Heh. After voting, I googled all the names I didn’t know. Her stage name is as unknown to me as her real name.
That’s no reflection on the artist or her fans. My two favorite bands are X and the Cramps and I have no clue what the birth names of John Doe, Billy Zoom, Poison Ivy, and Lux Interior are (but for some reason I know DJ Bonebrake is a real name - his parents must have known he’d be a drummer.)
In @Mean_Mr.Mustard’s recent musicians poll, I did check the names I knew thanks to @psychonaut’s earlier poll, but not the ones I didn’t know but could probably guess.
Because I know who Paul David Hewson is, I also know who his bandmate, David Howell Evans (not in the poll) is: The Edge.
Also, trivia on Gary Lee Weinrib: his parents were Polish Holocaust survivors, who emigrated to Canada. His mother had a thick Polish accent, and when she said Gary’s name, it sounded like Geddy; his high school friends gave that to him as a nickname.
The witnesses testified to what they believed they saw. The defense has the job to find fault with the testimony. The likelihood of two similar looking 30 year old cars with exactly the same rare color being at the same liquor store is astronomically low. But it’s not impossible so in the context of the movie it works.
The sheriff was amused by Vinny. He didn’t interfere and even went out of his way to help the defense when he wasn’t obligated to.
George Wibur was brought in as a tire expert not an expert in general automotive knowledge. His testimony was truthful and correct. The only photo that showed something different was the one shitty photo taken by Vinny. Since Wilbur was only testifying about the tires he most likely wouldn’t have even seen Vinny’s photo until he was brought back up on the stand. When presented further information he again testified truthfully and correctly even though it helped the defense.
This leads to the one problem I do have with the movie. The scene the movie is most remembered for is the testimony of Mona Lisa. The scene won her the Oscar. We are made to believe that she has an encyclopedic savant level knowledge of cars. It goes much further than just knowing a lot about cars. It’s much more than what a normal person picks up working in a garage. The problem is for any of this to work Vinny also needs to be a car savant. He glances at the photo and immediately realizes everything he’s going to ask Mona about. He knows to look for a Tempest because he tells the sheriff before Mona even testifies. It wouldn’t have been as dramatic but he could have gotten the same testimony in by recalling George Wilbur.
I believe that Mona Lisa took all the pics.
I knew nine of mmm’s musicians. Guessed correctly on a handful more, but that’s not the same as knowing so I didn’t click those.
The most obscure one (based on current poll results) that I knew was Tony Bennett at 15%. I was surprised that wasn’t higher.
IMHO, the name they go by is their name, not a birth name they do not use.
In a few cases from these lists (such as Elton John and Geddy Lee), the people in question have actually legally changed their names to what they’d been using as “stage names” for years.
I thought many of them have?
Looking specifically at the ones in the poll which I knew:
Have legally changed their names to reflect their professional names:
- Robert Zimmerman Bob Dylan
- Farrokh Bulsara Freddie Mercury
- Gary Weinrib Geddy Lee
- Reginald Dwight Elton John
Have not legally changed their names, as far as I can tell:
- Richard Starkey Ringo Starr
- Gordon Sumner Sting
- Declan MacManus Elvis Costello
- George O’Dowd Boy George
- Paul Hewson Bono
- Peter Thorkelson Peter Tork
Other:
- Chaim Witz Gene Simmons (his name was legally changed when he was a child; he adopted the same first name as what became his stage name, but has apparently not ever legally adopted his “stage surname”)
Depends on your personal definition of “many.” I made a thread about which celebrities kept their real names and which didn’t. It’s a mixed bag and each has their own personal reasons for their decision.
I guess we are doing spoilers for those who didn’t take the poll yet.
Michael Caine was knighted as Sir Maurice Micklewhite. He had always lived under his real name. At age 83 he legally changed his name because he said people recognizing him as Michael Caine but holding a passport with the name Maurice Micklewhite caused too many delays in airports.
Still waiting on @Mean_Mr.Mustard (and @psychonaut if he is still game) to reveal who they all are (so we don’t have to go to Wikipedia and doing a bunch of searches). I got 3 note.
Birth names of musicians:
Annie Mae Bullock - Tina Turner
Anthony Benedetto - Tony Bennett
Arnold George Dorsey - Englebert Humperdinck
Brenda Gail Webb - Crystal Gayle
Chaim Witz - Gene Simmons
Clara Ann Fowler - Patti Page
David Van Cortland - David Crosby
Declan Patrick McManus - Elvis Costello
Diane Ernestine Earle - Diana Ross
Ellen Naomi Cohen - Cass Elliot
Eric Patrick Clapp - Eric Clapton (edit: it now appears this may not be true)
Ernest Evans - Chubby Checker
Evangelos Papathanassiou - Vangelis
Farouk Bulsara - Freddie Mercury
Gary Lee Weinrib - Geddy Lee
George Alan O’Dowd - Boy George
Gordon Matthew Sumner - Sting
Herbert Buckingham Khaury - Tiny Tim
Hugh Anthony Cregg III - Huey Lewis
Ingram Cecil Conner II - Gram Parsons
James Jewell Osterberg, Jr. - Iggy Pop
Jeanine Deckers - The Singing Nun
Jiles Perry Richardson - The Big Bopper
John Simon Ritchie - Sid Vicious
Joseph Fidler - Joe Walsh
Kris Carson - Kris Kristofferson
Malcolm John Rebennack - Dr. John
Mary O’Brien - Dusty Springfield
McKinley Morganfield - Muddy Waters
Otha Ellas Bates McDaniel - Bo Diddley
Paul David Hewson - Bono
Peter Halston Thorkelson - Peter Tork
Richard Starkey - Ringo Starr
Richard Wayne Penniman - Little Richard
Robert Allen Zimmerman - Bob Dylan
Roberta Joan Anderson - Joni Mitchell
Steven Demetre Georgion - Cat Stevens
Steven Victor Tallarico - Steven Tyler
Virginia Patterson Hensley - Patsy Cline
William Michael Albert Broad - Billy Idol
Declan Patrick McManus - Elvis Costello
Gordon Matthew Sumner - Sting
James Jewell Osterberg, Jr. - Iggy Pop
Malcolm John Rebennack - Dr. John
McKinley Morganfield - Muddy Waters
Paul David Hewson - Bono
Richard Starkey - Ringo Starr
Richard Wayne Penniman - Little Richard
Robert Allen Zimmerman - Bob Dylan
I only checked it if I was 100% sure, so I didn’t get a ton of them.
I don’t have a ‘work wife’ as the phrase is commonly meant, but my wife and I work together. My ex-wife and I worked together too.
It’s a family trait, apparently. My Dad worked with his wife. My maternal grandparents worked together. My uncle and aunt. My sister and her husband.
I got a pretty good percentage of the actors correct. A lot fewer of the musicians but I still think I did pretty good.
I met my ex-wife at work. She was never my “work wife” since we kept the relationship secret for most of when I worked there. I don’t think the term existed then. Other than that my two main careers were very male dominated. In the Army I was almost exclusively in all male units that didn’t start getting women until I was retired.
Here are the solutions to my quiz on birth names of famous people:
- Agnes Bojaxhiu: Mother Teresa
- Archibald Alec Leach: Cary Grant
- Calvin Cordozar Broadus, Jr.: Snoop Dogg
- Caryn Johnson: Whoopi Goldberg
- Chaim Witz: Gene Simmons
- Cheryl Sarkisian: Cher
- Eric Arthur Blair: George Orwell
- Farrokh Bulsara: Freddie Mercury
- Garik Kimovich Weinstein: Garry Kasparov
- Henry John Deutschendorf, Jr.: John Denver
- Ioseb Dzhugashvili: Joseph Stalin
- Issur Danielovitch: Kirk Douglas
- Jay Scott Greenspan: Jason Alexander
- Krishna Pandit Bhanji: Ben Kingsley
- María Rosario Pilar Martínez Molina Baeza: Charo
- Maurice Joseph Micklewhite, Jr.: Michael Caine
- Reginald Kenneth Dwight: Elton John
- Steven Demetre Georgiou: Cat Stevens/Yusuf Islam
- Terry Gene Bollea: Hulk Hogan
- Vincent Damon Furnier: Alice Cooper
Agreed, and I tried to make the wording of my poll neutral enough to be compatible with this perspective. (I mentioned only that the people had a “birth name” and “another name” under which they became known, without any judgement as to which one, if either, should be considered their real, default, or actual name.)