Some actors' real names and why they changed them...
Red Buttons began life as Aaron Chwatt. The idea for his new identity came from his red hair and the 48 buttons on his bellboy uniform. Michael Caine was born Maurice Micklewhite and took his stage name from an ad for the film The Caine Mutiny. Gary Cooper started out as Frank Cooper but was persuaded to change his name to that of his agent's home town of Gary, Indiana. Michael Crawford was known as Michael Dumble-Smith until he took his stage name from a passing Crawford's Biscuits delivery truck. Bette Davis was plain Ruth Davis until she decided to name herself after Balzac's Cousin Bette. Doris Day scrapped Doris von Kapellof on the advice of bandleader Barney Rapp, for whom she had sung "Day After Day." Nicolas Cage started life as Nicholas Coppola but changed it to distance himself from his uncle, director Francis Ford Coppola. He chose Cage from the comic book character Luke Cage, Power Man. Judy Garland wisely abandoned Frances Gumm in favor of something more romantic. She borrowed her first name from the Hoagy Carmichael song "Judy" and took her surname from Chicago theater critic Robert Garland. The necessity to change her name had been brought about by an early billing which called the 11-year-old "Frances Glumm."
Originally published November 14, 2002.
