On the other hand the series Good Omens featured British actor Michael Sheen , who I assume has never needed to join the SAG.
It looks like he didn’t become a professional actor until 1991, three years after the “closed shop” requirements of Equity, the British equivalent of SAG-AFTRA were made illegal in the UK, so I don’t think he has ever needed to join that.
However, he has appeared in a number of U.S. productions. I don’t want to track down the production details of all of them, but if any of them were SAG-AFTRA approved productions that filmed in states like California or New York where closed union shops are legal, I think he would have had to join SAG-AFTRA. Guilds and unions generally don’t make exceptions for importing foreign labor to bypass closed shop rules.
Just to add to the general list of examples, David Pierce had to include his middle name, Hyde, when he joined SAG. On the other side of the pond, the Scottish actor David MacDonald had to drop his venerable surname altogether. Being a massive Pet Shop Boys fan, he adopted lead singer Neil Tennant’s name, instead.
Adding another example to the list, there is a stage actor named James Earl Jones II (I saw him in the San Francisco production of Come From Away). As a bit of trivia, he’s actually not James Earl Jones’s son as you might assume. Apparently he’s his distant cousin, and they were both named after the same ancestor.
But anyway, I assume he must have to use the “II” after his name to differentiate himself from the James Earl Jones. Although as a stage actor would he need to or even be eligible to join SAG? I assume stage actors have their own union, and SAG is just for TV/film actors since the ‘S’ stands for “screen”, right?
According to their website,
SAG-AFTRA represents approximately 160,000 performers and media professionals across 25 locals in the United States who work in film and digital motion pictures, television programs, commercials, video games, corporate/educational and non-broadcast productions, new media, television and radio news outlets, as well as major label recording artists.
Actors’ Equity is the union for stage actors. If James Earl Jones II is a member of a union, presumably he’d be a member of Actors’ Equity. But, the James Earl Jones actually began as a stage actor. Assuming Actors’ Equity has the same rules, the James Early Jones probably already had registered that stage name with Actors’ Equity by the time his distant cousin started acting.
I wouldn’t assume that-- I’d tend to assume he was a grandson without an intervening JEJ, or maybe a nephew. If he were a son, he’d be James Earl Jones, jr. Cf., Ed Begley, jr., who still uses the “jr.” even though “sr.” died a long time ago, because the “jr.” had been part of his equity name for so long, that he had a large body of work already under it.
I heard an interview with William H Macy once. Apparently he grew up as Bill Macy, but that name was taken (by the actor who played Bea Arthur’s husband on Maude), so William H started out as WH Macy, but discovered that casting directors, producers, et al. don’t like calling out initials at casting calls, and his resume would be put aside, so he switched to William H Macy. That’s when his career took off.
And yes., most people in Actor’s Equity have SAG cards as well, though not always the other way around. Stage people mostly work in New York, and TV/film people mostly work in Hollywood, but there’re a lot of commercials; location scenes filmed in NY for Hollywood studios, with extras hired locally; and independent films that nonetheless prefer to use people with SAG cards, for a variety of reasons, that film in New York, so that all the struggling actor/dancer/singers in NY audition for any thing-- underwear commercials, stand-in gigs, background parts in performance pieces, and they need to produce whichever card is asked for.
Someone said upthread that you need to get hired 3 times to get the SAG card, and it’s true, but the things you can be hired to do are pretty liberally defined. You can be hired as a stand-in, a corpse who get found buried under a pile of dung, and an unnamed patient in the background in a hospital shot who keep coughing so that the characters are missing important words in a conversation. Then, you’re in, and can get decent parts.
Honestly, stand-in work, detested by most people, is gold to people without cards yet, because three of those jobs gets them in.
It means standing around for hours just because you are the height and approximate build of the performer in an important role, while all the lights are set for various scenes. It’s hour on boring hour, for minimum wage. But then you get your card, and start going on auditions in interest.
At the time a child actor joins the guild, the name E is credited with currently must comply. If in the future, that person wants credit under a different name, E must re-register and have that new name cleared.
The Actors Guild ensures that none of its own members have identical names. It doesn’t care about people who aren’t members.
Dead people aren’t members of the Actors Guild. Once you die, your name is up for grabs.
SAG-AFTRA is for screen actors
Actors Equity is for stage actors
Unions often have “guild” in their names. That doesn’t mean that they are subject to such a rule.
There was an actor named Ronald Howard, the son of legendary Leslie Howard, still working at the time Ronnie Howard started. (He was of course British, but he did some work for American production companies from time to time). Just an interesting note. I’m sure it had little or nothing to do with the choice to go with “Ronnie” for his official acting name.
And I checked, and James Earl Jones II has an IMDB page that lists a small number of film credits, so I’m thinking he likely does indeed have a SAG card.
I hadn’t thought this was true, and we’re certainly not seeing examples of reused names, to my knowledge.
I can’t find the SAG rules on this, so I’d like to see a cite.
SAG-AFTRA says
“It is SAG-AFTRA’s objective that no member uses a professional name which is the same as, or resembles so closely as to tend to be confused with the name of any other member. SAG-AFTRA urges all applicants and members to minimize any personal or individual risk of liability by avoiding a name that may cause confusion. SAG-AFTRA shall not be responsible or legally liable in the event an applicant or member uses a professional name that may cause any confusion.”
(Search their FAQs for “stage name.”)
It does look like this is a request rather than a requirement; indeed, they later say
PLEASE NOTE: While we strongly discourage members from selecting a professional name that is in conflict with a current member, SAG-AFTRA cannot preclude a member from using their legal name as their professional name.
So the issue is that they can’t require it, but it is a bad idea because it will cause too much confusion and there may be legal ramifications.
I searched for exactly that information and came up dry. I’m not sure how I missed it. I bow to your superior SAG-AFTRA FAQ-fu.
The only cite I have is that all the materials I’ve seen refer only to names of “current members,” as above.
There are many reasons these days (although perhaps not throughout history) not to take on the name of a very famous person in your own profession. Membership in SAG might not be the deciding factor there.
I’d be sorely tempted to use the stage name The Other James Earl Jones.
“Alan Smithee” had become too well known, even to mundanes. Replacements were created.
There are also “George Spelvin”, America’s standard name for an unnamed actor (or a doll) in a play, and “Walter Plinge”, his British cousin (who is never a doll).
If he were James Earl Jones’ son, he’d be James Earl Jones, jr. If he is a younger relative of James Earl Jones, who was born while the older is still alive, then he is correctly called James Earl Jones, II, regardless of whether he goes into acting or not, and whatever rules might be imposed by SAG.
If the two Mr. Jones do not live and work anywhere near each other, and are in different professions, and neither, for the sake of argument, is famous, there is no law that says that the younger must style himself “II.” He is free not to use any suffix, if he prefers not to; it is only when there is a need to distinguish himself that he needs it, so it will show up in family documents-- a will might leave something to him, with his suffix, just so it’s all clear.
Generally, the older one does not use a suffix, but sometimes, if it is the younger who becomes famous, even if he always uses his suffix, the older my find it expedient to use the suffix “I” to make it clear he is not that Mr. Jones.
If they are not monarchs, the numbers shift when people die. If the original ancestor they were both named for was alive when they were both born, at the time of the birth of the third, they were the Misters Jones, I, II & III. Upon the death of I, it transpired that II & III became I & II.
Emily Post shares the idea that generational titles remain even after the older members have died. Miss Manners believes that everyone moves up one notch.
I understand that Bill Gates’ father started as a junior and ended as a senior. Or, more accurately, he began as William Henry Gates II and now goes by William Henry Gates Sr due to the fame of his son.
So long as we are nitpicking, you mean “two Mr. Joneses.”
As if it’s a rule that people must follow. I have known a few people with numbered names and none of them shifted. My WAG is that people rarely do that now since it might require an actual official name change and it would totally fuck up record keeping.
As an aside I once knew a guy and his son who were X and XI. XI had a young son who is XII. The original namesake was an immigrant to the US who fought in the Revolutionary War. Their first name was Alexander and they went by Al, Alex and Alec and then repeated as the generations went on. My step-dad’s father was a III as was a friend of mine. Both kept the III but didn’t pass it down to a IV. Obviously my personal experience isn’t exhaustive.