The Real Names of 6 Classic Hollywood Stars
Film actors have adopted stage names since the earliest days of cinema, and some of the most recognizable names in entertainment history were in fact carefully considered pseudonyms.
These stage names were adopted for various reasons. In many cases, actors, often under the guidance of their agents or studio executives, chose a pseudonym simply because it was more marketable than the name they were given at birth — whether because it was more memorable, more glamorous, shorter, or simply easier to say or spell.
In other cases, actors adopted names that were considered more American-sounding than their given names. Martin Sheen, for example, was born Ramón Antonio Gerardo Estévez, but was persuaded to change his name to something considered more Hollywood-friendly — a decision he later regretted. Keanu Reeves also was told to change his name early on in his career, but he stood his ground and stuck with “Keanu.”
Here are six of the most legendary Hollywood stars who adopted stage names, including screen icons such as Judy Garland, Cary Grant, and Marilyn Monroe.
Judy Garland (Frances Ethel Gumm)
Judy Garland, born Frances Ethel Gumm, began her career when she was just a child, performing with her two older sisters in a vaudeville group called the Gumm Sisters. In 1934, when the group began attracting attention, comedian and emcee George Jessel suggested the sisters change their last name to something more glamorous and theatrical. He recommended “Garland,” possibly inspired by Carole Lombard’s character, Lily Garland, in the film Twentieth Century, or perhaps after the acclaimed drama critic Robert Garland.
A year later, Garland chose to change her first name, too, adopting “Judy” after a popular Hoagy Carmichael song of the same name. The new stage name helped launch Judy Garland’s glittering career, beginning with her starring role in the 1939 classic The Wizard of Oz.
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Fred Astaire (Frederick Austerlitz)
Fred Astaire’s career on stage, film, and television spanned 76 years, and his name is now synonymous with the golden age of Hollywood. Yet he was not born Fred Astaire: His birth name was Frederick Austerlitz. Astaire and his sister Adele changed their surname early on in their vaudeville career, when they performed as a double act. It was their mother who suggested the change, as she believed that “Austerlitz” was too strongly associated with the Battle of Austerlitz — a famous 1805 battle that was one of Napoleon Bonaparte’s greatest victories. Other sources suggest that Astaire’s mother deemed it necessary to simplify and Americanize their family name to make it more elegant, easier to pronounce, and less foreign-sounding.
Marilyn Monroe (Norma Jeane Mortenson)
Marilyn Monroe was born Norma Jeane Mortenson, and later took her mother’s surname, Baker. Norma Jeane’s transformation into one of Hollywood’s most iconic figures began with her name change in 1946, after she signed to 20th Century Fox. Coming up with her new name was a team effort. Studio executive Ben Lyon suggested “Marilyn” after the Broadway musical star Marilyn Miller. Norma Jeane, who was just 20 at the time, suggested “Monroe,” which was her mother’s maiden name.
For Marilyn, there were personal reasons for changing her name. In her unfinished autobiography, My Story, she explained that she didn’t relate to her birth name as she associated it with her troubled childhood and the neglect and abandonment she suffered in her formative years.
John Wayne (Marion Morrison)
Marion Morrison’s transformation into John Wayne was a gradual process. His friends gave him the nickname “Duke” while he was still a child. Then, while working as a prop man and occasionally playing bit roles at Fox Studios, he was given an on-screen credit as “Duke Morrison.” A year later, in 1930, director Raoul Walsh took a gamble and cast Wayne in his first starring role in The Big Trail.
Walsh and studio head Winfield Sheehan agreed that neither “Marion Morrison” nor “Duke Morrison” was suitable for the rugged-looking actor. Walsh suggested “Anthony Wayne” after the Revolutionary War General “Mad” Anthony Wayne, but Sheehan rejected it as sounding “too Italian.” Walsh then suggested “John Wayne,” which both men accepted as being a solid, masculine, and altogether American name. Marion Morrison became John Wayne without even being present at the meeting.
Doris Day (Doris Mary Anne Kappelhoff)
During her early local radio performances in the 1930s, a young Doris Kappelhoff caught the attention of band leader Barney Rapp. At the time, Rapp was looking for a female vocalist. He asked Kappelhoff to audition, having already auditioned about 200 singers. She got the job, but Rapp had one request: She had to change her name. He felt that her surname was too harsh and awkward and that it took up too much space on the marquees.
Rapp suggested the name “Day” because he had been particularly impressed by the young singer’s rendition of the song “Day After Day.” Doris Day didn’t like the name at first, feeling that it sounded too much like a burlesque performer. But the moniker certainly served her well: She went on to become one of the leading Hollywood film stars of the 1950s and 1960s.
Cary Grant (Archibald Alec Leach)
In 1932, 27-year-old actor Archibald Leach did a screen test for Paramount Pictures. The studio’s general manager, B.P. Schulberg, saw something in Leach and offered the young Englishman a five-year contract. But there was one condition: Schulberg told Leach he had to change his name “to something that sounded more all-American, like Gary Cooper.”
Leach took the first name “Cary” from the character Cary Lockwood, whom he had played in the Broadway musical Nikki. He was then handed a list of preapproved surnames by the Paramount publicity department, from which he chose “Grant.” And so, the debonair Cary Grant was born — along with one of classic Hollywood’s definitive leading men.
