All About Bruce Springsteen’s Sisters, Pamela and Virginia (Who Appears in ‘Deliver Me from Nowhere’)

Bruce Springsteen may be known as The Boss for his music, but he was also the boss of his family with two younger sisters.

The “Dancing in the Dark” singer, who was born and raised in New Jersey, has a close relationship with both of his sisters, Virginia and Pamela. The trio were raised by Adele and Douglas Springsteen.

Although both of his sisters lead fairly private lives, they are both supportive of their big brother’s career, and he’s also been inspired by their lives.

Bruce’s upbringing is highlighted in the biopic Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere, which hit theaters on Oct. 24. While Jeremy Allen White stars as Bruce, child actress Arabella Olivia Clark plays a young version of Virginia. The real-life Virginia showed her support for the film by attending the premiere at the Telluride Film Festival in August 2025.

“She sat there with me and we watched the film and she held onto my hand, and at the end of it, she turns to me and says, ‘Isn’t it wonderful we have this?’ ” he said during a festival panel at the time, per Variety.

Here’s everything to know about Bruce Springsteen’s sisters, Virginia and Pamela.

Pamela is an accomplished photographer who’s shot her older brother

Pamela is Adele and Douglas’ third child and was born in February 1962, according to Peter Ames Carlin’s 2012 biography Bruce. Pam was born after Bruce had already started his musical career, and when she was a child, her parents moved her to California.

Earlier in her career, Pamela started acting and appeared in various films and television shows, including Sleepaway Camp II: Unhappy Campers, Sleepaway Camp III: Teenage Wasteland and Modern Girls.

She later pivoted her career toward photography and has taken pictures of various artists and musicians — including her older brother. Pamela photographed several of Bruce’s singles and albums, including the cover of his 1992 album Lucky Town.

In addition to capturing her brother, she has also worked with Willie Nelson, Olivia Newton-John, Ice Cube, Keith Richards and Vonda Shepard, according to her website. When she isn’t photographing musicians, she helps out with the photography on films and documentaries.

They’ve supported their brother’s career over the years

As Bruce rose to fame with his poetic rock style, his sisters have showed their support for his career. Pamela frequently posts photos and videos from Bruce’s concerts and encourages her followers to check out his shows, interviews and music.

Although Virginia leads a quieter life, she gave her nod of approval for her brother’s biopic by attending the Telluride Film Festival with him.

All three siblings were close with their late mother, Adele

Bruce, Virginia and Pamela all had close relationships with their mother, Adele, before she died on Jan. 31, 2024. She was 98 years old and had lived with Alzheimer’s disease for over a decade.

Bruce mourned his mom’s death by sharing a video of her dancing and captioning it with the lyrics to his 1998 song “The Wish.” Pamela also paid tribute to her mother by posting a photo of her smiling and wrote that she was their “treasure.”

Prior to her death, Bruce credited his mother for giving him his first guitar and encouraging him to pursue music when he was a child.

“My mother loves to dance. She grew up in the ‘40s … [with] the big bands and the swing bands, and that was a time when dancing was an existential act,” he said during a 2021 Springsteen on Broadway performance, according to Today.

He continued, “She’s 95 and she’s 10 years into Alzheimer’s and that’s taken a lot away from us. But the need to dance hasn’t left her.”

On Mother’s Day 2025, Pamela shared a rare photo of all three siblings smiling with Adele before her death, according to the fan page E Street Nation.

Pamela has a daughter named Ruby

Pamela is married to television and film director and screenwriter Bobby Roth, and they are parents to one daughter, Ruby Roth, born in July 2002.

Pamela celebrated Ruby’s 20th birthday in 2024 by posting a current photo of her daughter at a music festival, as well as a black-and-white photo of her as a toddler.

“You have been the light of my life since the day you were born!” she captioned the post.

Bruce wrote his hit song “The River” about Virginia and her husband

Bruce turned to his sister Virginia for inspiration when writing his 1980 album, The River. In the hit song the album is named after, Bruce wrote about the real-life story of his sister getting pregnant at 18 years old when she was a senior in high school.

Shortly after Virginia learned the news, she and her high school boyfriend, Michael “Mickey” Shave, got married in a small ceremony, per the biography Bruce. The singer has previously spoken about the experience and explained how it moved him.

“My sister, who lived only a half hour away from me, was sort of living my parents’ lives,” he said on a 2021 episode of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. “They were living a very blue collar life. Her husband was a construction worker. It was a ’70s recession, there wasn’t a lot of work to be had, and really she and her husband were the inspiration for the core of that song.”

Bruce premiered the song at a concert in 1979 with Virginia in the audience.

“It was wonderful that he wrote it and all, but every bit of it was true and here I am [in the audience], completely exposed,” she said in Bruce. “I didn’t like it at first — though now it’s my favorite song.”

Virginia is a mother to three children

After Virginia and Mickey married and welcomed their first child together, they expanded their family with two more children. They share sons Michael Jr. and Christopher and daughter Marissa. The couple are also grandparents and have at least three grandchildren, per Bruce.

The couple tragically lost their son, Michael Jr., when he died suddenly on April 14, 2023, at 53 years old, according to his obituary. Prior to his death, he worked as a carpenter and enjoyed hunting. He and his wife, Kerri Ann, had two daughters, Nicole and Samantha.

Bruce paid tribute to his nephew after his death by closing out a concert with an acoustic version of his song “I’ll See You in My Dreams” and dedicated the song to Michael Jr., Variety reported at the time.

Virginia gave her stamp of approval on his biopic, Deliver Me from Nowhere

The 2025 film Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere stars Jeremy Allen White as Bruce as he finds his path to becoming the Grammy-winning rockstar. However, it also highlights some of the personal struggles he endured over the years — including his complicated upbringing.

Bruce was actively involved in making the film, and he later explained that the “most important” thing to him was getting both of his sisters’ support and approval.

“I have two sisters, one who was a year younger than me, so she grew up with me through all of these experiences,” he told BBC Radio in October 2025, referring to Virginia. “I didn’t know what she was going to think, because the film is a little tough.”

However, after Virginia attended the premiere at the Telluride Film Festival, she told him that she loved the biopic.

“She came in, sat next to me, she held my hand the whole film,” he added. “At the end of the film, she said, ‘God, it’s wonderful that we have this the film that really honors my family. It honors the struggles and the experience that we went through.”