When one is in the entertainment business, politics or any endeavor that requires them to have a name, or a brand if you will, that is catchy and easy to remember it may be necessary to change or at least modify one’s birth name. In many cases, it’s about having a white bread, mom’s apple pie name that All-American and Anglo-Saxon, and in some cases a name that’s simple but unique. There are many instances where people change their public names to give themselves and their families a bit of personal privacy. The name does not always say it all.
John Wayne’s birth name was Marion Michael Morrison. As a boy he acquired the nickname “Duke.” In his early twenties he appeared in some silent films as an uncredited extra. He did get a screen credit in a film as Duke Morrison, but in 1930 director Raoul Walsh cast him in the film The Big Trail and decided along with Fox Studio President Winfield Sheehan to change his screen name to John Wayne. The rest is Hollywood history.
Norma Jean Baker came to Hollywood in 1943. While working at an aircraft construction factory she was spotted by Army Air Force photographer David Conover who took some pictures of her and encouraged her to try modeling. She did some modeling for the Blue Book Modeling Agency. 20th Century Fox executive Ben Lyon saw her and thought she had movie star potential, but changed her name to Marilyn Monroe because he thought it sounded sexy and sophisticated.
A young actor who seemed to have leading man potential but had a very foreign sounding name was Issur Danielovich. He changed it changed to Kirk Douglas and went on to become one of Hollywood’s most esteemed actors. Maurice Joseph Micklewhite wanted desperately to become an actor. His agent told him that his given name wasn’t going to cut it and it would have to be changed. Micklewhite was talking to the guy in a phone booth in front of a movie theater playing The Caine Mutiny. On the spot he decided to call himself Michael Caine. Roy Scherer Jr. was a handsome truck driver trying to break into the movies. He wasn’t having much luck until a talent scout named Henry Wilson spotted him and changed his name to Rock Hudson.
Alexandra Zuck was born in Bayonne, New Jersey in 1942. A beautiful but shy child, her mother pushed her into child modeling at age four and changed her professional name to Sandra Dee. She went on to do TV commercials and then became a teen movie star in the 1960s.
Lucille Faye LeSueur was a Texas girl working as a dancer and body double for Norma Sherer, at MGM Studios. MGM’s head of production, Louie B. Mayer, liked Lucille and thought she could be a star but he though the name Lucille sounded phoney and LeSueur sounded like “a sewer.” MGM’s publicity Pete Smith organized a contest in the movie fan magazine Movie Weekly in 1928 to give Lucille a new name that would be more suitable for a rising star. The winning entry was Joan Crawford, and thus Mommie Dearest was born.
Spangler Arlington Brugh was the son of a doctor born in Filley, Nebraska. A talented cellist, he went to Pomona College in Los Angles to study with Professor Herbert Gray, considered to be one of the best cellist in the world at the time. However, while at Pamona, he became involved with the college theater group. Brugh was a very handsome young name and was spotted by an MGM talent scout and signed to a movie contract. He was renamed Robert Taylor by the MGM publicity department.
Ruby Catherine Stevens was a singer, dancer, and actress in the New York theater. She was a Ziegfeld Girl and was starting to get noticed in Broadway productions. Hollywood was calling, but she changed her name to Barbara Stanwyck before going to the movies.
A 14-year-old boxer named Walker Smith Jr. wanted to box in an AAU boxing tournament but was too young. The minimum age was 16. He borrowed the name of a relative and became Sugar Ray Robinson. Robinson went on to become the greatest middle weight fighter in boxing history.
Diane Hall was a young actress who was in the original cast of the musical Hair. She changed her name to Diane Keaton when she won the role so her family wouldn’t be embarrassed. Interesting tidbit: Diane was the only member of the original cast who never removed her clothes on stage.
A young Lebanese Catholic actor named Michael Dmitri Shalhoub went to Egypt to become a movie star. He changed his name to Omar Sharif, and became a superstar.
Texan Eric Marlon Bishop went to Los Angeles with the idea of becoming professional musician and singer. One night he went with a girlfriend to an open mike night at a comedy club and got on stage. He was good enough to be invited back. As his comedy career took off he changed his name to Jamie Foxx.
Audrey Faith Perry married record executive David Hill and became Audrey Hill. Her husband heard her sing and encouraged her to record an album. He also had her take her middle name as her professional name. Unfortunately, the marriage did not last but it did produce country music star Faith Hill.
Stephen Cleveland was a lawyer practicing in Buffalo, New York. Cleveland was interested in following a political career. He had been appointed an assistant district attorney and wanted to run for sheriff of Erie County New York. He had an uncle named Stephen Cleveland who was a member of the New York State Legislature. To avoid voter confusion, Cleveland dropped his first name and took his middle name Grover. Grover Cleveland won the sheriff’s election, and served as governor of New York State and President of the United States. He was the only president to serve two non-consecutive terms
Dick Rathmann wanted to drive as a professional racer but at age 16 he was too young to get an FIA license, so he borrowed the identity of his older brother Jim and starting racing under that identity. “Jim“ Rathmann debuted at the Indianapolis 500 in 1949. To complicate matters, Dick was a rookie at the 500 a year later in 1950. So Jim became Dick and Dick became Jim, at least in public, and it remained that way throughout their racing careers.
Creighton Chaney was the son of actor Lon Chaney and singer Clava Creighton. Although employed as a salesman when his father died, the young Chaney decided to sign a movie contract with 20th Century Fox and become an actor. During his seven years at the studio he appeared mostly in bit player roles and was often cast as the second lead or “heavy” in B pictures. Chaney then spent two unproductive years at RKO Studios. He got a break when he was cast as Lennie in the Hal Roach Studio’s production of Of Mice and Men in 1939. However, he had to agree to be billed as Lon Chaney Jr., something he had tried to avoid since his movie career had begun. He went on to be a horror movie star at Universal Studios during WWII as Lon Chaney Jr. and eventually dropped the Jr. After the war when the horror film cycle died down, he stayed busy as a character actor until his death in 1973. But he always said of his name change, “They starved me into it!”