Miscellaneous

23 Celebrities You May Not Know Use Stage Names

Image sources: antoniogenna.com, cs.wikipedia.org, blogspot

Have you ever learned that an actor had a different name at birth? Sometimes, it can be a minor shock. For this list, we won’t include actors who transitioned. We will look at actors who went by different names on the big screen but kept their original names in private life. We also won't include celebrities like Tom Cruise (whose full name is Thomas Cruise Mapother IV) or Kendrick Lamar (full name Kendrick Lamar Duckworth), who use their first and middle names as their stage names, nor will we include people like Lady Gaga (whose birth name is Stefoni Germanotta) or Eminem (birth name Marshall Bruce Mathers III) for obvious reasons.

Gene Wilder

Birth name: Jerome Silberman

Kicking off our list is the man who brought our pure imaginations to the big screen as Willy Wonka in 1971’s Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, followed by Young Frankenstein and Blazing Saddles (both 1974). At the age of 26, Silberman chose the stage pseudonym "Gene Wilder" because he felt that "Jerome Silberman" didn't fit the serious trope of plays like Macbeth or Hamlet. Silberman then took the first name of Eugene Gant, a character in Thomas Wolfe novels, then took the last name of Thornton Wilder, a Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright who Silberman deeply admired. Putting these two names together, "Gene Wilder" was ready to hit the stage.

John Wayne

Birth name: Marion Robert Morrison

Closely followed by Clint Eastwood in terms of western movies of the 1950s and 1960s (as well as an unfair portrayal of Genghis Khan), Wayne might be one of the biggest names on this list, so it might be surprising to know that "John Wayne" wasn't Morrison's original name. After starring in so many westerns that he earned the nickname "The Duke," Morrison advocated for cancer research, having suffered from the disease before. He also won an Academy Award for True Grit in 1979 before he passed away on June 11th of that year.

Nicki Minaj

Birth name: Onika Tanya Maraj-Petty

Likely the most famous singer from Trinidad & Tobago (if not one of the only ones), Maraj-Petty was raised in the Queens borough of New York City before being discovered by rapper Dwayne "Lil Wayne" Carter, Jr, who was impressed with her talent. Maraj-Petty has since gained recognition for her debut album, Pink Friday, making the number two spot on the US Billboard 200 chart, later achieving multi-platinum status.

Meg Ryan

Birth name: Margaret Mary Emily Anne Hyra

Though not as prominent in Hollywood as she once was, it's true to say that "Margaret Mary Emily Anne Hyra" wouldn't fit well on the poster for You've Got Mail. The "Ryan" part was a family surname, and with the shortening or "Margaret" to "Meg," her stage name could easily fit onto posters for her movies. And that's not to say that the surname "Ryan" didn't go to anyone related to her. One of her adopted daughters is named Daisy True Ryan.

Katy Perry

Birth name: Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson

Though her first album was named “Katy Hudson,” that didn’t really have the same ring to it as Katy Perry. The influential popstar has also gone on record saying she doesn't want to be mixed up with actress Kate Hudson, which is understandable, since some other famous people on this list chose different professional names to avoid confusion with other famous people.

Jamie Foxx

Birth name: Eric Marlon Bishop

Unlike some others on this list, who chose to have their middle names as part of their stage names (or similar), Bishop took an entirely new name as his professional pseudonym. In the late 1980s, when he was doing stand-up comedy in Los Angeles, open mic lists were often controlled by other comics who had female performers routinely called up in an effort to break the long lines of male acts. Bishop then chose the name "Jamie" since that name fits men and women, in the hope that hosts would assume he was a woman and subsequently call him up. The surname "Foxx" was chosen because Redd Foxx was Bishop's favorite comedian.

Ben Kingsley

Birth name: Krishna Pandit Bhanji

Somewhat sadly, after using the name "Ben Kingsley," he started to get offered more roles. Racial prejudice was very prevalent in British theater in the 1960s, and an actor with an Indian name would be less likely to be cast. In an effort to overcome this problem, Bhanji chose the nickname his father used in college, "Ben." This, combined with Bhanji's paternal grandfather's nickname, "King Clove," gave the now Sir Ben Kingsley his stage name.

Michael Caine

Birth name: Maurice Joseph Micklewhite

One of the most prolific British actors to ever grace the movie screen, Micklewhite used stage pseudonyms such as "Michael Scott" and "Michael White" before settling on "Michael Caine" in 1954 after a phone call in a telephone booth in Leicester Square with his agent, who demanded a new last name immediately. By chance, a marquee for The Caine Mutiny caught Micklewhite's eye, and it's worth mentioning that The Caine Mutiny starred Micklewhite's favorite actor, Humphrey Bogart. In 2016, Micklewhite legally changed his name to "Michael Caine" to avoid long delays at airport security caused by mismatching details on his passport.

Judy Garland

Birth name: Frances Ethel Gumm

The renowned but ever-tragic movie star of The Wizard of Oz wasn't always known as "Judy Garland." Her career spanned over four decades, but was riddled with strife such as a diet that included 80 cigarettes a day, perverted munchkin actors, and getting slapped by the director during production of The Wizard of Oz. It was also somewhat tragic that Gumm had to use a stage name to sound more theatrical. The name "Judy Garland" itself originated from a popular 1934 song called "Judy" by Hoagy Carmichael and "Garland" being suggested by comedian George Jessel, though it's disputed where Jessel got that name idea.

Martin Sheen

Birth name: Ramon Antonio Gerard Estevez

Though Estevez has since regretted the pseudonym "Martin Sheen," he really had no choice in the late 1950s, when he began acting in New York City. As is true with the aforementioned Ben Kingsley, racial prejudice was still common at the time. When he called about jobs or apartments and said his birth name, he would face hesitation or be told the position was gone. As such, Estevez would need a stage name to get work. As the years went by, Estevez openly regretted using the pseudonym and begged his son Emilio Estevez to keep using that name.

Shania Twain

Birth name: Eilleen Regina Edwards

Originally named after both of her grandmothers, Edwards' parents divorced when she was young, and her mother remarried to Jerry Twain, an Ojibwe man from the Mattagami First Nation, leading some media outlets to incorrectly report that Edwards was of partial Ojibwe descent. Twain legally changed the last names of Edwards and her siblings to "Twain," and that name stuck with Edwards when she searched for a stage name, since she felt her birth name sounded too similar to an older relative's name, and because she wanted a fresh identity for the masses.

Marilyn Monroe

Birth name: Norma Jean Mortensen

Another heartthrob, this time from the 1950s, Mortensen chose the name "Marilyn Monroe" in 1946 at the age of twenty after studio executive Ben Lyon suggested the name "Marilyn" because he felt that Mortensen resembled Broadway star Marilyn Miller. "Monroe" was selected by Mortensen herself after her mother's maiden name. She ran through a series of other stage names like "Jean Monroe", "Carolyn Meredith", and "Clare Norman" before settling on "Marilyn Monroe," which became her legal name on February 23, 1956.

Natalie Portman

Birth name: Neta-Lee Herschlag

While known as Natalie Portman since her appearance in 1994's Léon: The Professional, Herschlag wanted to keep her private life very separate from her new life in the spotlight. 13 years old at the time of the movie's release, she chose her maternal grandmother's maiden name as her stage last name and would get upset when her classmates called her "Portman" while to keep her two lives apart.

Sir Elton John

Birth name: Reginald Kenneth Dwight

One of the most influential modern pianists and British musicians of all time wasn't always "Sir" or "Elton John." In 1967, Dwight took the names of Elton Bean, the saxophonist of Dwight's early band Bluesology, and combined it with Long John Baldry, the vocalist of Bluesology, to create the stage name "Elton John." Additionally, on January 7, 1972, Dwight added the name "Hercules" as his legal middle name in honor of a horse named Hercules on the BBC comedy show Steptoe and Son.

Calvin Harris

Birth name: Adam Richard Wiles

This one may make you wonder why Wiles chose the name "Calvin Harris," considering the name "Adam Wiles" is perfectly acceptable. This is because Wiles wanted a pseudonym that could be described as "racially ambiguous." At the age of 22, Wiles chose this name since he didn't want people to assume his early music was made by a White, Scottish artist. He got the first part of the name from the Calvin & Hobbes comic strip (though he joked about this later) and got the last name from American R&B producer Andre Harris, though Wiles prefers family and friends to use his birth first name when addressing him.

Kirk Douglas

Birth name: Issur Danielovitch

One of the biggest names in classic Hollywood wasn't always as American sounding as "Kirk Douglas." At the time he got into acting, Danielovitch felt his birth name was "too unwieldy and Semitic" for the industry, since anti-Semitism was unfortunately not uncommon at the time. After getting a start in acting and later joining the US Navy in World War II, Danielovitch went on to regret using the stage name "Kirk Douglas," saying it was a more interesting name.

Joan Crawford

Birth name: Lucille Fay LeSueur

In a decision by MGM studio executive Pete Smith, LeSueur was persuaded away from that last name because of it sounding similar to "sewer." After this decision, a contest was held to pick a stage name for LeSueur, but the winning name, "Joan Arden," was already taken, so the second-place name, "Joan Crawford," was selected. It should also be noted that LeSueur was completely in on this contest and was excited to receive a pseudonym that would be easy to pronounce and remember.

Anna Nicole Smith

Image source: santuariodomestreryu.com.br

Birth name: Vickie Lynn Hogan

The late actress briefly used stage names such as "Nikki Hart" in high school and "Vickie Smith" in her early career before she settled on the stage pseudonym "Anna Nicole Smith" in 1991 during her Guess Jeans campaign. She chose the name "Anna" herself and with help from Guess co-founder Paul Marciano, who suggested the "Nicole" part, "Anna Nicole Smith" would be her stage name until her passing in 2007 from a drug overdose.

Dove Cameron

Birth name: Chloe Celeste Hosterman

In a sadder case than most other name origin stories on this list, Hosterman's father, Philip Alan Hosterman, died by suicide when Hosterman was only 15 years old. To honor him, she changed her legal name to the nickname she had throughout her childhood, and her legal name is now Dove Olivia Cameron (and has been since around 2011).

Natalie Wood

Birth name: Natasha Nikolaevna Zakharenko

Unlike practically everyone else on this list, Zakharenko didn't choose her stage name; it was chosen by RKO Radio Pictures executives William Goetz and David Lewis, who chose the name "Wood" to appeal to English-speaking audiences and as a tribute to director Sam Wood, who was close with Goetz and Lewis. Zakharenko herself was born to Russian immigrant parents in San Francisco, and her father shortened their last name to "Gurdin." Under contract as a child actress, Zakharenko was given the name "Natalie Wood," which stuck until her mysterious death in 1981.

Albert Brooks

Birth name: Albert Einstein

That’s right. The voice actor for Marlin in Finding Nemo (2003) and Finding Dory (2016), as well as the actor for Tom in Taxi Driver (1976), actually shares the same name as the famous German theoretical physicist. For obvious reasons, Brooks couldn’t use his real name without it getting confused with, likely, the smartest person to ever live. He the took the surname that already existed in his family tree, and didn't go by the name "Albert Lawrence," even though "Lawrence" is his middle name, because he didn't "want to sound like a Vegas singer."

Whoopi Goldberg

Birth name: Caryn Elaine Johnson

This one should've been obvious enough, but it was included anyway because you probably don't know her birth name. The name "Whoopi" is a nickname due to Johnson's childhood flatulence, and initially, her stage name was "Whoopi Cushión," pronounced with a French flair. Later, her mother encouraged her to drop the "Cushión" part and use "Goldberg" instead, as it's the Jewish surname of one of her ancestors.

Boris Karloff

Birth name: William Henry Pratt

Famous for playing the titular monster (not the scientist) in 1931’s Frankenstein and for voicing the Grinch in the 1966 animated adaptation How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Pratt chose the pseudonym "Boris Karloff" when he began acting in Canada in 1909 due to the pseudonym sounding foreign and exotic as opposed to the British slang associations of the surname "Pratt." He also told the press that "Karloff" was a family name, though family members, including his daughter Sara, denied any Slavic family ancestry.