Now it’s rare for them to use a stage name. I guess only rappers do that now. I suppose they figure now nobody will care if their name is Jewish,Polish, etc.
I always think Eliza Dushku is a classic example of someone in the past who would have used a stage name.
Wasn’t that mostly the old studio system saying “Yeah, we’re not printing playbills with Boxleitner on them.” There’s always been a percentage that wanted a stage name for their own reasons, and they still use them, though most people also know who Nicholas Coppola, Thomas Mapother III, Mark Vincent, and Carlos Estevez are.
That’s pretty much it. Stage names were used to make actors seem less ethnic and more mainstream. In Hollywood, having an ethnic name usually doomed you to ethnic parts (OTOH, Boris Karloff was a name that pretty much stereotyped William Pratt into horror roles).
That has changed. No one cares, and sometimes an unusual name stands out.
As for people who would have had stage names in the past, Renee Zellweger and Arnold Schwartzeneggar would be candidates (Arnold did use “Arnold Strong” in the beginning).
Natalie Hershlager might disagree with the claim.
Not just stage names, either. Lots of immigrants changed their last names to fit in better - sometimes, not entirely by choice. I used to have a friend whose grandfather showed up on Ellis Island with a last name that started with Vo-, followed by some improbable collection of Germanic consonants. The guy processing his paper work changed it to “Vote” and that’s been the family name ever since.
Surely someone has done it since Jonathan Stuart Leibowitz.
Lea Michele, best known as Rachel on Glee, dropped her Sephardic Jewish last name (Sarfati) early in her career as a Broadway actress. Michele is her middle name.
The Screen Actors Guild only allows one person for each name, so some have to take an alternate name or use an initial, like Michael J. Fox. Who is actually named Michael Andrew Fox, anyway.
Olivia Wilde is actually Olivia Cockburn. This is a really recent one.
Jamie Foxx is named Eric Bishop. Pretty recent.
Caryn Johnson apparently figured nobody would think she was Jewish even if she adopted Goldberg as a stage name.
Of course, almost every Asian actor who tries to make it in international markets takes a stage name. Chan Kong-San, Li Lianji, Lee Jun-fan, Wu Yu-Seng, and Hung Kam-bo all became famous as Jackie, Jet, Bruce, John, and Sammo.
Also, Siddig El Tahir El Fadil El Siddig Abderrahman Mohammed Ahmed Abdel Karim El Mahdi just goes by Alexander Siddig these days.
Angelina Jolie is another actress who chose to use her middle name as her professional last name. She later had her name legally changed, I believe due in part to bad feelings towards her father, actor Jon Voight.
Irish actor Jonathan Rhys Meyers (Bend it Like Beckham, The Tudors) also uses a stage name, although I don’t know what his reasons were. He was born Jonathan O’Keefe.
Even Asian-American actors with otherwise familiar-sounding names change their names. Chloe Wang had trouble getting acting gigs until she changed her name to Chloe Bennet.
Some actors changed their names because their real name was already being used.
For example, Stewart Granger(The Prisoner of Zenda, North to Alaska) couldn’t use his real name of James Stewart because it was already in use.
And some actors were using names other than their own before they really got into the business. According to Charlton Heston’s autobiography he started using the name of Heston while in high school. It was his step father’s name, and he didn’t want the other students asking why he had a different name than the man his mother was married to. Charlton was his mother’s married name. He had a perfectly acceptable birth name, John Carter, but what’s the first thing you think of when you hear that?
IIRC, Michael Keaton goes by “Michael Keaton” because “Michael Douglas” was taken.
Hot naked Martians?
You can’t always trust celebrities to tell their true stories, but I heard her explain it thusly: Her mother suggested Goldberg because they did have Jewish ancestors.
Mom wanted her to switch from her then-stage name Cushion (pronounced ku-SHON, like the French).
Which makes José Ferrer even more impressive in my estimation. (Or did Hollywood decide that Frenchmen and Jews looked Puerto Rican? 'cause looking at the filmography that’s a heap of French and Jewish characters)
As mentioned, to this day there is still the SAG requirement that the “credits name” be unique.
And sometimes you do want to be able to give out a credit card payment online or over the phone with most regular people not noticing.
Some names were changed because they sounded too “ethnic” But not all did.
And I’m just remembering one actor whose name was distinctive for religious reasons, but he kept it as it was.
That was Moroni Olsen. Moroni Olsen - IMDb
Take a wild guess as to his religion!
Didn’t seem to handicap him though, thank goodness. I’ve watched a lot of old movies he was in. But, looking at his credits, I hadn’t realized he was the voice of the mirror in Disney’s Snow White.
Michael Caine just changed his legal name to that. He said it was a pain at airports because his passport had Maurice Mickelwhite and it confused people.
My name is Michael Caine … actor changes name due to Isis | Michael Caine | The Guardian
Stan Lee said he changed his legal name to his pen name when he found out that Stanley Lieber couldn’t get credit.