oh people are watching more now because now I’m getting very drunk, so I should probably drink more to ignore that more.'
On Who Do You Think You Are? Radcliffe adds that he worries if Mr Greshon took his own life because his reputation had been destroyed despite being innocent, or if he was guilty.
He added: 'You want to reach into the past and just go: "Whatever you're going through, you have so much to offer the people who are around you still... you have so much to give to them. And they still would all have loved you."'
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