Names are the one constant throughout our lives that remains steadfast – unless you’re a film star wannabe desperate to make it big. For us non-glitterati, we can cope with a name that’s more unflattering than most and deal with daily beatings until we’re well into our thirties.
For the Hollywood elite a name can make a career, propel a film into the far reaches of a large vat of cash and break hearts. Do you think The Wizard of Oz would have been the success it was if Frances Ethel Gumm instead of Judy Garland had played Dorothy? No! The head of MGM would have demanded to know why someone’s Grandma was in the film.
Judy wasn’t the only one. In fact, there’s hundreds. Have a gander at our select choice of 12 actors who ditched their real names for the fame and fortune which beckoned at the end of a sweeter sounding pseudonym.