Stage names

I've always suspected Edward Norton's real name is Ethelred Novotny.

That was quite random, r1.

Kal Penn

Ben Kinsley (admittedly a different generation)

I always thought that quite a few of the stage namnes were taken to cover non-Anglo sounding names. Hopefully studios and audiences are beyond that now. (They have to move on in at least some things.)

Natalie Portman = Natalie Herchlag

Actors sometimes have to change or add a name or initial to their given names because when they join the Screen Actors Guild there is already a member with that name.

Winona Ryder = Winona Horowitz

R7 is a liar.

Bernadette Peters = Bernadette Lazzara

Helen Mirren = Ilyena Lydia Vasilievna Mironov

Woody Allen = Allan Stewart Konigsberg

Alan Alda = Alphonso d’Abruzzo

Portia de Rossi = Amanda Lee Rogers

Michael Caine = Maurice Micklewhite

Whoopi Goldberg = Caryn Johnson

Miranda July = Miranda Jennifer Grossinger

Bruno Mars = Peter Gene Hernandez

Michael Keaton = Michael Douglas

What's printed on the contracts actors sign when doing a project? Their real name or their stage name? Or is it something like "Caryn Johnson a/k/a Whoopi Goldberg"?

I've noticed a lot of actors today merely drop their ethnic-sounding surnames: Lea Michele (Sarfati), Oscar Isaac (Hernandez), Zachary Levi (Pugh), Skylar Astin (Lipstein), T(h)om(as) Cruise (Mapother IV).

Then you have actors who drop their first names: (Patricia) Rooney Mara, (Laura Jean) Reese Witherspoon, (Christopher) Ashton Kutcher, (David) Jude Law, (William) Brad(ley) Pitt, (Matthew) Ryan Phillippe, (Christopher) Chace Crawford, (Walter) Bruce Willis, (Hannah) Dakota Fanning, (Allen) Kelsey Grammer.

Names only a gay agent could think up.

How about real names that sound like stage names: Tallulah Bankhead, Marlon Brando, Leonardo DiCaprio, Val Kilmer, Channing Tatum, Humphrey Bogart, Leonard Nimoy, Uma Thurman.

Mia Wasikowska is another person who wouldn't have gotten away with using her real name in the old days.

I wonder if William Bradley "Brad" Pitt was named after the 18th century British Prime Ministers.

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and venture that Lady Gaga, Nicki Minaj, Macklemore and Sia are stage names.

Ethel Zimmerman saw her name on a theater marquee and realized it took up too much space, so she dropped the first three letters.

R18 and the second N. Her surname was Zimmermann.

Portia De Rossi and Whoopi Goldberg from R10's list went from very anglican sounding names to something more exotic. That's strange.

I miss the days of Tab Hunter, Rip Torn, Rock Hudson, Ty Hardin, and, of course the immortal Dash Riprock.

Zachary Levi- the only actor in Hollywood history who who changed his name to sound *more* Jewish.

I love digging into rockstars' real names, it's fascinating pondering why they choose them. Sometimes it's practical considerations a la Ethel, other times it's a matter of sexiness and looking good in the liner notes, and then sometimes it goes a little deeper.

There's an art to it. Compare Axl Rose and Vince Neil, for example:

Axl began life as William Bruce Rose, Jnr., and was raised in a strict Southern home as William Bruce Bailey once his mother remarried (literally, Axl started out in life as ‘Come Home, Bill Bailey’). ‘Bill’ never knew his bio-father, the elusive and notorious delinquent tough William Rose Snr., as he ditched his young family (when Bill Jnr. was just two years old) only to turn up dead in 1984, the victim a successful murder by a criminal acquaintance. Bill Jnr. only discovered the existence of this local legend and his real father when he hit 17 after rifling through his mother’s insurance papers, and on discovering the fact he immediately began calling himself ‘W. Rose’ in tribute (both to escape the ‘Bill Bailey’ teasing and to distance himself from his abusive stepfather Stephen Bailey). On moving to L.A. in 1982 to start his music career, W. Rose started up his first band which he called AXL. So engrossed and invested was the young Rose in his venture that all his new Cali-friends teased that he may as well be named ‘Axl’. This happened, and so we got ‘W. Axl Rose’. His stage-name is very personal and interesting, the combination of his tragic, romantic lapsed-father figure with his passionate, youthful ambition. It’s also a collision of imagery in a more literal sense - the mechanics of unforgiving and unnatural forward motion (an axle) alongside the organic and eternal image of fragile beauty and brief but brilliant growth (a rose). Taken as a whole, his stage name is a history, a mission statement and a scrap of poetry all in one.

Then we have Vince Neil, for contrast. Both parts are his given names, taken from his full name ‘Vince Neil Wharton’. He just dropped his dull last name...and kept his two white-bread, ugly first names. Why? His mother Shirley is Mexican with the spicy maiden name ‘Ortiz’, why not use that? Or even both her names, since glam-singers tend to have feminine sounding names anyway? He could have just tweaked the spelling a little (Shirlee? Shurlii? Orteez?) and voila. He had the look back then to pull that off, and plenty of singers around the time had names like that. Or why not be 'Vinny' or 'Vincent'? Even his bandmate Tommy altered his given name (from ‘Thomas Lee Bass’ to ‘Tommy Lee’).

It's just Jr., R23.

I have a friend with the William Morris Agency of Beverly Hills and he tells me that "The Christmas Moose"* is a stage name.

*not affiliated with Christmas Mouse.**

**also a stage name.

Mahershala Ali's birth name was Mahershalalhashbaz Gilmore

Brianne Sidonie Desaulniers a.k.a. Brie Larson

Remember the opening credits on The 4000, R26?

My fav is John Cougar who took back his name as soon as he could: Mellencamp.

Lorde: Ella Yelich-O'Connor

Drake: Aubrey Graham

Julianne Moore: Julie Smith

Jamie Foxx: Eric Bishop

Ludacris: Christopher Bridges

Meg Ryan: Margaret Hyra

Bono: Paul Hewson

Portia de Rossi: Amanda Rogers

Vin Diesel: Mark Vincent

Kat Dennings: Katherine Litwack

Spike Jonez: Adam Spiegel

Elton John: Reginald Dwight

Lana Del Ray: Elizabeth Grant

Frank Ocean: Christopher Breau

Carmen Electra: Tara Patrick

Dita von Teese: Heather Sweet

Iggy Azalea: Amethyst Kelly

Ice Cube: O'Shea Jackson

Jeremy Renner: Vanessa Elizabeth Spackles

If he were a true comic, Ashton would legally change his name to 'The Difference'.

From R32, these people all have good original names: Frank Ocean, Carmen Electra, Dita von Teese, Iggy Azalea, & Ice Cube.

I can't figure how some names are better than the original names.

Sometimes they'renot better--they're worse (as in the perfectably fine Mark Vincent using the ridiculous porny name "Vin Diesel").

It's just that they want to sell a certain image of themselves or be someone other than who they are.

Vin Diesel sounds tougher than almost anything, except perhaps Marco Ferrari.

Vin Diesel made me giggle the first time I heard it. That's a name that's just trying too hard. It's a porn name, like Francesco d'Macho.

Ask MetalSludge commenters, they have a great eye for a stage-name.

I'd go by a stage name too if my parents were stupid enough to name me Hannah Fanning.

R32 lol Were you the one who stared the "Jeremy Renner is a transman thread"?

Emma Stone was born Emily Jean Stone.

Sometimes the genre demands it.

Would Anna-Catherine Hartley, the Parisian-American white rapper, have worked as much without alter-ego 'Uffie'?

The coolest of the Cool don't need stage names.

Charles Frederick Kip Winger

R18 - Who the hell is El Zimmerman?

El Zimmerman de Coca Cola!

[quote]Bernadette Peters = Bernadette Lazzara

At least she used something significant. Peter Lazzara is her father’s name.