12 Actors Who Ditched Their Real Names

4) Ellen Burstyn / Edna Rae Gilooly

Burstyn definitely made the right decision in changing her name. Where her birth name rouses a vision of a toothless game show contestant – Ellen Burstyn pops with the possibility of an Oscar win, the chance to work with Martin Scorsese and the choice of mad roles in later life. And of course, if Edna Rae Gilooly had come up against the devil himself, chances are she’d start dribbling and run straight into a door frame. Nope, it took the awesome power of Ellen Burstyn to take on Satan in The Exorcist, and while she didn’t beat him, she didn’t dribble, that’s for damn sure.

3) Michael Caine / Maurice Micklewhite

It is unlikely Bruce Wayne would turn for help to a chap who sounds like he’s emerged from the pages of a lost Dickens novel. Try uttering “My name is Maurice Micklewhite.” Nope, sounds about as threatening as a puppy being tickled by a kitten. As lovely a chap as he might be, Maurice Micklewhite doesn’t have the gall, the distinction or the star quality Michael Caine has. Caine originally used the stage name Michael Scott, but one night on the phone to his agent was told that another actor in London used that name. Peering out from the phone box, he noticed The Caine Mutiny was being shown at the Odeon across the road. And so Michael Caine was born. Thank goodness.