Starring Norma Jean Baker: Real names of the Stars
Would Marilyn Monroe have been just as famous if she had kept her original name of Norma Jean Baker? Hollywood stars’ names were sometimes changed for the simple reason that it was too long to fit in big neon letters on the front of a theatre, but mostly it was due to the fact a name had to sound right to get star status. For a time, alliteration was all the rage, with names such as Doris Day, Marilyn Monroe and Brigitte Bardot hitting the silver screen. However, there were stars that stuck to their original names and still made it. Find out which stars kept their original names and those that didn’t…
Stars who changed their names
| Star name | Real name |
| Al Jolson | Asa Yoelson |
| Alan Alda | Alphonse D’Abruzzo |
| Alice Cooper | Vincent Furnier |
| Audrey Hepburn | Edda Hepburn van Heemstra |
| Bo Derek | Mary Cathleen Collins |
| Boris Karloff | William Henry Pratt |
| Brigitte Bardot | Camille Javal |
| Buster Keaton | Joseph Francis Keaton |
| Cary Grant | Alexander Archibald Leach |
| Charles Bronson | Charles Buchinsky |
| Cliff Richards | Harold Roger Webb |
| David Bowie | David Robert Hayward-Jones |
| Dean Martin | Dino Crocetti |
| Doris Day | Doris Kappelhoff |
| Douglas Fairbanks | Julius Ullman |
| Elton John | Reginald Kenneth Dwight |
| Gary Cooper | Frank J.Cooper |
| Gracie Stansfield | Gracie Fields |
| Irving Berlin | Israel Baline |
| Jesse ‘The Body’ Ventura | James George Janos |
| Joan Crawford | Lucille Le Sueur |
| John Wayne | Marion Michael Morrison |
| Julie Andrews | Julia Elizabeth Wells |
| Lauren Bacall | Betty Joan Perske |
| Marilyn Monroe | Norma Jean Baker |
| Michael Caine | Maurice Joseph Micklewhite |
| Mickey Rooney | Joe Yule |
| Morgan Fairchild | Patsy Ann McClenny |
| Ralph Lauren | Ralph Lifschitz |
| Rex Harrison | Reginald Carey Harrison |
| Richard Burton | Richard Walter Jenkins |
| Rock Hudson | Roy Harold Fitzgerald |
| Rudolph Valentino | Rudolpho Giugliemi |
| Sam Goldwyn | Samuel Goldfish |
| Shelly Winters | Shirley Schrift |
| Sophia Loren | Sofia Scicolone |
| Tony Bennett | Antonio Dominick Benedetto |
| Tony Curtis | Bernard Schwartz |
| Twiggy | Lesley Hornby |
| Veronica Lake | Constance Ockleman |
| Vivien Leigh | Vivian Mary Hartley |
| Woody Allen | Allen Stewart Konigsberg |
Stars who kept their original names
| Harry Belafonte | Eartha Kitt | Frank Sinatra |
| Candice Bergen | Kris Kristofferson | Rod Steiger |
| Humphrey Bogart | Jack Lemmon | Rod Stewart |
| Marlon Brando | Spike Milligan | Barbra Streisand |
| Charlie Chaplin | Cole Porter | Spencer Tracy |
| Neil Diamond | Tyrone Power | Orson Welles |
| Errol Flynn | Elvis Presley | Mae West |
| Clark Gable | Suzi Quatro | Frank Zappa |
| Goldie Hawn | Burt Reynolds | |
| Dustin Hoffman | Telly Savalas |
