26 May, 1907, John Wayne was born...
As you know many actors' stage names are not their given birth names but do you know what their real names are? Here's some of the best that we like at On This Day in Film.
John Wayne – Marion Morrison
It is reported that whist working at Fox Film Corp., Raoul Walsh spotted Marion moving furniture and cast him in his film (1930). Walsh suggested Marion changing his stage name to Anthony Wayne, after the military man penned as “Mad Anthony” Wayne. The chief of Fox decided that it sounded too “Italian” and then Walsh suggested John. And so it was John Wayne was born, and Marion wasn’t even part of the conversation. He went on to appear in over 170 films during his long and illustrious film career.
Woody Allen – Allan Konisberg
Born Allan Stewart Konisberg, Woody Allen was a writing talent at a very young age, writing jokes and doing magic tricks in order to find his place in society. It wasn’t until he was 17 that he changed him name to Heywood Allen and over time he became known as Woody Allen. He went on to be nominated for an Oscar in screenwriting 16 times, more than any other writer. He won only three.
Michael Caine – Maurice Micklewhite
It wasn’t until Maurice was around 20 that he gave himself the stage name “Michael Scott”. The following year, when he went to London to act he was told that there already was an actor called Michael Scott and that he’d have to change his name. Being told this in a phone box in Leicester Square, he glanced around for inspiration and noticed that the film was playing. He therefore became Michael Caine. He joked later on saying that he could have easily been Michael Mutiny!
Judy Garland – Frances Gumm
It was in 1934 that “The Gumm Sisters”, Frances, Mary and Dorothy, were asked to change their act name as people were laughing at the name Gumm and often called them The “Glum” Sisters. There are many stories about the origins of the name Garland, but Garland it became and the sisters continued to perform for another year. Soon after the name change, Frances changed her name to Judy, inspired by a famous Hoagy Carmichael song, and therefore became, Judy Garland.
Cary Grant - Archibald Alexander Leach
Archie Leach had a tough upbringing due to his mother’s mental illness, but it wasn’t until he went to the US in 1920 at the age of 17, that his acting career began. He worked in theatre for a while keeping his birth name Archie Leach. Leach went to Hollywood in 1931 and was told to change his name. He went with Cary Lockwood, but Lockwood was rejected due to the similarity of another actor’s name. He was then given some choices and went with Grant because the initials C.G. had worked for Clark Gable and Gary Cooper. It wasn’t until 1942, that Grant became a naturalised American and at the same time legally changed his name to Cary Grant.
Article by Russell Farnham
Whoopi Goldberg – Caryn Johnson
It’s said that Caryn got her first name due to her penchant for flatulence, or at least her lack of hiding it. She therefore named herself after a whoopee cushion! Her surname was suggested by her mother as she felt that Johnson wasn’t “Jewish” enough, and that she would be more successful if people thought she was Jewish. Maybe she was right, it seemed to work?
Rock Hudson – Roy Harold Scherer, Jr.
Roy was named after his father who left him and his mother during the Great Depression of the thirties. His mother remarried and Roy took on the surname Fitzgerald. But it wasn’t until he fled to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career that his name was changed to Rock Hudson. He was taken on as a client by talent scout Henry Willson and it was Willson that gave him the name Rock Hudson. Although, later on it was thought that Hudson had hated the name.
Kirk Douglas - Issur Danielovitch Demsky
Douglas was born Issur Danielovitch, his parents were from an area of the Russian Empire (now Belarus), and when they immigrated to the US they used the surname Demsky. Therefore Douglas grew up as Issur Demsky. It wasn’t until his mid-twenties that he changed his name to Kirk Douglas, just before he entered the US Navy during World War II.
