Entertainers who took their name from/share one with historical or literary figures

Cafe Society
1

I know there are more of these but I can’t recall them at the moment.
Jane Seymour (born Joanne Frankenberg, took her name from the third wife of Henry VIII).

Engelbert Humperdinck (born George Dorsey, took his name from the 19th century German composer).

Anne Shirley (actress born Dawn Paris [a good name in and of itself for an actress] who changed it to Dawn O’Day and then changed it to honor her character when she starred in Anne of Green Gables).

Paul Revere of the group PAUL REVERE & THE RAIDERS really was born with that name, though his name at birth was Paul Revere Dick. He sliced it off to go into show biz.

Who are some others? I feel I’m missing someone really obvious.

2

John Paul Jones (Led Zeppelin), born John Baldwin.

3

Richard Burton springs to mind. Actually the first name that came to mind was Marilyn Manson but I don’t think that’s what you meant :stuck_out_tongue:

4

Jethro Tull, though that’s technically the name of the group.

5

Uriah Heep?

6

That’s just wrong.

7

David Copperfield, the magician, was the first to spring to my mind.

And Marilyn Manson was just following Elvis Costello’s lead.

8

Thank you so much, that’s the one I’ve been wracking my brain trying to come up with since reading the OP.

9

Tom Jones is the first to spring to mind. (Born Thomas Woodward, he was given the name Tom Jones, because his image was similar to the character of that name.)

10

Half his name - David Bowie was born David Jones, but since Davy Jones of the Monkees was performing as well and this created confusion, he picked the last name Bowie after Jim Bowie and the Bowie knife.

11

Actor Matt Dillon shares his name with the marshall on “Gunsmoke.”

Several entertainers changed their names precisely BECAUSE there was already another celeb by the same name.

  1. Michael Keaton’s real name is Michael Douglas
  2. Albert Brooks’ real name is Albert Einstein
  3. Stewart Granger’s real name was Jimmy Stewart
12

The Marx Brothers.

Anne Hathaway.

13

And Madonna, of course. :smiley:

14

Steppenwolf is a novel, a band, a theater company, a movie, a comic character, and the title of an online video game.

15

Cool! Might be a slightly difficult name to live with, though.

16

I don’t know if Jesse James of West Coast Choppers counts as an entertainer, exactly, but he did use to have a TV show where he customized cars and whatnot.

17

Not an entertainer, but author Adam Smith, best known for his books on economics, took his pen name from the original Adam Smith, a philosopher of economics.

Adding to the list of rock group names, there was H.P. Lovecraft.

Bob Dylan took his stage name from poet Dylan Thomas.

Bit actor Fred Asparagus most likely took screen his name as a play on Fred Astaire.

18

Sebastian Cabot, the actor, and Sebastian Cabot, the explorer.

19

If we’re including bands, then there’s the Levellers, named after a (kind of) political group in Cromwell’s time.

20

Okay, he got circumcised when he went into show biz.