HOLLYWOOD STYLE
Source: Speak Up
Speaker: Chuck Rollando
Language level: Upper Intermediate
In the golden age of Hollywood studios created personas for their stars. They chose names that sounded sexier, more American or simply memorable. These days actors are not owned by studios, but still make adjustments to the names they were born with. Why?
SEXY
Frances Gumm sounds ordinary and boring, but Judy Garland is adorable, Virginia McMath doesn’t sound like a dancing sensation, but Ginger Rogers does (a child’s mispronunciation of Virgina, plus her stepfather’s surname). Lauren Bacall was a wonderful femme fatale, but would she have won Humphrey Bogart’s heart if she was still Betty Joan Perske? The sexiest improvement was surely from Norma Jeane Baker to Marilyn Monroe.
It works for men, too. Archibald Leach sounds like a tired old shopkeeper. Cary Grant is much more sophisticated. Thomas Cruise Mapother IV makes little impression, but we all know Tom Cruise.
SIMPLICITY AND STYLE
Simplicity is crucial for all actors, from comedians to romantic stars. Stan Laurel, of comedy duo Laurel and Hardy, sounds funnier than Arthur Stanley Jefferson. Maurice Micklewhite might be a great actor, but his iconic status is helped by the name Michael Cain.camille Javal sounds interesting, but surely not as memorable as Brigitte Bardot.
Sometimes a small change does wonders. Jodie foster, Sigourney Weaver an Meryl Streep have a movie magic about them that Alicia Foster, Susan Weaver and Mary Louise Streep do not. Frank cooper could not be the western hero that Gary Cooper became.
The starts of My Fair Lady both simplified their names: Reginald Harrison became the archetypal English gentlemen Rex Harrison; Edda Van Heemstra Ruston disguised her European origins with the name Audrey Hepburn.
EXOTIC/
Many stars hope to hide ethnic origins –or just want their names to be easier to pronounce. The Graduate’s Anne Bancroft had to change form Anne Italiano. Alan Alda, from M*A*S*H, created his surname from initial letters of his real name, Alphonso D”Abruzzo. Would comedy partners Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin have been as popular as Joseph Levitch and Dino Crocetti?
Al Jolson sounds more American than Asa Yoelson. Woody Allen and Mel Brooks are easier to recognize than Allen Kronigsberg and Mel Kaminsky. Walter Matthau is memorable, but would you remember Walter Matasschanskayasky: Doris Kappelhoff lacks the girl-next-door magic of Doris day. Freeric Austerlitz hid his German roots by becoming Fred Astaire. Issur Demsky’s Russian family turned him into heroic Kirk Douglas. Charles Buchinksky sounds tougher as Charles Bronson, while Martin Sheen won star roles by changing from Ramones Estevez.
English actor William Pratt is the exception. He became screen legend Boris Karloff a middle European name, perfect for horror movies.
ALL IN THE FAMILY
Some try to avoid accusations of nepotism. Emilio Estevez his father’s real surname, while Brother Charlie Sheen kept the screen name. Would Nicholas Cage have succeeded sooner if he had still been Nicholas Coppola, nephew of director Francis Ford Coppola?
Others changed embarrassing names: Marion Morrison, a woman’s name was no good for the epitome of masculinity John Wayne.
The strangest story is that of Yul Brynner. He often claimed he was Taidje Khan, of Mongolian-Japanese origins, but his name was really Yul Brynner and has parents Russian.
SCREEN NAME | REAL NAME |
Joan Crawford | Lucille Fay LeSueur |
Cher | Cherllyn Sarkisian |
Dirk Bogarde | Derek Jules Caspard Ulric Niven Van den Bogaerde |
Lou Costello | Louis Francis Cristillo |
Tony Curtis | Bernard Schwartz |
Bette Davis | Ruth Elizabeth Davis |
Marlene Dietrich | Marie Magdalene Deitrich |
Mia Farrow | Maria de Lourdes Villers-Farrow |
Jean Harlow | Harlean Carpentier |
Rita Hayworth | Margarita Carmen Cansino |
Bob Hope | Leslie Townes Hope |
Rock Hudson | Roy Harold Scherer Jr. |
Buster Keaton | Joseph Frank Keaton VI |
Michael Keaton | Michael John Douglas |
Natassja Kinski | Nastassja Naksyzns |
Hedy Lamarr | Hedwig Eva Maria Kiester |
Bruce Lee | Lee Jun Fan |
Vivien Leigh | Vivian Hartley |
Sophia Loren | Sofia villani Scicolone |
Bela Lugosi | Bela Ferenc Dezso Blasko |
Shirley MacLaine | Rosmarie Magdelena Albach |
Barbara Stanwyck | Ruby Stevens |
Rudolph Valentino | Rodolfo Pietro Filiberto Raffaello Guglielmi di Valentina |
Gloria Swanson | Gloria Svensson |
Shelley Winters | Shirley Schrift. |
