Many performers change their names for various reasons, most notably because of union recommendations.* Many of those performers chose to change their names legally. The ones that don’t usually don’t advertise that they still use a different name that people don’t know them by. For the purposes of this thread those that use their childhood nicknames or normal nickname versions of their name or who grew up using their middle name don’t count.
This one barely counts. Michael J. Fox did not change his middle name. The J is not part of his legal name.
Jon Bon Jovi is still officially John Bongiovi. His children go by the original spelling.
Michael Keaton does not use his real name professionally because the other Michael Douglas was first (and only because Kirk Douglas had legally changed his name). In his real life Keaton has always kept his original name and that’s the last name of his son.
*Its my understanding that the union rules don’t force anyone to change the name they were born with. If another George Clooney came along the union would greatly encourage him to change his name but they can’t force it. They do prohibit anyone from using a stage name that is the same as another member.
Some people take goofy stage names, and then legally adopt that as their real name. That seems really weird to me. One example I can immediately think of was Soupy Sales, whose maiden name was Milton Supman.
I just stumbled upon an English actor who performed under the name Peter Graves from the early thirties to the mid nineties. But, that was his real name.
Until a few decades ago, aspiring mainstream performers with names that sounded the least bit ethnic were likely to change them (even more so if they were Jewish, like Soupy). Examples include Mike Conners (Krekor Ohanian) and John Denver (Henry John Deutschendorf).
The name change might also add pizzazz and simplicity (Marion Morrison → John Wayne).
One interesting exception: William Henry Pratt became Boris Karloff.
Schwarzenegger was a pioneer in changing this. Before him, there was Cloris Leachman.
John Mellencamp’s manager insisted that he change his name. So he spent several years performing as “Johnny Cougar”. After a couple of successful albums, he changed to “John Cougar”. After his big hit album, he had enough clout to change to “John Cougar Mellencamp”. Eventually, he was able to drop the “Cougar” entirely.
What’s your verdict on Za Su Pitts?
Born Eliza Susan Pitts. Nicknamed Za Su growing up.
Used Za Su professionally. Eventually had it legally changed to Za Su.
That may be. I can’t see anything that specifically shows he changed it legally. But his children all have Cruise as a last name.
Another who did not legally change his name is Ramon Estevez. His son Emilio decided to keep his birth name. Carlos Estevez decided to start acting under the name Charlie Sheen. Martin Sheen apparently never changed his name legally. It seems like Charlie may have at some point. His oldest daughter is 36 and has the last name Estevez. All his other children have the last name Sheen.
Are we talking about people who don’t go by stage names at all, or people who DO go by stage names but their friends and families and drivers licenses call them by their birth names?
I’m thinking it’s the latter but I just want to be sure.
Then there was the case of George Waters, who did not much care for his given name, but, conveniently enough, the frontman, Roger Barrett decided to go by Syd, so George was free to use his middle name of Roger as his first name. I mean, not that a band cannot have two people with the same first name, but, at the time, it seemed preferable to have that differentiation.
I’ve seen an interview with Whoopi Goldberg where she stated that she had never changed her name, and has a driver’s license with her birth name of Caryn Elaine Johnson, which she can show to people when she wants to convince them that she only happens to look like the famous entertainer.
There’s also Jeffrey Ross Hyman, John William Cummings, Douglas Glenn Colvin, and Thomas Erdelyi, along with some replacement band members as time went on. If you don’t recognize that collection of names, you’ll undoubtedly know them as Joey, Johnny, Dee Dee, and Tommy Ramone.