Frederick Arthur Oscar Mendelsohn and Carole Ann Mendelsohn are the parents of Ben Mendelsohn.

Ben’s father Frederick Arthur Oscar Mendelsohn is an Australian biomedical scientist and physiologist.

Born June 19, 1942, in Melbourne, Frederick is the son of Oscar Adolf and Edna Millward Mendelsohn.

Frederick graduated with a Bachelor of Science in 1965 at Melbourne University where he received a Doctor of Philosophy in 1972 and a Doctor of Medicine in 1973.

He was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science in 2003 and is a Past President of the Australian Neuroscience Society.

Frederick currently serves as the Emeritus Professor at the Florey Neuroscience Institute at the University of Melbourne.

He previously worked as the Director of the Howard Florey Institute and R Douglas Wright Professor of Experimental Physiology and Medicine from 1997 to 2009. He held a Personal Chair in Medicine at the University of Melbourne until 1996 and was Senior Physician at the Austin & Repatriation Medical Centre.

Whiles Ben’s mother Carole Anne Mendelsohn (Ferguson) was an Australian registered nurse.

She was born on December 19, 1944, in Prahran, Stonnington City, Victoria, Australia, to Thomas Theodore Ferguson and Elsie Rhoda Ferguson.

Carole died on March 15, 2004, in Kew, Boroondara City, Victoria, Australia, at age 59

Frederick Arthur Oscar Mendelsohn and Carole Ann Ferguson married on January 12, 1967.

Through their union, Frederick and Carole had three children named Tom, Ben, and David.

Frederick and Carole then divorced in November 1978.