Some found their real name too conservative, some found theirs too long, others wanted to prevent confusion: many big Hollywood stars actually have completely different names. Everyone knows their faces from films, from red carpets and award ceremonies, as well as their stage names – but hardly anyone knows what their real names are. In this series of photos, we show some of the stars’ original names and explain how the names they are known by today came about.
Among them are plenty of prominent examples – from Nicolas Cage to Ben Kingsley, from Emma Stone to Whoopi Goldberg. Not all of them were unhappy with their birth name. One reason for the frequency of stage names are the specifications of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG, since 2012 SAG-AFTRA), the trade union for actors. It does not allow duplicate name entries. For example, Michael Keaton had to choose an artist name, because his real name is Michael Douglas, like the two-time Oscar winner – a particularly prominent example of double occupancy.
Stage names are on the decline in Hollywood
The Germanist Nikola Kunz has dealt extensively with the phenomenon. In her 2014 study “From Melvin Kaminsky to Mel Brooks – How Hollywood makes a name for itself” she analyzed the names of 900 actors who were born between 1910 and 1989. The result: Real pseudonyms are on the decline in Hollywood. “Full name changes were common until the 1950s or 1960s when the artists were still employed and the producers chose the names,” she explained.
Instead, many actors only shorten their names slightly at the beginning of their careers in order to make them sound crisper and have a higher recognition value. “Nicknames or short, crisp names are preferred today, probably because they create closeness.”
See in the video: Hollywood stars often seem to be anchored in the USA through and through. But quite a few have German roots – and some can even speak German quite well.